Warming up your car in winter....?!?

[Linctex]

The idiots speak again......

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/ownership/here's-why-you-shouldn't-warm-up-your-car-in-the-winter/ar-BBQdbev?ocid=spartanntp

Quote
Just start it up a few minutes before hopping in, giving your cabin and your engine time to warm up before hitting the road. Plus, it's supposed to be good for the life of your engine, right?

Wrong! Warming up your car in winter before driving it is actually terrible for your engine.

The reasoning has to do with how modern internal combustion engines work. By letting your car sit to warm up, it's actually putting extra fuel into the combustion chamber, which can get onto your cylinder walls. Because gasoline is an excellent solvent, too much on your cylinder walls can dissolve the oil that lubricates your cylinders, leading to shorter life on crucial components.


Letting your car warm up puts extra fuel into the combustion chamber ...?!?!??!?

 

[StevieC]

The problem I have with this is that the vehicle is covered with snow with ice on all the windows and windshield and scraping alone won't do it, it needs some heat to work. So I plug in the vehicle and remote start it before cleaning it off.

 

[eljefino]

This is more true than false. Fuel doesn't atomize well when cold and so condenses inside your intake and, indeed, on the cylinder walls. The idea is that by driving off right away you spend less time with the innards of the engine being cold enough for this to happen.

I'll note that even though it's "bad", I do it, as my car works for me. Any passionate maintenance I do is to overcome the environment I put my stuff through.

 

[Danno]

Originally Posted by StevieC
The problem I have with this is that the vehicle is covered with snow with ice on all the windows and windshield and scraping alone won't do it, it needs some heat to work.

How many mornings a week might that be?

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by Danno
Originally Posted by StevieC
The problem I have with this is that the vehicle is covered with snow with ice on all the windows and windshield and scraping alone won't do it, it needs some heat to work.

How many mornings a week might that be?



From Mid December until the end of February living right by the lake sucks. Before that it's mainly frost that a couple squirts of WWF cleans up nicely.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Retire and stop worry about those early morning starts I'll tell you after being retired for over 12 years its great.

 

[CARJ]

Around here, it's illegal to let your car warm up...Apparently people steal cars that way.

 

[maxdustington]

If you try to drive when your car is ice cold you will just fog the windshield and crash anyway.

The people who write this must be from somewhere warm.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted by Linctex
Letting your car warm up puts extra fuel into the combustion chamber ...?!?!??!?

Yes. Your engine must run very rich when its cold. The longer it runs cold the more fuel will be getting past the rings and also washing the cylinders down. Getting in and driving will get the engine warmed up faster so there's less fuel being injected.

 

[CR94]

For those who missed it, conventional advice is to warm up the engine by driving moderately at first (assuming clear windshield, etc.), neither a needlessly prolonged stationary warm-up, nor beating on it.
I used to generally follow that formula with previous cars. However, the Prius programming wants a one-minute warm-up (exactly, regardless of ambient temperature) to avoid over-reliance on the battery during that first minute.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by maxdustington
The people who write this must be from somewhere warm.

Every time one of these articles is published, I think the same thing.

Or they park in a garage....

 

[Hall]

They should tell the automakers how bad, bad, bad this is for cars. Maybe they'll stop putting remote-starters on their cars.

 

[ragtoplvr]

Warm up your car with the heater off until the thermostat opens, then you get tons of instant heat. Takes much less time overall than warming up with the heater on.

Rod

 

[Cujet]

OKKKK, clearly, operation at low RPM and no load is very damaging with a touch of extra idle fuel in the combustion chamber. Yet operation at high loads and cold temperatures with a dose of over rich fuel many times more concentrated is somehow better for your engine?

I don't buy into any of this nonsense. Direct injection engine designers take great pains to avoid washing down the cylinder walls. An idle injection pulse of fuel won't occur until the piston is most of the way up on the compression stroke and the fuel WILL NOT make it to the cylinder walls directly.

I certainly don't dispute that most engine wear happens in the first 10 minutes of operation. It's well known that cast iron cylinders wear less rapidly as cylinder wall temps exceed 160F (which happens rather quickly due to the lazy heat transfer of cast iron) I do question the need to immediately drive a stone cold engine under significant load, which creates high cylinder pressures and high ring loadings, to heat it quickly and thereby create less wear.

 

[Danno]

Here's what I use and trained for the drivers of our fleet of 1400 trucks, mix of diesel and gasoline.
Our trucks were required to be plugged in at -10C or lower, so engines had some preheat.
Start the car/truck, scrape of your windows and clear of snow. About 3 - 4minutes for that.
Assuming your windows are safely clear, leave, and use no more than 1/3rd throttle until engine is at operating temperature.
That routine balances long warm up idle periods with safety, and with engine and transmission longevity.

 

[Mainia]

Ok I will do that when it is 25 below here in Minnesota.......drive immediately..... NOFen way. Fog/ice central on the inside of your windshield if you park outside.

 

[aquariuscsm]

I never drive away until my temp gauge begins to move. Nothing sounds more awful than someone starting an ice cold engine,slamming it into drive,and taking off.

 

[dave1251]

This is true and there is increased bearing wear until the oil is at operating temps.

Being said saftey first you can more easily afford a few microns of wear until your windows are clear of ice and fog.

 

[Revving2Redline]

I let mine warm up the point that the idle is getting smooth and windows are clear and just go slow. I got a 20 mile go so its gonna get up to temperature. Glad I got redline 0w20 oil in there. Good to -76

 

[csandste]

Originally Posted by CR94
For those who missed it, conventional advice is to warm up the engine by driving moderately at first (assuming clear windshield, etc.), neither a needlessly prolonged stationary warm-up, nor beating on it.
I used to generally follow that formula with previous cars. However, the Prius programming wants a one-minute warm-up (exactly, regardless of ambient temperature) to avoid over-reliance on the battery during that first minute.


Prius and visibility aside, the advice in the first paragraph is spot on IMHO.