I did a search and found this thread, but it’s so old I didn’t think the mods would want me to revive it.
I could swear I’ve heard Click and Clack say it’s not necessary to let your car warm up before you drive it, but unlike Cecil they don’t have an archive of past advices at their website.
And I didn’t find anything when I searched Cecil’s archive either.
Can anyone find me a citation for this, from Car Talk, Cecil or even Snopes?
Well, Tom and Ray may well be right that the CAR only needs a one-minute warmup. But, when it’w twenty below (as it is today), I need the car to warm up for at least ten minutes before I’ll even consider putting my butt on the seats…
Here’s the pertinent comment from the Car Talk guys: Other folks think it’s a good idea to just sit in the driveway with the motor running for five minutes before driving the car. That’s also a bad idea. It wastes gas, adds to the pollution, and doesn’t do the engine any good. The engine warms up most efficiently while it’s being driven, not while its idling.
Essentially that’s correct for modern cars, with the clarification to drive it gently for the first five minutes or so. With older carbureted cars, it was generally necessary to warm the engine up for five or ten minutes before driving in order to have reasonable performance and not to stall. And some modern cars that aren’t in top shape might need that as well.
But if windshield fogging is a concern, or if like many of us you don’t like sitting in an ice cold car, warm it up. It may shorten the life of the engine slightly, but it can enhance your safety and/or reduce your suffering significantly.
Well, FWIW, the manual of my car says that, especially in cold weather, you should let the idle speed drop and settle before driving off. Whether that’s specific to the rotary engine, I don’t know (it’s a Mazda RX-8).
Interestingly, the manual has an asterisk:
“* Except in Germany. In Germany, drive the car immediately but keep the engine speed low.”.
I that’s because it’s illegal to leave a car running on your drive in Germany.
You can always buy a 110v fan heater for the car interior (as opposed to a block heater), hooked to a timer to start it 15 to 30 minutes before you are scheduled to leave. That will help clear the windshield and make the interior more hospitable.
On an ice-fog morning, when the first side you scraped is frosted over by the time you finish the other side, and you have to stop halfway down the block to scrape it again, never mind Click and Clack, warm that puppy up.
Powered by the cigarette lighter?
Your cigarette lighter puts out 110V? :eek:
You plug the interior heater into the same electrical outlet you plug the block heater into.
Well, living in California I don’t have much need for a block heater, and while I do have an outlet in my garage, the opener is in my wife’s car. Defrosting is the only reason I run the car before I drive, and I wish it went faster. This time of year my first blocks of driving is right into the sun, so I need to have the windshield clear to avoid hitting anything.
Anyone have ideas for faster defrosting? I know about the air conditioner trick.
You only need to wait until the RPM’s drop down to an idle after startup to let the oil pump do it’s thing, after that you can be on your way. People who start the car up and take off are causing unnecessary wear on their motor. Also if your windows are fogged/icy/snow covered, don’t just clear a circle (porthole) that you can see out of, take the time to fully clean the windows so you can see where you are going.
When I lived in Anchorage, Alaska, I had an in-block heater installed to keep the water hot durning non use of the car. I also put a 100 watt light bulb in a box under the oil pan to keep the oil warm. Oil can get pretty stiff in the winter there. Well, those things worked well and when I went out in the morning, the car was ready to go. When at work, there was a post where I parked to plug in the in-block water heater.
FWIW, I start the engine and let it idle. At the same time I turn on the defroster (winshield) and rear window heater. Then I exit the car and scrape all the windows, starting with the driver’s side and work counter-clockwise around the car. By the time I get to the windshield, the engine is putting out enough heat that clearing it of all frost is a breeze.
I emphasize cleaning all the windows because I want to see out of every window on those cold mornings for all those idiots (Oh, sorry. This is GQ.) who only scrape a tiny opening in the windshield directly in front of their noses.
Does transmission fluid need to warm up also? I ask b/c when the temperature is cold i notice that 5th gear (overdrive in a 5 speed auto) has higher RPMs than usual.
Transmission fluid needs to warm up too. Tranny fluid has way different friction modifiers in it than motor oil, but I’ve read that most ATF is basically a 5W20 if you go by the viscosity chart. <1, 2>
I have seen evidence that some cars alter their shifting patterns when cold. In particular, a Toyota overdrive transmission from a couple of years back would not go into overdrive (4th in this case) until ATF fluid hit a certain temperature.
If you are actually in 5th gear though, and you are getting higher RPMs for lower speed than normally, that means the lock-up mechanism in your lock-up torque converter <3> is not engaging, probably due to the design of the vehicle. When the torque converter locks up, some people experience a change similar to moving to a higher gear.
<1> This is the data sheet for a major brand ATF. WARNING… PDF http://www.shell-lubricants.com/products/pdf/FormulaShellDexronIIIMercon.pdf
<2> This is the viscosity chart: http://www.infineum.com/information/viscosity.html
<3> http://auto.howstuffworks.com/torque-converter.htm
Wouldn’t putting a car cover (like a tarpaulin) on the night before save window scraping?
I once had a car that the transmission was so worn in that I had to park it nose first against a tree and run the car with the transmission in drive for a few minutes before the car would move. This was when the temperature was warm. I rebuilt the transmission before it got cold, because it probably never would have moved when it was freezing.
I like the people driving with half an iceberg teetering from the roof over the windshield. One sudden stop and Whooooshhh!
I’ve heard that idiling is the worst way to warm up a car as far a wear goes (well besides starting a camp fire under the engine). But it is one of the most comfortable ways.
Also someone mentioned a 120V fan, I’ve used this, and it works pretty well. I have a outlet near the car where I can control the power from an inside GFI outlet inside. I use the test button to turn it off, for the night and reset it in the morning a few minutes before I get into the car.