Idling hurts your car? Yahoo article.......

[greenrail]

I occasionally become somewhat contrarian about things on C5.

Having said that, all i hear is a bunch of innuendos espoused by special interests.

If my bride, wants to warm up her car for a few minutes before she leaves for work, then so be it. When it's 10 degrees at 4:00 am, ii can't blame her. I would too.

Not one bit of scientific evidence thrown out. Sorry, folks, but, these "opinions" have been all over the map for years.

I start moving my car as soon as I am settled in, with my daily driver. I like to warm up my Camaro a bit, because, i don't drive it every day.

Two different scenarios. Daily driver versus an occasional pleasure vehicle. Daily driving, repeatedly lubricates the internals every day. Once a month is a bit of a different situatio, i will warm that car up some because it has sat for a while.

Yeah, there may be some watsed gas. Same thing goes when you are sitting there on the freeway not moving. This nation would save more fuel, if we had better traffic flow.

Sorry, about my mini-rant!

[Russell James]

On my pickup, in the winter mornings, I do two remote starts. 20 mins seems ideal to a nice toasty interior and clear windshield. Al Gore can kiss a duck.

[Steve Dallas]

Originally Posted by LS3CAM

What about the defroster??? It takes a solid 10 to 15 min. for that to kick in and start working. (block heaters use precious electricity too). What about the driver??? He/she is better able to opperate the vehicle in a safe manner if they aren't curled up in a ball shivering!

This is why we have heated seats!

[1BADLS3]

Originally Posted by Rip

Because of water condensation. Again, it's not doing it every once in a while, it's doing it repeatedly without burning the water out of the system.

I, too, have been under the impression that if a car is idled and shut off before all the fluids reach their normal operating temperature that condensation can form in the system. I'd have to read more, but I've heard it creates harmful byproducts and acids that degrade the oil, eat seals, etc. Additionally, condensation forms and stays in the exhaust which isn't good for the exhaust system.

But that's for the specific scenario of starting a car, letting it idle, and shutting it off before it reaches temperature (as many of you do when you store your cars for the winter).

Idling, though, is just unneeded wear on the engine. If you're not using it, shut it off. For typical pedestrians, when you leave the car, the keys need to go with you and the vehicle should be secured. Police and Fire are different--they HAVE to keep their cars running if they're operating emergency lights or equipment (including radios). In fact, many rigs will go into a fast idle to ensure that the alternator is keeping up with the load on the system so the battery isn't drained while idling. Talk about bad gas mileage...

The interesting part is that these cars are often run full throttle immediately following a cold start, and the engines still last hundreds of thousands of miles.

IMHO the key is really in the proper maintenance of any engine, regardless of how you use it.

[Number 3]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallas

This is why we have heated seats!

Many of the EVs rely on Heated Seats to increase the comfort level in the cabin to minimize the need for heating. Driving the Volt, increasing the heat and fan speed all use electricity which can be better applied to propulsion.

[Sneeks20]

BS

[1BADLS3]

Originally Posted by Number 3

Many of the EVs rely on Heated Seats to increase the comfort level in the cabin to minimize the need for heating. Driving the Volt, increasing the heat and fan speed all use electricity which can be better applied to propulsion.

That makes sense, except for the fact that all these "EV" manufacturers use some kind of heat pump for all interior heating/cooling needs.

Heated seats are just an added bonus.

[Lazerbrainz2k3]

This isn't an article written for people who like their cars. It's written for people who hate their cars, who can't wait to get to where they're going and get out of them, who leave their keys in the ignitiom while they go into stores hoping their cars get stolen, And it's written by people citing "experts" in California instead of places where winter is more than just a slightly less warm version of summer, who try to use stories of horrible damage to cars if they're left idling for a couple minutes to warm up the cabin to con people into doing the "green" thing.

Pay it no mind. Sure, if you idle your engine for just a few minutes after getting cold-soaked all night then turn it off, that could be a problem over a fairly long time. If you do the far more common thing and let it idle for a few minutes then go drive it awhile, that's okay. But this article doesn't make that distinction. I suppose the EDF want us to turn our engines off at lights or in traffic, too, all to avoid evil idling?

As for breathing in exhaust while waiting for the heater to warm up, here's a novel idea: take ten seconds of shivering K-turning to point the car so you're upwind of the exhaust, then a minute or two later you'll be enjoying a nice, healthy-lung'd, comfortable, attention-on-the-road-not-your-numb-extremities driving! Problem solved!

[hairtrigger]

Extended idling of an engine with a solid roller cam would affect the roller lifters needle bearings if they were of the non pressure fed type. But that is mostly street/strip/race stuff.
Other than that, idling a stock modern engine is just part of it's lifes duties, with little to worry about.

[yellowLS]

[leviticus88]

These people are insane and have hugged way to many trees...

Of course you get bad mileage when your idling. Your not moving and thus get zero mileage. It still doesn't mean that gas is being used as much as when in motion. A car can run a very long time on a tank of gas when idling. It's just sipping gas...

[mikeSS]

Originally Posted by 08-G35s/6MT

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."

[/U][/I]

heres why that is wrong. when people idle there car to warm them up, they are not just sitting in the car at least in the winter. when i warm my car up when its cold i wait inside a warm house . then go out when the car is warmer. that is much better then getting in a cold car and driving for 5 mins tell it warms in terms of comfort

[Revo1]

Don't believe ANYTHING you read on Yahoo. Again, NOTHING. Yahoo will run anything that they think will get them hits.

After reading this article, I closed my yahoo mail and changed my homepage to MSN.

[Big Brunsy]

yeah, says all of the anti-idling agencies

shut ur car off if it's gonna idle for more than 10 sec...HA. I don't see any of them agencies they cited being from the cold climate. I'll let my truck run for a half hour while i go grocery shopping.

Originally Posted by Revo1

Don't believe ANYTHING you read on Yahoo. Again, NOTHING. Yahoo will run anything that they think will get them hits.

After reading this article, I closed my yahoo mail and changed my homepage to MSN.

soooo....basically they are saying us Chevy owners are technoligally challenged....and dumb.