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Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

businessinsider.com

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Re: Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

#41

Post by hprotagonist »

sschueller wrote: post #6

"peratures 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." Nonsense, if the oil pump and engine are built correctly and working as intended this does not cause librication not to work correctly. How many cabs would die early because they are idling in traffic all day? Your personal cars engine is not a formula one…

> How many cabs would die early because they are idling in traffic all day?

and cop cars? Approximately all of them. This is well known.

https://old.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/4pjnco/how_...

Re: Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

#42

Post by godelski »

psychphysic wrote: post #9

For me the benefits far outweigh the increased wear on the engine. I don't really need my engine to last 400k miles like it can in perfect circumstances. I need fog free windows, be comfortable driving the car without gloves on making the steering slip. To be able to focus on getting around and not shivering. I don't drive these days but back when I did those were all issues I had for my 5am start getting to work. An…

> I need fog free windows

Personally I can't drive with ice on my windows. Can't really see outside and I'm pretty confident that's illegal. Like 80%, but I'm not a lawyer.

Re: Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

#44

Post by ajross »

psychphysic wrote: post #9

For me the benefits far outweigh the increased wear on the engine. I don't really need my engine to last 400k miles like it can in perfect circumstances. I need fog free windows, be comfortable driving the car without gloves on making the steering slip. To be able to focus on getting around and not shivering. I don't drive these days but back when I did those were all issues I had for my 5am start getting to work. An…

I don't want to be That Guy[1], but an EV can run the climate control, warm the car and defrost the windows with absolutely no maintenance worries at all. Teslas can do it remotely while you sip your coffee or pack up your ski gear.

[1] I totally want to be That Guy

Re: Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

#46

Post by sschueller »

sokoloff wrote: post #39
sschueller wrote: post #6

"peratures 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." Nonsense, if the oil pump and engine are built correctly and working as intended this does not cause librication not to work correctly. How many cabs would die early because they are idling in traffic all day? Your personal cars engine is not a formula one…

Note that, for cost reasons, F1 teams are limited to 3 engines per driver for the season, with penalties for starting grid positions for exceeding this figure.

Right but that doesn't mean they can't rebuild the engine for each race weekend.

Re: Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

#47

Post by Brian_K_White »

I'm sure the cited expert really is an expert, but this article fails miserably at conveying any cohesive understanding from them to you. It's full of conclusions that don't follow from their leading statements.

My understanding about warming up an engine before putting load on it had nothing to do with fuel or power steering fluid, it was about thermal expansion of all the machined parts that suffer wear if they are run under load while they are loose-fitting from being cold. This is a thing even in summer and merely worse in winter.

This article barely talks about this and doesn't say anything intelligible but just says "stress" from stepping on it right away.

Maybe that issue also no longer exists on modern engines, but nothing in this article explains that.

Mostly everything this says about why idling is supposedly bad, applies to operating the thing at all, idling or not. The conclusion would be "don't use your car at all in winter"

Well, if you're going to use it at all, then you're already doing the damage, so you might as well be comfortable and have an easier time clearing the windows. The device only exists in the first place to serve you.

Re: Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

#48

Post by jcampbell1 »

sschueller wrote: post #6

"peratures 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." Nonsense, if the oil pump and engine are built correctly and working as intended this does not cause librication not to work correctly. How many cabs would die early because they are idling in traffic all day? Your personal cars engine is not a formula one…

I worked at the engine plant in the early 2000s that made the 4.6l v8 that was in Crown Victoria for cop cars and cabs. The cop/cab version of the engine was different in that it had a highly polished timing chain for exactly this reason.

Re: Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

#49

Post by pdonis »

EamonnMR wrote: post #40

When your engine is running the oil pump ought to be circulating oil across relevant surfaces, I don't see how idling would 'strip it away.' If that was the case, why would they sell cars with remote starters?

> I don't see how idling would 'strip it away.'

What the article is saying here is technically correct, but I doubt the effect is as large or as detrimental as the article says.

The key point is that, as the piston moves up and down in the cylinder, the part of the cylinder wall that is traversed is alternately wetted by oil and gasoline. When it is wetted by gasoline (i.e., when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke), some of the oil can dissolve. But when it is wetted by oil again (i.e., when the piston is at the top of its stroke), as you say, the oil pump will push more oil onto the surface and replace what was lost. So the actual effect will be to very slowly decrease the amount of oil in the engine. This might also mean a small increase in engine wear, but I would not expect that to be very significant compared to all the other sources of engine wear. If one is really concerned about the possible loss of oil, just check the level between changes (which many people do anyway).

Re: Warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine (2016)

#50

Post by mise_en_place »

ajross wrote: post #44
psychphysic wrote: post #9

For me the benefits far outweigh the increased wear on the engine. I don't really need my engine to last 400k miles like it can in perfect circumstances. I need fog free windows, be comfortable driving the car without gloves on making the steering slip. To be able to focus on getting around and not shivering. I don't drive these days but back when I did those were all issues I had for my 5am start getting to work. An…

I don't want to be That Guy[1], but an EV can run the climate control, warm the car and defrost the windows with absolutely no maintenance worries at all. Teslas can do it remotely while you sip your coffee or pack up your ski gear. [1] I totally want to be That Guy

The cold still damages your EV’s battery. It is still, after all, a lithium ion battery.
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