[bradsm87]

The concept of a plug-in hybrid like a 330e sounds good to me except one thing I just can't get my head around:

Surely going from a completely cold engine that isn't even running to starting it and instantly going WOT is extremely bad for it!

So you jump in the car, set off, drive along electric-only then at some point, put your foot down flat, the petrol engine starts stone cold and instantly goes to wide open throttle. Surely this is just not OK! I would not want to buy one of these things used after getting wear like that!

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by bradsm87

The concept of a plug-in hybrid like a 330e sounds good to me except one thing I just can't get my head around:

Surely going from a completely cold engine that isn't even running to starting it and instantly going WOT is extremely bad for it!

So you jump in the car, set off, drive along electric-only then at some point, put your foot down flat, the petrol engine starts stone cold and instantly goes to wide open throttle. Surely this is just not OK! I would not want to buy one of these things used after getting wear like that!

I think you'll find there are a lot of us, who are not too comfortable about working cold engines.

The other issue that concerns me, is only running the ICE for short periods, maybe not even warming up. Would be bad news in winter. I prefer to get my engine hot, gain some heat soak, that means running for at least 12 miles each leg of a trip, in the winter months.

I suppose, taking the cautious engineer's hat off, if the ICE is not working much, it may outlive the rest of the vehicle.

[SteveinArizona]

I have always wondered the same thing but I think BMW (and others) must have figured this out or we would be inundated with reports of blown engines.

[mlello]

Think of all the cold starts you don't have to take on short trips.

After 1,5 year with my G20 330e I still haven't had the engine starting with full throttel on a cold enginge.
You can controll it very easy yourself. If you select Xtraboost mode, the engine won't stop until you shut it down for instance. I alway do that if I see that my electric range is to little to get all the way. Then I know that the enginge will get warm.

But it surely won't fit all drivers and needs, but I am very satisfied

[eddiehaug]

Originally Posted by mlello

Think of all the cold starts you don't have to take on short trips.

After 1,5 year with my G20 330e I still haven't had the engine starting with full throttel on a cold enginge.
You can controll it very easy yourself. If you select Xtraboost mode, the engine won't stop until you shut it down for instance. I alway do that if I see that my electric range is to little to get all the way. Then I know that the enginge will get warm.

But it surely won't fit all drivers and needs, but I am very satisfied

Yes, this is true. However, I have also thought about the issue the OP is raising here. Not very often (if ever) would you floor the car when coming from electric, but it's true the car can start the motor when changing into Hybrid at high speeds, either automatically or manually by, for instance, activating the battery control.

I don't like it either. When you're driving in manual/sport or hybrid with the battery depleted, the car anyway keeps using Start/Stop, regardless of whether the battery is cold or warm.

In any case, it all depends on the type of trip or driving style you're planning to use. If you're gonna be flooring the car, you can simply activate the Sport mode or shift the gear selector to Sport/Manual and after a few miles you're good to go.

If you're gonna be driving at city speeds, then this is very likely not an issue because you won't be demanding so much from the car to anyway.

[Lviv777]

I always do the cold start warm up after I get into the 330e, even if I will be driving in electric mode. Get the oil flowing, and if I know I'm getting on the freeway or something, I will put it into battery save mode so engine warms up before.

[MarkoSK]

I, too, drive carefully and put it in Sport mode to force the ICE on in case the battery is almost empty. However I think that modern engines are built to withstand harsh conditions - even ICE cars have Auto Start-Stop which constantly cycles the engine when driving in intersetions.

Constant on-off out of the way, the only bad thing that can happen in a 330e is what the OP has described. I think that BMW engineers have figured this out somehow (maybe by strenghtening some engine parts?), given you can get a warranty for 5 years (200 000 km), even for the engine and "flooring" it isn't forbidden in the manual.

[Biglewey]

Yep - I worry about running a still cold engine under strain (being an "engineer" with some empathy for mechanical things) so I too put gear lever in sport position to warm engine up if I think I need it.

As well as that - it struck me that the manual gives guidance on limiting revs and speed until the cars done 12K miles - but you could do that many miles and the ICE engine has hardly run?! So I'm again putting it in sport mode and monitoring petrol I've put in - I recon at 40 mpg from the ICE 12K miles is roughly 30 gallons - after Ive used that I can build up revs and speed....

[mofomat]

Originally Posted by Biglewey

Yep - I worry about running a still cold engine under strain (being an "engineer" with some empathy for mechanical things) so I too put gear lever in sport position to warm engine up if I think I need it.

As well as that - it struck me that the manual gives guidance on limiting revs and speed until the cars done 12K miles - but you could do that many miles and the ICE engine has hardly run?! So I'm again putting it in sport mode and monitoring petrol I've put in - I recon at 40 mpg from the ICE 12K miles is roughly 30 gallons - after Ive used that I can build up revs and speed....

12,000 miles doesn't sound right. The typical distance is around 2,000 miles.

[Tam the Bam]

Originally Posted by Biglewey

Yep - I worry about running a still cold engine under strain (being an "engineer" with some empathy for mechanical things) so I too put gear lever in sport position to warm engine up if I think I need it.

As well as that - it struck me that the manual gives guidance on limiting revs and speed until the cars done 12K miles - but you could do that many miles and the ICE engine has hardly run?! So I'm again putting it in sport mode and monitoring petrol I've put in - I recon at 40 mpg from the ICE 12K miles is roughly 30 gallons - after Ive used that I can build up revs and speed....

As above ^

For ICE engines (I’ve not got a hybrid) my manual states.

[ovesund]

I don't really worry.
I can normally plan my driving so the risk for a cold start WOT is slim to none.
Also, I guess the wear from a lot of short trips on a normal car is worse than the few cold starts to operating RPM, let's say 2-3000RPM during normal driving.
My engine fires upp maybe once every 2-3 weeks so I miss out on a lot of cold starts the other days.

[Mazman]

When I had my 330e

On (rare)occassions where I know I would not make the whole trip on E. I would start the car and have it xtraboost mode(so it does not turn off) and drive until fully warm and if distance permitted I would go over to E.

It happened twice that the ICE did get turned on during hard acceleration and it still hurts my soul...

[G20 PHEV]

Originally Posted by bradsm87

The concept of a plug-in hybrid like a 330e sounds good to me except one thing I just can't get my head around:

Surely going from a completely cold engine that isn't even running to starting it and instantly going WOT is extremely bad for it!

So you jump in the car, set off, drive along electric-only then at some point, put your foot down flat, the petrol engine starts stone cold and instantly goes to wide open throttle. Surely this is just not OK! I would not want to buy one of these things used after getting wear like that!

A lot of folks have put many miles on various forms of Prius. They're holding up quite well.

[Biglewey]

Yep mileage i put was a typo - my manual says 1200 miles - senior moment on my behalf....