Don't warmup up your car-R&T

[agesilaus]

R&T

At least not your gasser, don't know if it applies to diesels.

[wilber1]

This is not new, engineers have been saying it is better to warm an engine under light load for 50 years that I know of.

[theoldwizard1]

Other than warming up the interior for the driver and melting ice and snow on the windows there has been no need to "warm up" a gasoline vehicle for over 30 years !

I know Ford has had a "requirement" that their (new) vehicles must start on their own battery and drive away without stalling in <60 seconds even at -20F for 40+ years. (Ask anyone who live in Bemidji,MN, International Falls,MN or Yellowknife, CA. Ford and most of the other car companies do cold weather testing there.)

[Bumpyroad]

my father used to say when he lived in northern MN, thief river falls IIRC, that they had to drain the oil out every night and pour it back in in the am.
bumpy 😛

[bid_time]

Another cold December and someone is still trying to tell me how to run my life. My truck will be idling every cold morning this winter just as I have done for the last 40 year or so (only difference now is I can do it with the push of a button from inside my house). Thanks, but I don't need your "helpful" input.

[Dave_H_M]

:h Here i sit reading some "expert" blog.

I could have been writing and publishing that malarkey and getting paid for it to boot.

To the guy who took the car back to the dealer, did you sniff the oil yourself? If your daughter is causing gas to dump into the oil at that rate something is drastically wrong with that motor.

[SouthpawHD]

JIMNLIN wrote:

wrgrs50s wrote:
Whoever wrote this story don't know squat !!!

LOL... its coming from a 20's year old tech graduate that is book smart/experience ignorant....... or lives in CA or FL or in areas where below freezing temps (single digit/low teens) are not the norm most mornings.
Idling till the engine can put out enough heat to soften hard ice or hard frost is just a way of life out here in my neck of the woods.
Others have different reasons what they do or don't do.

Agreed! Here in the north it gets darn cold and icy. Needing to warm vehicles is the norm and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I will add the my 6.0L gasser warms rather nicely.

[colliehauler]

Mortimer Brewster wrote:

wrgrs50s wrote:
Whoever wrote this story don't know squat !!!

Actually they do know what they are talking about. This did happen to one of our cars. While doing an engine check I noticed that the oil level was over the full mark. My first reaction was to blame the dealership where the oil was last changed. We brought it in to get some oil taken out. They checked it out and found gas in the oil. They asked if we had been idling it a lot at startup, which turned out to be the case. My daughter had been letting the car idle 5 - 15 minutes to get the ice off the windows rather than scraping them.

I don't believe that for a minute. Some of our company trucks would idle all winter, without any problems.

[3oaks]

dodge guy wrote:

Mortimer Brewster wrote:

wrgrs50s wrote:
Whoever wrote this story don't know squat !!!

Actually they do know what they are talking about. This did happen to one of our cars. While doing an engine check I noticed that the oil level was over the full mark. My first reaction was to blame the dealership where the oil was last changed. We brought it in to get some oil taken out. They checked it out and found gas in the oil. They asked if we had been idling it a lot at startup, which turned out to be the case. My daughter had been letting the car idle 5 - 15 minutes to get the ice off the windows rather than scraping them.

If it was dumping that much fuel you would've gotten a check engine light and it would've been running very bad! They probably overfilled it and to not make themselves look bad they blamed it on idling.

Yep. If that much gasoline was getting into the crankcase, something is wrong with the engine.

[JIMNLIN]

wrgrs50s wrote:
Whoever wrote this story don't know squat !!!

LOL... its coming from a 20's year old tech graduate that is book smart/experience ignorant....... or lives in CA or FL or in areas where below freezing temps (single digit/low teens) are not the norm most mornings.
Idling till the engine can put out enough heat to soften hard ice or hard frost is just a way of life out here in my neck of the woods.
Others have different reasons what they do or don't do.

[dodge_guy]

Mortimer Brewster wrote:

wrgrs50s wrote:
Whoever wrote this story don't know squat !!!

Actually they do know what they are talking about. This did happen to one of our cars. While doing an engine check I noticed that the oil level was over the full mark. My first reaction was to blame the dealership where the oil was last changed. We brought it in to get some oil taken out. They checked it out and found gas in the oil. They asked if we had been idling it a lot at startup, which turned out to be the case. My daughter had been letting the car idle 5 - 15 minutes to get the ice off the windows rather than scraping them.

If it was dumping that much fuel you would've gotten a check engine light and it would've been running very bad! They probably overfilled it and to not make themselves look bad they blamed it on idling.

[dodge_guy]

I run mine to defrost the windshield, warming up the inside is a great side effect. It may take more fuel, but it is safer than driving with an obstructed view which is illegal everywhere!

[Mortimer_Brewst]

wrgrs50s wrote:
Whoever wrote this story don't know squat !!!

Actually they do know what they are talking about. This did happen to one of our cars. While doing an engine check I noticed that the oil level was over the full mark. My first reaction was to blame the dealership where the oil was last changed. We brought it in to get some oil taken out. They checked it out and found gas in the oil. They asked if we had been idling it a lot at startup, which turned out to be the case. My daughter had been letting the car idle 5 - 15 minutes to get the ice off the windows rather than scraping them.

[Bumpyroad]

gmcsmoke wrote:

On cold winter mornings, some folks will fire up their cars and leave them running for 10, 20, maybe even 30 minutes, thinking they're reducing wear and tear by letting their cars warm up gently.

well that might be some people but the majority don't want to sit in a cold car before driving to their destination; hence the idle time.

I idle if there is a bunch of ice on the windows and have to get the inside warmed up a bit before trying to scrape it off. nothing to do with the engine wear, etc.
bumpy

[noteven]

The Mercedes-Benz B200 Turbo has a stock tank heater in the windshield warsher reservoir. That fixes the recurring smearing almost frozen chit when you run ze vipers.

[colliehauler]

coolmom42 wrote:

mowermech wrote:
It is illegal in this state to leave an idling vehicle unattended.
You can start it and let it idle as long as you want, but you have to sit in it!

Not a state law here, but some larger cities have that law, due to the high rate of car theft while this is going on. I think it's intermittently enforced when vehicle thefts spike.

Not a problem in my small town.

In my town you would get a ticket for widow's not clear but not for warming up your vehicle. I agree in some areas theft would be a concern.