As I think most people have, I grew up with the understanding that warming up your vehicle before a drive was a good thing. I recently received a newsletter in the mail urging me not to warm-up my vehicle this winter as it is bad for the environment and no good for my engine. I agree with the envi…

At this time of year we get one post each week minimum on this subject. Briefly: Your engine warms up quickest with some load on it, i.e. driving it. An idling engine runs very ineffienctly and pollutes more than a loaded one. In addition, your are not moving while you’re idling; causing even mor…

I will add to Doc’s post the importance of warming up your engine long enough to get the defroster to keep the windshield clear once you hit cruising speed. Lately that seems to be my defining criterion.

Since this topic has been extensively covered in many recent threads, you might want to do a search of this site in order to see all of the responses. But, if you want a quick and dirty summary, I will give you one: While warming up your engine will not harm the engine, it definitely harms your wal…

The best bet is to give it say 30 seconds on the very cold mornings and then drive off. Get a mile or two before hitting the highway. That warms it up fast and without stressing the engine. It also warms up the transmission and power steering fluids as well as the struts and other ssuspension and…

Is warming the engine up harmful? Nope. Car engines are designed to run. It will warm up faster if you drive it, and more fuel will be burned when it is cold. Extended idling (taxicabs, police cars, limo’s) might have a problem, but the standard family car will suffer no real problems by a short…

“will running your engine for a few minutes after you park the car harm your engine”. No. Some turbos require a short cool down time only.

I agree, it won’t actually hurt the engine but it’s also not necessary and it uses extra fuel. The folks that are telling you it will harm the engine are probably just overstating their case.

Almost all those points are absolutely correct. 20-30 seconds is plenty. Where I was living in North Dakota, with the temps routinely below 0F in the winter, a solid 30 second warm up, and I was off. Driving nicely for a bit until the gauges were moving, and off I went…providing the roadway (and my…

To warm-up or not to warm-up

Maintenance/Repairs

Jeffmw05 December 28, 2007, 7:23pm 9

If you have ice and snow on your car, start the engine and turn on defrosting/deicing equipment and let the engine run while you scrape ice as necessary. Otherwise just start the car, put it in gear and go. Just be gentle until temp gauge starts to move.

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To warm-up or not to warm-up

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