What's TWs opinion?

I just read this article about allowing your engine to idle for several minutes to help warm it up. I've always allowed 30 seconds or so of idle to get the oil circulating before putting a load on the engine, even in warm weather. This article condemns idling for a longer time in cold weather.

What really caught my eye though, leading me to believe that the authors don't know much about their subject matter: "...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..." HELP your engine run?? And strip oil away?

And this: "When you start a car, an oil pump circulates the oil in less than a minute. But if you let your car idle to warm up the cabin, the oil will start to slowly drain away from the engine's key components since the engine isn’t moving the car." Huh? You mean the oil pump stops circulating oil?

Opinions? Do I need schooling?

 

I call BS

 

X2

 

Didn't read the article, but from the passages you quoted the author clearly has no understanding of how engines work. Warm it up or don't warm it up...one will use more fuel, but neither will destroy your vehicle.

 

I'm also calling BS. You don't have to warm it up but warming it up doesn't hurt the engine in any way. The oil pump runs whenever the engine is turning so it is getting oiled when warming up. It doesn't "strip away oil" in any way to idle the engine.

The fact that the original article is on a site called "verifythis" is funny.

Is this the start of a Friday thread?

 

The author misunderstood something from the source article here: https://www.businessinsider.com/her...-doing-to-your-engine-and-its-not-good-2016-1

The engine runs rich at startup, and cylinder blow-by is higher at idle, so the oil gets contaminated faster when you leave it idling for too long.

I let the truck idle for about 30 sec (using the flashing TPMS light as a counter), then drive it easy until the coolant temp needle rises to the middle. Usually putting on the driving glasses and setting the GPS take 30 sec, so no additional time taken.

 

I let my truck idle long enough winter and summer till the idle drops to normal when I am at home .

My drive way is 500' feet long and the fast idle is just to fast for my drive way.

Since I drive less then 100 miles a month oil contamination is not a major concern at this time.

 

I've been using the Remote Start on my FOB this week...since it's been chilly in the mornings. Start time is about 5:10am.

The engine turns off at 10 minutes...unless the doors are open...but I'm not about to do that when I'm standing in the cold garage! lol (Garage Door Closed)

I start her up about 5:45am and drive 4.5 miles to work.

My longest owned/tenured vehicle was a 2003 Honda Pilot EX with Auto Transmission which I bought in 2002--had over 200K miles on it before my accident in Oct/2018.

Oil & Filter changes were done between 3-5K miles. This vehicle did not have Remote Start so all my starts were with a key.

I would warm up my SUV 5-10 minutes tops on cold/freezing days and maybe 1-3 minutes during other times.

In my opinion, idling for short periods of time did not damage or degrade the 3.5L engine in my Honda Pilot.

As long as I did my PM (Preventative Maintenance) and had her service checked by the dealership before I went overseas, she worked fine.

 

If it's ridiculous enough, then by all means!

 

He must have been doing some Toot..
https://youtu.be/GBZUaYhfgTc

 

It's a well known fact that idling your vehicle in cold weather in North America causes baby penguins in Antarctica to choke on plastic bags from Cuba.

 

Can you cite references, studies to prove this to be true?