Why does a car have to be heated before you start it?

Question

I have a new car but it has been very cold in my city. Do I still have to heat it. i notice that it heeats up faster when I drive as opposed to sitted there for at least 10 minutes for it to move away from the C to the midpoint. Am I hurting the engine?

Answer 1

Think of it this way: take a glass, an ordinary glass. Put hot water in it slowly. It can take boiling hot water if you do it gradually enough. Now take that same glass and put it in the freezer. After it is good and frozen put it in the sink and pour boiling water in it from a tea pot. Stand back because it will shatter. This is what you are doing to your engine. Warm it up and then drive and it will not crack. Start it from a dead cold to 60 mph all the time and it will eventually do what the glass did when it came from the freezer to boiling hot water in a matter of seconds. The engine will just take longer than the glass since it is more resilient than glass.

Answer 2

Are u really sure ur heating ur car b4 u start it - or is it that ur running a diesel and u hav 2 hav 2 wait 4 the the glow light on the dash 2 go out b4 u 2 start it? If so, then the glow light is only showing u that the engine is ready to start as a diesel engine doesn't work the same as a petrol engine.
Petrol engines require a spark to ignite the fuel as the piston gets to the top of the engine, the fuel igniting causes the piston 2 be forced downwards. Diesels have a kind of coil instead of a spark plug and it's glowing constantly - not sparking. They have to be made to glow b4 u start the car. Other than that I don't know of anyone, at anytime, who's heated their engine b4 starting it so I'll assume this is wot ur talking about. Hope it makes sense 2 u.

Answer 3

Ok. Everyone is a little bit right if they said that you have to let your car warm up in the warm weather. All cars run on fluids. Gas, tranny fluids,power steering fluid,anti-freeze, etc. Now while none of these fluids will freeze unless at like -35 or so temps, they do get thick and sludge like when cold. When you first start up your car they fluids are all in the pan and if you put the car in drive and hit the gas the fluid is not going to be where it needs that is why you hear cars "whining" when they pull away in the morning because the power steering fluid has not lubricated the pump enough and therefore has to work harder. The tranny fluid is all down in the pan and not lubricating the transmission and again when you put the car in gear it is putting the tranny under stress with no lubrication and that is causing unneccessary friction on the tranny parts.I can go on forever. The correct answer is to start it up and wait until you hear the engine quite down and see the RPM's drop that is a great guide to use to know if your car is warmed up enough. Remember the colder the temp and the longer it has sat there not started the longer you should let it warm up.,

Answer 4

Daddspan is nuts a car engine is not a glass its design to handle extreme conditions. Think logically here cars can handle Alaska cold and the desert heat. Your car needs very little warm up time it can warm up while you drive. Think about this if you have a tech in your car watch how high the RPM's are when you first start it it revs between 1000 to 2000 RPM the second you start it. Now watch it while you are driving and its no higher then that. So if your car sits and run for 1 minutes it has cycled over a thousand times in 1 minute that's a lot of turns so you don't need to sit and let your car warm up very long even if its cold out.

Answer 5

Newer cars do not require excessive idling. I would suggest 2-3 minutes max while you clean your windows and scrape the ice. Any more is just a waste of fuel and time, and will not have any impact on the engine life.
Ensure that if you are in below -10 degree celcius weather that you are using 5w30 oil.
If you are in -30 to -40 weather, I would also suggest you buy a block heater or plug it in if you have one already, as your oil and fuel could freeze.
I lived in a climate where winter was normally -30 and I performed this method every day (in winter) for 5 years with a 1986 VW jetta with no issues.

Answer 6

Ideally you let the car idle until it reaches operating temperature.
You should also be gentle on it for the first few minutes of driving to allow the transmission time to heat up as well.
Doing this lengthens the service life of all components as you're letting the metal parts expand to their optimum dimensions, as well as letting everything become lubricated, preventing premature wear.


Cold lubricant is very viscous, and doesn't flow or lubricate nearly as well as lubricant that's reached operating temperature.
Placing load on an engine that isn't warm leads to premature bearing wear and excessive carbon buildup.
30 seconds to a minute is NOT enough to warm an engine. It's barely enough to get full lubrication in the engine.

If you want your engine to last the life of your car, I recommend at LEAST 5 minutes (unless your temp gauge says its ready sooner). ..... Hope i am clear

Answer 7

I think i know what you mean you just had a strange way of saying it. You do not have to warm up your car before you drive unless its really cold like single digit temps. Even if its zero degrees it only needs a couple of minutes and you can drive it. But you should keep oil changed more regular if you have those types of condition.

Answer 8

ok , i say yes, the reason for this is ,the oil is cold an is laying in the pan,,,when starting a car, it take time for the oil to reach,all the part,that need oil,,, now if you not going to keep the car over a few year ,,it wont be you to do the repair on it,,,

Answer 9

no, drive it, don't romp on it until the temp is up though, warming the car up before driving off is a myth and wastes gas

Answer 10

becoz the car engine is cold