Yes, warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine

[RooflessVW]

Sounds like you are tongue in cheek, but someone who parks near me at work plugs in a space heater and runs that in his pickup all day to keep the interior warm

No I'm being serious.

I have one on a timer. Comes on at about 5 am and my car is always toasty. We use them in the helos during the cold months as well.

 

[redhat]

In the winter months, here in Western New York, the old 2005 Tahoe runs for on average a good 15-20 minutes in the morning.

These reports of "idling damaging your engine" are the biggest piece of bologna I've seen since I sliced an one-inch slab off of the 'ole chub of WunderBar.

Hogwash. News places must be having a slow day.

 

[jeepman3071]

I'm sure some of it is an attempt to cut down on emissions from people idling their cars in their driveway to warm up.

 

[supton]

Sure drive the car with frozen / frosted windows it is safe.

I use an ice scraper, while the car is idling. Then get in and crack the windows, so as to prevent interior frosting. Works quite well, at least here in New England, YMMV. Remote starter might be nice and all, just never bothered to get one. Won't take the snow off the roof, after all.

If cracking a window is "too much", even for just 5 minutes, I have to wonder, if you are dressed for the cold. Have a breakdown, flat, whatever, and you may be walking, or otherwise sitting in a dead (unheated) car.

Lastly, while I might warm my car up while at home, waiting for the drive into work... I sure as heck ain't sitting in the parking lot at work for any longer than I need to. Workday is done, I'm outta here! cold car or not.

 

[Dave Sherman]

When we have rain followed by a hard freeze, the windshield is a sheet of ice and the doors are frozen shut, you'd better believe I let it run to warm up enough that the defroster has a chance of thawing the windshield and rear window. You don't scrape the ice off, you have to chip it off.

 

[tmorris1]

I am surprised that the greeniehyprocritenvirocrowd didn't try to outlaw remote starters.

I'm sure they are working on it. Some places outlawed drive thrus at stores, until COVID hit. These people aren't that smart and have a hard time thinking outside their little bubble of reality.

 

[supton]

When we have rain followed by a hard freeze, the windshield is a sheet of ice and the doors are frozen shut, you'd better believe I let it run to warm up enough that the defroster has a chance of thawing the windshield and rear window. You don't scrape the ice off, you have to chip it off.

You are right, I have had issues with that at times, those times you really are stuck. When it's a quarter inch or so, it's a major pain.

Used to have a VW TDi, and it was a nightmare when that happened. It would not warm up at idle. Those days I might as well start and walk away for an hour, and hope it got the windshield "good enough".

 

[dfarr67]

Yes- I warm my car up......

 

[DriveHard]

use Auto Start when I sit on my bench to put my shoes on. I guess she runs about 60-90 seconds before I get out and put my belt on. Today was -7F...started great, and drove away just fine with my trusty 5w-40 oil.

 

[SeaJay]

Speculation, wive's tales, rumor and innuendo says that the best thing to do is either warm it up, or maybe not. Case closed!

 

[KrisZ]

Well, there is little need to warm up your car here in Texas, but in Canada I used the remote start feature every morning. It was for my comfort. My minivan even turns on the heated seats and steering wheel while remote started and around freezing temps. It is a very well thought out feature. I would be crazy not to use it.

 

[Hall]

When we have rain followed by a hard freeze, the windshield is a sheet of ice and the doors are frozen shut, you'd better believe I let it run to warm up enough that the defroster has a chance of thawing the windshield and rear window. You don't scrape the ice off, you have to chip it off.

Those that don't comprehend why it's necessary to oftentimes warm up a car are just sitting there like

 

[RedSpider]

When I still had my 240sx, in the dead of winter and especially in the occasional sub-zero temps we would see around here, I had a BITOG mind blowing game of scraping the windows, then hopping inside and putting it in neutral and trying to start it and get it into drive and get rolling before the oil pressure light went off. Was never actually quite able to do it (M1 0w-40 for the win) but was probably within milliseconds or so. Even at that, other than a little stumbling and sluggishness for the first 5-10 seconds it ran fine and somehow didnt blow up. That poor car had 75k miles when I bought it and had close to 400k when I sold it to my daughter's coworker who drove it for almost another year after that. Didnt burn a drop of oil and ran great.

All this unlike my old neighbor who would, every morning like clockwork, go out and start his truck and let it idle 15-20 minutes, even in summer, every day before leaving to work.

Needing to clear ice and frost from the windows, or simply wanting the car to be warm when you get in, are perfect reasons to warm up a car. There arent really any other reasons.

 

[StumblingElk]

From thr article:

"In a blog post on its website, Smart Motors Toyota says letting your car idle in cold temperatures can shorten the life of your engine by stripping away oil from the engine’s pistons and cylinders — two critical components that help your engine run, Stephen Ciatti, Ph.D., principal engineer for battery systems at PACCAR, told Business Insider in 2016."


Total BS. Now, I could see an argument against long idle times but the above reasons are BS

 

[BrianF]

Whether it damages the vehicle or not, I warm all my vehicles up before driving. I don't have heated seats or that stuff so I want some heat in the cab before I drive off. 10 or even 15 minutes.

I'll say this, up here your vehicle will long rot away before you will have an engine wear out. Also, you need some heat on the glass before you take off as you will frost it up from the inside.

 

[tbm5690]

No I'm being serious.

I have one on a timer. Comes on at about 5 am and my car is always toasty. We use them in the helos during the cold months as well.

Interesting given your climate. Warm up would be rather quick just driving off even in the "winter". Assuming those helos are turbine I really don't see why that's necessary with immediate hot air on tap.

 

[Marcozi]

My car, regardless of the ambient or engine temperatures, always idles at 100rpm for a few seconds and slowly drops down to the idle speed of 750rpm. Why? This makes sure the turbo lubrication is running properly. I let the car sit until the engine is idling at 750rpm and then drive gently for a couple of miles.

 

[Hall]

always idles at 100rpm for a few seconds and slowly drops down to the idle speed of 750rpm. Why? This makes sure the turbo lubrication is running properly.

Nissan does the same thing and what I've read is this is done to get the catalytic converters HOT quicker (and working more efficiently).

 

[XB_Fan]

 

[Cruzer4326]

How does your car know if it's being "warmed up" by running, or by driving? Or how much of each or either? Running is running, and temperature is temperature. Regardless if it's Orlando in July, or Fairbanks in January.

Consider wheel bearings, transmission, etc.... The rest of the car besides the engine.