Run that engine before moving the car

[brages]

Interestingly enough our hybrid frequently never even starts the ICE at initial start up. Unless it’s pretty cold outside like this recent cold spell. Then the ICE will start immediately. But it frequently shuts off. Runs on batteries for a while and it starts back up again. Heck the first time the ICE may run in the morning is when we’re pulling out onto the small county hwy near our house. First start up if the ICE could be during that 0-55 mph acceleration. In that vehicle we have zero control over the ICE idling situation unless we hang out in the driveway forever waiting for the ICE to kick on. Spoiler: we don’t.

How many Toyota hybrid ICE’s are out there with high mileage doing fine in similar situations to suggest this waiting around business is a waste of time in relation to ICE longevity?

My experience with hybrids is that if you are asking for cabin heat, they will be running the engine at initial startup.

Hybrids are an interesting part of this conversation. My Accord and Prius hybrids both have an exhaust heat exchanger to warm the coolant quicker. Earlier Priuses used a coolant "Thermos". And I believe the Accord will force you to warm it up before moving if it gets too cold. And it won't start at all if it's extremely too cold.

 

[GSCJR]

Like my Subaru Crosstrek. **** thing idles high for a full minute before it comes down. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Watch what happens when you put it in neutral.

 

[GSCJR]

My experience with hybrids is that if you are asking for cabin heat, they will be running the engine at initial startup.

Hybrids are an interesting part of this conversation. My Accord and Prius hybrids both have an exhaust heat exchanger to warm the coolant quicker. Earlier Priuses used a coolant "Thermos". And I believe the Accord will force you to warm it up before moving if it gets too cold. And it won't start at all if it's extremely too cold.

I worked on a Volt two weeks ago, and when I hit the start button, the engine turned on. I can't remember the actual temperature, but it was certainly below 0c.

 

[Patman]

I worked on a Volt two weeks ago, and when I hit the start button, the engine turned on. I can't remember the actual temperature, but it was certainly below 0c.

The Volt is also programmed to run the ICE periodically for those people who are always on pure electric to make sure that the engine gets oil circulation (and to burn off some fuel so that the owner tops it off to keep it from going bad)

 

[GSCJR]

I've worked on it before @Patman, but this was the first time the engine came on.

 

[Patman]

I've worked on it before @Patman, but this was the first time the engine came on.

I like the Volt, some good friends of mine have had two of them (one from each generation) and they spend their winters in Florida. They would only need to use electric power for the 4 months they spent there and for the long drive down and back it ran almost entirely on the ICE. They got tired of doing the long drive so now they leave the Volt down there all the time and fly back and forth (and back home in Ontario they have a new Hyundai EV)
I have driven their Volt a few times when I visited them in Fort Myers and it surprised me how much low end torque it has, and instant throttle response.

 

[RMaybeth]

I have scraped the frost off the windows before. Sometimes if it is cold it still hasn't warmed up enough, & then my body heat from sweating and snow melting off my clothing puts enough steam condensation in the cab that it starts frosting up inside the cab.

I have had to pull over within a block or 2 of leaving to let it warm up enough for the defrost heat to start to give me visibility again.

Some people keep an old sock and put kitty litter in it, and knot the end (to keep the kitty litter inside the sock). This absorbs most of the moisture inside the car and helps keep the windows from fogging up.
The only draw-back to this, not everybody can understand why somebody would be driving around with a sock full of kitty litter. Including certain police, who for reasons I can't remember, searched a guy's car and "discovered" such a sock of kitty liter. The cop thought the sock was full of meth, immediately accused the driver of dealing in same, and arrested the guy and impounded the car! In the meantime this poor guy (the driver not the cop) had to sit in a cell while waiting for them to discover their (incredibly stupid) mistake.

 

[Number_35]

My 1967 Ford LTD had that.

And my dad's '67 Chrysler Newport 383.