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

businessinsider.com

21–30 of 200 posts

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

#21
Wow. This is unreal. The OP says:

> 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.

> via VERIFY

Great, they got some kind of content from somewhere else. Let’s follow the link to verifythis.com:

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

> 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

There’s even a video!

Let’s click the actual link to smarttoyota.com:

> Warming up your vehicle can actually shorten the life of your engine, by letting your vehicle idle in the cold you are actually stripping away oil from the engine’s pistons and cylinders each time you do this. While you may wonder where this myth came from since it’s not true, it’s because it was once based on facts. Jake Scheafer the Service Director at Smart Motors’ says before cars and trucks were equipped with fuel management systems, they relied on carburetors and simpler fuel system management which did need significant time to warm up.

Hint: next time you make a video based on some other source, try reading at least two sentences.

OTOH, the bar seems really low for ChatGPT to emulate the capabilities of these websites…

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

#22
post #18

Yet another closed access post on HN. My last complaint about this got flagged, but I really don't care. The HN community needs to stand behind open internet, not contribute to an increasingly closed one. "Access Denied You don't have permission to access " http://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/weather-verify... " on this server. Reference #18.6dc31302.1671993353.baa1f4a "

isnt that akamai cdn blocking vpn ips?

It's a flask routing error, iirc.

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

#23

Yet another closed access post on HN. My last complaint about this got flagged, but I really don't care. The HN community needs to stand behind open internet, not contribute to an increasingly closed one. "Access Denied You don't have permission to access " http://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/weather-verify... " on this server. Reference #18.6dc31302.1671993353.baa1f4a "

The site is free to access. There's no paywall.

I was able to reproduce the error you got by accessing it through a browser in the UK.

I guess the site blocks access from countries that require compliance with GDPR.

I don't think people should be required to test that the site is available in every country, before posting or upvoting.

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

#24

Yet another closed access post on HN. My last complaint about this got flagged, but I really don't care. The HN community needs to stand behind open internet, not contribute to an increasingly closed one. "Access Denied You don't have permission to access " http://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/weather-verify... " on this server. Reference #18.6dc31302.1671993353.baa1f4a "

[deleted]

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

#25

Yet another closed access post on HN. My last complaint about this got flagged, but I really don't care. The HN community needs to stand behind open internet, not contribute to an increasingly closed one. "Access Denied You don't have permission to access " http://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/weather-verify... " on this server. Reference #18.6dc31302.1671993353.baa1f4a "

[deleted]

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

#26
post #4

Very little information in this “article”.

Ok, we've changed the url https://www.fleetmanagementweekly.com/yes-warming-up-your-ca... to the thing it points to, which is longer if not better. Edit: ok, that one ( https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/weather-verif... ) didn't work. Switching to the URL suggested in the comments below. Thanks!

Nope, not actually better — keep clicking, and see my other comment. If you actually follow the links, you find the opposite opinion! Go Internet!

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

#27
post #13
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, we've changed the url https://www.fleetmanagementweekly.com/yes-warming-up-your-ca... to the thing it points to, which is longer if not better. Edit: ok, that one ( https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/weather-verif... ) didn't work. Switching to the URL suggested in the comments below. Thanks!

Following the chain of links, I think this article is the original source: https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-idling-your-car-i... It's a much more detailed article, including some specific claims about the science.

Yes, this one is open and with more details that make some sense. Idling for 5-15 minutes is too long anyway, unless you have a 80’s car.

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

#28
post #16
post #7

This feels a bit shallow. According to this website, another website says that warming your car in cold weather before driving can cause damage due to stripping oil from the piston. I’m willing to believe it but I’d like to hear some details. Surely the engine is going to warm to the same temperature soon enough?

Yeah, this is confusing. Does this mean idling your car is bad for the engine?

not if the oil is warm. if its cold where you are use a block heater so your oil is warm to begin with. then you can idle no problem, and get the cabin up to a human temperature

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

#29

Yet another closed access post on HN. My last complaint about this got flagged, but I really don't care. The HN community needs to stand behind open internet, not contribute to an increasingly closed one. "Access Denied You don't have permission to access " http://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/weather-verify... " on this server. Reference #18.6dc31302.1671993353.baa1f4a "

I've experienced this also many times, especially US-centric sites seem to block access from EU countries. I guess because of the GDPR.

I also can't access this site from Germany.

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

#30
post #19

Yet another closed access post on HN. My last complaint about this got flagged, but I really don't care. The HN community needs to stand behind open internet, not contribute to an increasingly closed one. "Access Denied You don't have permission to access " http://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/weather-verify... " on this server. Reference #18.6dc31302.1671993353.baa1f4a "

That was caused by changing the original url.

I merely clicked the link.

I am on a VPN at the moment as I am traveling in Asia.

Even so, while paywalls are my #1 complaint, US-based sites who stonewall EU visitors is my #2. All they have to do is not collect data and then they don't have to worry about GDPR. Blocking EU visitors is a cop-out, and one that hurts them more. We can probably live without their "news". They're just losing eyes and traffic.

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