Originally Posted by upallnight (Post 967407)

I don't use the X for short drives, which is kinda defeating the purpose of having a car. Daughter hates walking the 4 blocks to school when it freezing out.

Originally Posted by Brandon002 (Post 967409)

Amazing that an AWD SAV with a "cold weather package" can have such a major issue with cold weather.

Originally Posted by upallnight (Post 967414)

I guess the Ultimate driving machine was not designed to drop kiddies off at school which is only about 4 blocks away, but to drop kiddies off at school and than take it for a 50 mile drive to warm up the engine.

When I got the X I did notice the mustard color oil at the oil cap and from my past experience of owning an air-cooled PORSCHE I knew what it was. Stop using the X for short drives and more frequent oil changes (Not the 15,000 miles recommended by BMW) has resulted in no more mustard colored oil.

Originally Posted by pezho405 (Post 967424)

Today i was driving my Aircooler porsche and kept thinking how nice it was that i didnt have to worry about the cooling syster, leaks and overheating and stuff

Originally Posted by JCL (Post 967280)

You will always get accelerated wear upon cold startup. The choice you have is whether you make that cold running interval longer by idling it, or as short as possible by driving it moderately. Putting load on the engine warms it more quickly. Stretching it out just results in increased wear.

Start it up, and as soon as you have oil pressure (less than 10 seconds) start to drive it moderately. This presumes you can see out the windows, ie not waiting for the defroster. No high RPM operation during this warm up, and no lugging it. Driving it causes it to warm up more quickly than idling, though, thus reducing engine wear.

Nothing different here about a BMW or any other modern vehicle. Drive them as soon as it is safe to do so.