Does warming up your truck help to overcome water condensation in oil?

[simon barsinister]

Wanted to ask anyone knowledgable about the tundra v8 engines whether letting your car warm up (~10 minutes) in sub-freezing temps helps to overcome water condensation problems in your oil when you are only a 3 mile drive to work in the morning?

I know driving longer distances helps the best, but I can't justify driving 7 extra miles in the morning and racking up my mileage when I'm so close to work. I also change my oil every 3K, so I don't know if changing my oil even more often is my only solution or possibly switching to a synthetic blend oil with more additives would help to minimize sludge buildup from the moisture.

Any other thoughts on helping to rid moisture would be helpful. Thanks.

[ericb]

Driving is the quickest way to warm the engine. The 10 minutes of idling could be better served by an extra 5 minutes of driving. I think a weekly trip of 15-20 miles may be enough to burn off the condensation from your daily commute. Your type of driving is, interestingly, called "extreme or severe" conditions.
As for oil changes, I'd think a synthetic could extend your interval to 5k. You could also have an analysis done of your current oil at 3k to see what they find. BTW, my wife used to do a 3 mile commute in her Subaru and I did 5k oil changes with synthetic and no problems.

[kathyricks]

Idling the engine for 10 minutes and then driving only 3 miles is the worst possible scenario for causing water buildup in your engine oil. The only solution, besides driving a longer route to work, is to change your oil once a month during the winter with dino oil to get rid of the water in the oil. Synthetic won't do a thing to stop the rusting of internal engine parts exposed to the water in your oil.

[simon barsinister]

Originally Posted by kathyricks

Synthetic won't do a thing to stop the rusting of internal engine parts exposed to the water in your oil.

I thought the additives in synthetic help to suspend contaminants like water and prevent the formation of sludge to some extent. Am I incorrect?

[wirelessf]

Don't forget about the differential.