It’s True, You No Longer Need to Idle Your Car On Cold Mornings

It seems as though we’ve had more winter in the last month than in all of last year. With the weather getting cold early this year I thought it was a good idea to send out a reminder about not needing to idle your car on cold mornings.

Back in the day everybody would idle their vehicle to get the engine warm while waiting in the house. That’s when all cars had carburetors and needed to warm up before moving. However it’s been 30 years since that was commonplace. With today's fuel injectors, computer systems and thinner oils you don’t need to warm up your car’s engine like in the good old days.

The best way to warm up your car is to start it up, wait a no more than a minute and go. It takes 3-5 minutes to warm your engine so just don’t gun the engine at the start. I know on these cold mornings before I get to the first red light by the QT my car is already blowing hot air and that's less than 1 mile away.  

When your engine becomes warmer the computer sensors in your car will adjust the fuel mixture to be less rich until your car’s engine heats up to 40 degrees. Idling your car for more than a minute wastes gas, causes excessive wear to cylinders, piston rings, spark plugs and can even harm your exhaust system.

So to be clear with the point, idling your car is not an effective or wise way to warm up your car.

So unless you're driving a 1980’s vehicle which we assume your not, dress warm get in your car and go.