8 Facts About Warming Up Your Vehicle in Winter

by Dennis, Cars for Keeps Customer Service Manager

Well, with the cold weather's return, we've had a lot of questions around the shop about winter maintenance - particularly about how to warm up vehicles during chilly mornings. Since we have a lot to say about this topic, we decided it was time to address it here!

Old habits die hard, and one of the oldest — still rigorously enforced by many drivers — is that "warming up" the car for a few minutes is necessary to avoid electrical damage.

The truth is that the majority of the time, idling is totally unnecessary. You don't really need to idle your car, thanks to the efficiency of modern fuel injection, which eliminates carburetors and chokes.

The only reason drivers have to let the car idle at all is to get the oil circulating, but after 30 seconds that's a done deal. Anything past 30 seconds is just for the driver's comfort to getting into a warm vehicle. Even though the warmth may be nice, excessive idling - such as during cold winter months - poses more problems than solutions.

Let's look at 8 facts about idling that all drivers should know.


1. Driving warms the car faster than idling. If your concern is not the health of the car, but simply your own creature comforts, Bob Aldrich of the California Energy Commission points out that "idling is not actually an effective way to warm up a car — it warms up faster if you just drive it."

Upcoming electric car models, such as the Nissan Leaf, will incorporate a wonderful feature that allows the owner to use a cellphone to tell the car (which is plugged into the grid) to pre-warm or pre-cool the interior. No idling necessary.

2. Ten seconds is all you need. The Environmental Defense Fund, which produced the Idling Gets You Nowhere campaign, advises motorists to turn off their ignition if they're sitting stopped for more than 10 seconds.

"After about 10 seconds, you waste more money running the engine than restarting it, said Andy Darrell, deputy director of the EDF Energy Program. "Switch the car off at the curb, and you'll be leaving money in your wallet and protecting the air in your community."

3. Idling hurts the car. According to the Hinkle Charitable Foundation's Anti-Idling Primer,
idling forces an engine "to operate in a very inefficient and gasoline-rich mode that, over time, can degrade the engine's performance and reduce mileage."

The Campaign for an Idle-Free New York City points out that idling causes carbon residues to build up inside the engine, which reduces its efficiency.

[ Related: Five secrets to make your car last longer and save you money. ]

4. Idling costs money. Over a year of five minutes of daily idling (which causes incomplete
combustion of fuel), the "Anti-Idling Primer" estimates that the operator of a V8-engine car will waste 20 gallons of gasoline, which not only produces 440 pounds of carbon dioxide but costs at least $60.

5. Idling in the garage can kill you. Idling a car in a garage, even with the door open, is dangerous and exposes the driver to carbon monoxide and other noxious gases. If the garage is attached, those fumes can also enter the house.

6. Block heaters beat remote starters. Lori Strothard of the Waterloo Citizens Vehicle Idling Reduction Task Force in Canada says, "Remote starters can too easily cause people to warm up their cars for 5 to 15 minutes, which is generally unnecessary."

A block heater, which is designed to heat the engine and can cost under $30, on a timer set to start one to two hours before driving, does the trick in very cold climates.

7. Quick errands aren't quick enough. Natural Resources Canada points out that leaving your car idling while you're running into a store on an errand or going back into the house to pick up a forgotten item is another way to waste gas and pollute both your town and the planet.

"Leaving your engine running is hard on your pocketbook, produces greenhouse gas emissions, and is an invitation to car thieves," the agency (PDF) says.

8. Idling is bad for your health (and your neighbor's health). According to Minneapolis' anti-idling ordinance, "Exhaust is hazardous to human health, especially children's; studies have linked air pollution to increased rates of cancer, heart and lung disease, asthma and allergies."

Isabelle Silverman, who runs EDF's anti-idling campaign, says that car idling "is the second-hand smoking of the outdoors. One of the problems is that cars idle close to the curb, where pedestrians are walking. And when you have a child in a stroller, they are particularly
close to the tailpipe. Studies show that children's IQ levels are lower when they live near major roads with lots of traffic."

Alex Scaperotta, who created an anti-idling campaign with a classmate when he was in fifth grade in Wilton, Connecticut, came up with a slogan that was used on bumper stickers and websites: "If you're stopped for more than 10, turn it off and on again." Sounds like
good advice.

Have a great day from your friendly neighborhood Service Manager!