Now that it's cold are you letting your car warm up in the mornings, or do you just get in and take off? I'm bad about letting mine warm up, but I'm not really an early riser, so I don't give myself enough time to do it. When I leave out the door, it's usually crunch time.

You would piss my dad off less if you hit him in the arm rather than if you left his house without warming you vehicle first. So, that has been ingrained into me to always, always warm a vehicle. I do it probably 80% of the time. But PLEASE don't tell Dad about the other 20%.

I let it warm up but mainly to defog the windows.

TSJFan4Ever wrote:

I let it warm up but mainly to defog the windows.

There have been times when I've been running SO late that I try and drive with iced up windows. Rolling down my drivers window, trying to look at the road from it! lol

I know that's BAD! I'm gonna do better this winter.

i let my car warm up 95% of the time.. like redbedrooom, its somethin that has been lodged into my brain

Red, your secret is safe with me. When I first got my car about 60,000 miles ago, I was reading the owner's manual and it said to warm the car up while driving. ???!!!! Never heard or done that before so I called the service department at the dealer and was told the same thing. I start the car and give it a minute or two to let the oil circulate a bit and then off I go. Unless I have to scrape off my windows and then it sits a little longer. Either way, I still have to drive a mile or so at fairly low speed until I get to a highway so by then I'm good to go.

warm up I don't do cold weather very well. lol

It fucks up your engine if you don't let it warm up when its cold out. I always let it run for 3-5 minutes until the dial reaches the "W" for warm gauge.

New cars today are built better to withstand that old adage that if you don't warm your car up, you'll fuck up the engine. If you have an older car, you might wanna keep letting it warm up. If it's brand new, then don't worry about it so much. The only reason why I warm up mine is because when I do, I get in and turn on the heat, it always comes on and automatically blows out warm air because the car is already warm. If you get into a freezing car and turn on the heat, it will take a while for it to come on. And that's with any car....new or not.

alan smithee wrote:

Red, your secret is safe with me. When I first got my car about 60,000 miles ago, I was reading the owner's manual and it said to warm the car up while driving. ???!!!! Never heard or done that before so I called the service department at the dealer and was told the same thing. I start the car and give it a minute or two to let the oil circulate a bit and then off I go. Unless I have to scrape off my windows and then it sits a little longer. Either way, I still have to drive a mile or so at fairly low speed until I get to a highway so by then I'm good to go.

This!

I'm pretty bad about doing this, even though I just bought my car six months ago. I do try to let it run for 3-5 minutes before taking off somewhere, but I should be letting it run for 10-15 minutes on these below zero days in Minnesota. I'm just too lazy to do it.

RobbieFTW wrote:

It fucks up your engine if you don't let it warm up when its cold out. I always let it run for 3-5 minutes until the dial reaches the "W" for warm gauge.

Robbie, according to this, the opposite is true.

Quote :

Old habits die hard, and one of the oldest—still rigorously enforced by many drivers—is that "warming up" the car for a few minutes is necessary to avoid some kind of unspecified damage.

But idling is totally unnecessary, which is why many communities have enacted ordinances against the practice. Don't take my word about idling being ineffective, but do listen to my mechanic, Rob Maier, who runs Maier's Garage in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He says, "You don't really need to idle your car, because of the efficiency of modern fuel injection, which eliminated carburetors and chokes. The only reason to let the car idle at all is to get the oil circulating, but after 30 seconds that's a done deal. My truck has 150,000 miles on it, and I just throw it into gear and go."

Here are some quick facts and tips that should put the idling question to rest:



1. Driving Warms the Car Faster than Idling.
If your concern is not the health of the car, but simply your own creature comforts, Bob Aldrich of the California Energy Commission points out that "idling is not actually an effective way to warm up a car — it warms up faster if you just drive it." The coming electric cars, such as the Nissan Leaf, will incorporate a wonderful feature that allows the owner to use a cellphone to tell the car (which is plugged into the grid) to pre-warm or pre-cool the interior. No idling necessary.

2. Ten Seconds Is All You Need.
Environmental Defense Fund, which produced the Idling Gets You Nowhere campaign, advises motorists to turn off their ignition if they're sitting stopped for more than 10 seconds. "After about ten seconds, you waste more money running the engine than restarting it, said Andy Darrell, deputy director of the EDF Energy Program. "Switch the car off at the curb and you'll be leaving money in your wallet and protecting the air in your community."

3. Idling Hurts the Car.
According to the Hinkle Charitable Foundation's Anti-Idling Primer, idling forces an engine "to operate in a very inefficient and gasoline-rich mode that, over time, can degrade the engine's performance and reduce mileage."

4. Idling Costs Money.
Over a year of five minutes of daily idling (which causes incomplete combustion of fuel), the "Anti-Idling Primer" estimates that the operator of a V-8-engined car will waste 20 gallons of gasoline, which not only produces 440 pounds of carbon dioxide but costs at least $60.

5. Idling in the Garage Can Kill You.
Idling a car in a garage, even with the door open, is dangerous and exposes the driver to carbon monoxide and other noxious gases. If the garage is attached, those fumes can also enter the house.

6. Block Heaters Beat Remote Starters.
Lori Strothard of the Waterloo Citizens Vehicle Idling Reduction Task Force in Canada says, "Remote starters can too easily cause people to warm up their cars for five to 15 minutes, which is generally unnecessary. A block heater, which is designed to heat the engine and can cost under $30, on a timer set to start one to two hours before driving does the trick in very cold climates.

7. Quick Errands Aren't Quick Enough.
Natural Resources Canada points out that "quick errand" idling is another way to waste gas and pollute both your town and the planet. "Leaving your engine running is hard on your pocketbook, produces greenhouse gas emissions and is an invitation to car thieves," the agency says.

8. Idling is Bad for Your Health (and Your Neighbor's Health).
According to Minneapolis' anti-idling ordinance, "Exhaust is hazardous to human health, especially children's; studies have linked air pollution to increased rates of cancer, heart and lung disease, asthma and allergies." Isabelle Silverman, who runs EDF's anti-idling campaign, says that car idling "is the second-hand smoking of the outdoors. One of the problems is that cars idle close to the curb, where pedestrians are walking. And when you have a child in a stroller, they are particularly close to the tailpipe. Studies show that children's IQ levels are lower when they live near major roads with lots of traffic." (A fresh study even links autism to freeway pollution.