Engine Idle

[rraiderr]

How bad is it on the oil and engine longevity for a motor to sit and idle with the AC on for several hours.

Reason I ask is a fellow track rider had his at the track on a very hot day, he ended up putting the kids in the 4 Runner and left the truck on with the AC going for 6+ hours.

The kids sat and watched movies and slept but I could not help but think he was killing the motor. He said it is the same as driving and the tuck would be fine idling overnight no problem.

There have been many nights sleeping the truck at the track when I wanted to turn the AC on but thought it would be to hard on the tuck to idle for hours even though I run Amsoil.

 

[Coprolite]

The idling only ran up the hours on the oil. As long as he changes the oil regularly, he probably has more than enough safety margin built in that everything will be fine. People will either change their oil too soon or almost never change it.

Leaving a child in a car that isn't running with the AC can have much worse ramifications.

 

[jrustles]

It's not as bad on a fully warmed engine. Now on a cold/lukewarm engine it's not so nice.

 

[Chris142]

Polica cars, taxies and people in alaska let em idle for hrs. Those taxies get huge miles and idling don't seem to hurt them.

 

[Kuato]

I'm more concerned with what that sort of treatment is doing to the kids.

 

[DrDusty86]

I idle my zx2 A LOOOOOOOT! it has got around 6400 hours on the motor...Motor is the best thing in the car. RUNS EXCELLENT. no oil usage and fantastic compression/leak down tests. In my experience Idling will not harm an engine in the least or Cop cars and taxis would die in no time flat.
My car has idled 1hr a day on avg x 5 days a week x 52 weeks a year for the 9 years I've owned it.
If I have someone ride with me and I have to go into the shop at work.. They usually hang out in the car and I don't want them to bake in the Texas heat so the AC runs while they wait for me.

 

[earlyre]

up in the more northernly regions of the great white north(NW territories, up by yellow knife, etc), the winters are so cold, that if you turned your engine off, it WILL freeze and you WON'T get it restarted. folks start the car in October/November, and shut it off in March/April when it warms up.


and soo many crown vic police/taxi units make it to 300,000+, all that idling can't be too bad for the engine, just not great for the fuel bills.

 

[gregoron]

What happens if the engine has a lot of blow-by?

 

[crazyoildude]

very bad for the cat!
if the car is leased he might never see a problem but its bad for the engine, sensors and cat/cats