Brace yourselves. I am about to open your eyes to one of the biggest myths plaguing western Canada – idling your car.
Throughout my first winter in Alberta I have noticed and overheard an overwhelming number of people who feel they have to let their car idle in order to warm up the engine. They will let their car sit, five, 10, 15 minutes or more to let the engine warm up.
The belief this is necessary is completely false. Idling your car for an extended period of time does nothing good for the engine.
The only benefit of letting your car idle for an extended period of time is possibly having a warmer car when you finally decided to get it in.
Nowadays, engines are built to idle at an extremely low RPM (revolutions per minute) to save gas and energy. After a few minutes most engines will be as warm as they are going to get just by idling.
Don't believe me? How about Environment Canada?
A section on the Natural Resources Canada website states: “the best way to warm up (your vehicle) is to drive it. In fact, with today's computer-controlled engines, even on cold winter days, usually no more than two to three minutes of idling is enough warm-up time needed for the average vehicle before starting to drive.”
The article, titled “Vehicle Warm-Up” goes on to state: “What's often forgotten is that idling warms only the engine – not the wheel bearings, steering, suspension, transmission and tires. These parts also need to be warmed up, and the only way to do that is to drive the vehicle.”
Now on those really cold days, I am someone who will use my remote starter to get my vehicle going before getting in it and driving. But my whole purpose is to get my engine a little warmer, so it can handle these colder temperatures a little better. I usually don't let my vehicles idle for more than five minutes.
I would like to encourage everyone out there to start doing the same. Idling your vehicle for a lengthy period of time just wastes fuel and adds more carbon dioxide into the environment and contributes to greenhouse gases.
Please, start being more cautious of how long you are letting your vehicle sit. The world is already having enough problems with greenhouse gases as it is.
