Do you warm up your car in below ZERO weather to make it comfortable when you get into it in the morning? (Grant: rental, insurance)

[warptman]

snopes.com: Static and Refueling Fires

[Teddy52]

Originally Posted by stockwiz

My car has started down to -28F. At that temperature, the power steering fluid cavitates to the extreme, the doors don't like to close properly and take some effort (probably something I could fix with a synthetic lubricant) and the transmission fluid is very thick (because the mechanic who changed it last time used cheap fluid, I could fix that by changing it to synthetic)

Other then that it starts and runs. I use mobil 1 0W30 oil. I just bundle up and wear a face mask, I don't like and have never really let my car idle. I've come to realize with proper clothing not even last night with the bitter wind chills are really any big deal. Good synthetic base layer, insulating layer, and outer windbreaker. Synthetic base layer gets used on feet, hands, as well as face, and the only exposed area is the eyes, which unfortunately fog up too readily with goggles.

I hope you aren't the guy who does not warm the car up, heads down the road at 20 mph with an exhaust of white smoke and one hand frantically trying to keep the wind shield clear of fog .

[phlinak]

Originally Posted by golfgal

We have a garage that is insulated, no need to warm it up. If I had to park on the street, I'd have a remote starter so the car would be warm when I got in on days like today.

^^This^^

Originally Posted by golfgal

Really, just how many times have you seen gas station explosions like this???

It can spark when you are outside of the car too....

Most people have an idea of how much gas their car takes and if it suddenly is taking more, I would think they would be smart enough to go look to see what happened. I can't ever remember the pump not shutting off as needed in my over 30 years of driving though...

We've been up in Northern MN when the air temp has been in the -45° range...you bet we keep the car running when we are filling it up or in the store. Nice to know that there are still places in the world where you can leave a car running and come back and it's still there.

^^And this, too^^

[601halfdozen0theother]

I do what the Car Talk guys said to do: Warm up the engine while the car is parked for no more than a couple of minutes, then drive slowly on residential streets until the engine is warm before hitting roads where speeds over 45 are required. Usually I use the time while the engine is warming up to run the defroster and scrape the windshield and windows. I've never had a block heater, and the ratty old van has always started just fine. Over on the cars forum someone explained that because MN is at a lower elevation, cars will start more easily in extreme cold here than in mountainous places like CO and WY which have lower oxygen levels.

And I couldn't care less about the interior T of the car when I get in it, as I'm bundled up anyway. It seems a very wussy thing to worry about. The car's interior will warm up eventually while you're driving, and then you have to struggle with removing layers while you're trying to drive.

I would never leave the engine running while re-fueling, that's just flat crazy. With all the smokers puffing away in and beside other cars and at the door of the gas stations??? OMG!!! I always stand by the car while I fill it. How long does it take, after all - a few minutes? Just dress for the weather.

But of course those of us who live in rural areas leave the car running while at the post office or grocery store, and etc.

[Annuvin]

After seeing a guy in high school blow a piston rod through the engine block of his car by revving it too high on a very cold day, I ALWAYS warm my vehicle up in the winter, expecially when you consider the extremely tight tolerances that go into the designs of modern engines.

I honestly would have thought this would be basic knowlegde when it comes to automobile ownership.

[blanker]

I don't. I dress for the weather outside so I'm pretty comfortable in a cold car. I'll let it idle for 20-30 seconds and try to take it easy for a mile or 2.

[StilltheSame]

Its parked in a unheated garage. Zero and over I dont run it for a bit before leaving - just a minute or 2. Minus 10 and colder - yes I do run it for about 5 minutes before heading into it and leaving.

[NaleyRocks]

Yes I always let my car warm until my window is defrosted. Usually takes ten minutes every morning.

[Radical_Car]

I always let my car warm up and let the windows defrost. And I never get in my car when I am pumping gas or leave the engine on, and just in December I had to commute from St Cloud to Maple Grove for work every day for a month (since come January I wouldn't of been able to transfer my job and I wasn't moving down to the cities until the beginning of January) and had to get gas every other day. Just dress for the weather and don't be a wuss.

[sholomar]

Originally Posted by Teddy52

I hope you aren't the guy who does not warm the car up, heads down the road at 20 mph with an exhaust of white smoke and one hand frantically trying to keep the wind shield clear of fog .

My commute home is only 2 miles on early morning (6AM) streets where I rarely even encounter traffic so not much visibility is needed. When leaving for work, the car is fine as it's garaged.

My place of employment does have LOTS of plugins for block heaters.. next car I get one will be installed. I suspect if I did get an auto-starter though I'd become a 'baby' like all these other people who have them and suddenly could not live without it and would spend all my time extolling their virtues. I'll wait for now.

Car is 14 years old with 150K miles... I can assure you extreme cold starts do not hurt cars with synthetic lubricants in them... if anything letting the cars overheat is worse for them, since that can cause gaskets to fail or worse. I have started the car right up at temps around zero and driven off 20 seconds later for years. 0W30 Mobil 1 and 5000-6000 mile oil changes FTW. I'm generally not an aggressive driver who 'floors it' to get up to speed... I do speed going 5-10 over and generally a hypermiler going 20mph to avoid stoplights. This behavior probably helps with car engine longevity.