I can understand and sympathise with the "I don't have much distance before I hit the highway" since I do this too. Except it's about half a mile/1km from my parking lot to the freeway.......and no way has my car warmed up enough to go 100km/h.
However, BMW does not recommend idling the engine for prolonged periods of time. Even when the outside temp falls below 0°C, I would just idle 30-40s (about the time it takes for idle to stablise, as JCL mentioned) and then drive off. You're not really warming anything up by sitting there because the transmission and other drivetrain fluids aren't warmed by idling.
Plus, the newer BMWs all have electric coolant pumps so warm up is significantly faster than in most other cars. On the highway, just keep a "moderate" speed of about 100km/h and revs under 3k for a short distance before resuming normal speeds.
If you're really interested in seeing your coolant temperature, go into the diagnostic menu of the Board Computer, where it will display the actual coolant temp.
- hold the reset button before inserting the key.
- Once you insert the key, you will see something like 0.__. Keep pushing until 19.__
- It will display Lock On. Code: Your code is the sum of the last 5 VIN #. Keep pushing the reset until you get the sum (for instance, 22)
- This should unlock the diagnostic mode. Push until menu 7.__. Wait a couple seconds and it should show 7.0 which is the coolant temp.
10-17-2009, 10:20 AM
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