Why You Don’t Have To “Warm Up” Modern Vehicles in Cold Weather

Remember how your parents used to warm up the car every morning during winter when you were a kid?

You don’t need to do that anymore – modern cars don’t need to be warmed up in cold weather. Outside of the practical purpose of warming the car up to get the heat working for your personal comfort, there is no longer any benefit to the engine of the vehicle in doing.

The idea that you should let your car idle in the cold is true only for cars that still use the older carbureted engines. New cars don’t require you to do that.

In fact, any car that was manufactured in the 2000s can drive in the coldest temperatures without requiring any excessive idling. Yes, there was a time when cars needed to be idled in the winter, and if you have an older classic car, you would likely still need to do so should you wish to drive it in very cold temperatures. Cars like this aren’t made anymore, though.

These days, almost all cars are equipped with fuel injection technology. The engines are controlled by complex computer systems and a lot of their working is automated. Also, the engine oils are much improved – they consist of thin synthetic oils. So you don’t need to warm up your car before taking it out to work.

Warming up the car is not only unnecessary, it is a waste of fuel and you lose money every time you do it. What’s more – it’s bad for the environment.

Don’t take our word for it, listen to what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says: “When a car idles for more than 30 seconds, it has several negative effects, such as increasing air pollution unnecessarily, wasting fuel and money, and causing excessive wear or even damaging a car’s engine components, including cylinders, spark plugs and the exhaust system. Contrary to popular belief, idling isn’t an effective way to warm up most car engines.”

Sure, if you want to warm up the interior of the car or defrost the windshield, then idling the car is okay, but try to keep it to a minimum.

What’s the effect of “warming up” the car on the engine?

Warming up the car does not prolong the life of the engine – it does the opposite of that. All it does is to strip the oil away from the engine’s pistons and cylinders. Also, it puts unnecessary strain on the engine and affects its performance.

You certainly don’t need to do that for a modern car. Modern cars use fuel-injection technology. So engines have sensors that are activated in cold temperature and pump in more gasoline into the mixture. This keeps the temperature of the engine up, even in cold weather.

You certainly don’t need to warm up the car before driving. That doesn’t really help in anyway, and only makes things worse. That was a common practice when most cars had carbureted engines.

New cars don’t need any warming up. Just start the car, give the engines a couple of seconds to build oil pressure drive normally. What’s important is to get the car serviced regularly at a garage shop in Arizona, get the oil changed on time and keep it in a good condition!