Remote starts vary in function, both OEM and aftermarket. My car can be started with an app on my phone. Doors remain locked. Car can not be driven without the fob being present.
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Just looking at the source and the poster tells me the article is very probably all or mostly B.S.
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Even if the article were true, Iâm not worried about it for the following reasons:
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Engines donât wear out today like they did years ago. Itâs easy to get several hundred thousand miles out of an engine regardless of how long you let it warm up.
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The time when cylinder wall wear is at its greatest is between âengine startâ and when âitâs warmed upâ. Whether it warms up by driving or by idling is too little to worry about.
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Warming up a car to defrost the windows for visibility is far more important than any infinitesimal wear on an engine.
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For anyone who does adhere to the articleâs pitch, are they also changing their lifestyle so that they never have to drive the car to get the milk/bread they forgot at the store?
Many authors of todayâs articles are under financial pressure to âproduceâ, and are measured for how many articles they write. Itâs not clear to me how theyâre being measured on the content accuracy.
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Not to mention, one source was a Firestone tech!
Though our friends living near the 49th parallel would consider 32 degree balmy, zi did use my remote start this morning!
If engine idling causes premature destruction then how do vehicles survive in cities like NY or Boston or LA. Your vehicle spends a lot of time idling. AgainâŠthis article is total dodo.
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Checked this morning, autostart does disable the ability to put the car in gear, forgive me greenies but -4 here. Our work trucks left outside were idled for a while before taking off on days like today, so nice to have an intern, The interns we had were always team players and never complained! There were a number of 20 years of age, plus or minus, mechanic did regular maintenance.
Edit to add I have to turn the engine off and restart to have full functionality If I decide to take off before it shuts off before 10 minutes expires. Not a smart fob.
That doesnât apply to newer vehicles that utilize a âsmartâ key fob. I was surprised to see that when my friend uses remote start on his 2021 Forester, the engine doesnât stop when he unlocks the door.
Because the vehicle ârecognizesâ him, he can just jump in, put it in gear, and immediately drive-away in his warmed-up vehicle. When I observed that reality with his car, I tried the same thing with my new car, and it worked in an identical manner.
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Some systems will shut off the engine when the brake pedal is pressed if the key is not present, or the ignition is not in the on position. This is both a panic kill method and a theft preventative measure.
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Why am I getting into this? At any rate my Gm remote start freezes the gear shift so that it canât be stolen. When you unlock the car with the fob and get in, you put the key in and turn the key to on and everything is normal. You get only two or three 10 minute runs with the remote start. I have ent used it in years.
You are willing to share!
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Some shut off just opening the door.
Auto-start for vehicles with manual transmission will have the most acrobatics involved (ask me how I knowâŠ). The reason is that there is no good conventional way to tell if vehicle is in gear or not, so Omega systems I used to install required running engine and pulled parking brake before you activate âcountdownâ and exit vehicle. It would stop the engine and let it be restarted anytime before first door is opened. If it was auto-started, it would keep it running until clutch pedal is pressed and you had to put key in and turn into âonâ position to keep it running. Not exactly simple, but quite logical.
For automatics, it is quite usual to have brake pedal as kill/panic switch to make sure it is safe - Iâve seen that from more than one system type, so all would let engine run while driver enters, puts the key in and turns it to âonâ to keep engine running.
Still, a lot depends on how installer elects to connect the system, I can totally imagine how to make door open to be a kill switch, but I fail to see a reason to do that, that makes for unnecessary engine restart on every entry.
That seems to have disappeared with the advent of âsmartâ key fobs.
The newer vehicles which come equippedâfrom the factoryâ with auto-start via a connected Smartphone app donât have that problem. However, all bets are off when it comes to an aftermarket system that is installed by a technician with technical skills that are⊠not the best.
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True, with new cars itâs no reason to bother with aftermarket systems, itâs easier to cough up money for the higher trim level where it became standard.
It also became harder to wire aftermarket systems into newer cars with immobilizers and more complex wiring from mid-2000s, so additional âinterface modulesâ were added. The last car I added auto-start on myself was 2007 model year, after that I enjoyed it as OEM option 
The damage from starting and idling a cold engine in a very cold environment is, nowadays, not much to the engine. Itâs mainly to the exhaust system, where moisture will condense and may cause rust, and to air quality and the health of living things. If the vehicle is driven far enough, the exhaust system will be OK because the moisture will be expelled. Living things, not so OK
Here in WI or MN, I start up and within 10 seconds or so start driving at a gentle pace. My two cars are near or over 200,000 miles now.
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Not so much in a modern exhaust thatâs made in Stainless Steel.
Catalytic converters are indeed stainless steel
But afaik resonators and mufflers arenât always stainless steel
Common to use 409 stainless for exhausts⊠It really isnât all that âstainlessâ but it doesnât rust away like bare or aluminized steel. Except the welds tend to leech out the alloying elements that resist rust. The welded places tend to be the failure points.
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I havenât seen a non Stainless Steel muffler or resonator since the feds passing the law requiring the exhaust be warrantied for 50k miles.
If you read the supporting documents, at least one says exactly the opposite. It is confusing prose for sure but first says oil drains, then in the next line says that is a myth. Sheesh. Like you just pick out stuff you like and ignore the rest.
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