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My dad always told me not to let an engine idle more than a couple of minutes when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, that it would damage the engine. Was that true then and is it still true for late model cars to let an engine idle beyond a few minutes?
Who ever told you that? Its not nor has ever been true. What it does is waste gas.
How old are you guys?
Have you ever owed a '60 Chebby, a '67 GTO you drove to the shore in or a '59 Fiat you drove in Philly, perhaps ??
This was very true of any car built before the 90's for a number of different reasons. Very true . . .
I have a 2002 car that I still turn off at long lights.
How old are you guys?
Have you ever owed a '60 Chebby, a '67 GTO you drove to the shore in or a '59 Fiat you drove in Philly, perhaps ??
This was very true of any car built before the 90's for a number of different reasons. Very true . . .
I have a 2002 car that I still turn off at long lights.
You are very wrong. How could idling possible harm the engine? Where did you get the idea it does?
Turn it off at lights? You are doing more damage stopping and starting and using more gas than idling ever would.
Idling doesn't cause any more damage than running the engine at any other speed. It doesn't have anything to do with age of the car. There's nothing that was true 40 years ago about idling that is not true now, or vice-versa.
Any amount of running the engine causes wear, but idling wears less than running at high speed or lugging up a hill or anything else that is putting more strain on the components.
So there's no inherent damage that is done by idling an engine. But, if you don't need to be idling it then you should turn it off to save gas and perhaps a little wear.
Keep in mind that startup is another wear point so a few minutes of idling could be better than another startup cycle from a wear perspective. But if you look around at hybrid cars and even a few non-hybrids, they have incorporated automatic engine stop/start for fuel economy reasons, so it takes even less idling to start wasting gas apparently.
I guess all those hundreds of thousands of taxis, Police cars, UPS trucks, and USPS vehicles are all suffering from "damaged engines " as they run for hours at a time.
What sillyness. Provided that the engine has a full crankcase of oil, and proper coolant levels, it can run for many hours, at idle, and be "just fine ".
I put over 500 THOUSAND miles on a Ford one ton cargo van, with a 351 windsor V8 engine, that I ran all over Canada and the USA, as a expedite freight owner/operator. I slept in it, many a night at minus 20 celsius, and it idled along , to keep the heater running. No problem. I changed the oil at 10k kilometres, as my job required at least 20 k of driving, per month. It was typical for me to pick up a load in Toronto, and head off to Texas, to deliver.
To answer the OP's question, as others have said, no, it's not true, then or now.
That myth perpetuated in the early 70's as cars started being outfitted with catalytic converters. It is true that if you idle an engine for long periods without getting the engine rpm up, the condensation in the exhaust would pool in the converter and if you didn't blow it out, it would rust out the cats prematurely. That's more or less true today as well, but modern cats are much more efficient and resilient to it. It's still the main reason why you should always bring an engine up to operating temperature and drive it for a bit, rather than starting it and shutting it off before everything has warmed up.
Will idling for a few minutes to a hr or more hurt a gas engine.
probably not, depends on how long, some will develop carbon deposits. Our(gas & diesel) plow trucks idle all the time.
BUT
A diesel can run into problems with extended idling.
(Mostly in the winter) the cylinder temps can fall resulting in unburned fuel and cylinder wash. The fuel will wash the oil from the cylinders walls and pass by the rings diluting the oil with fuel.
The new diesels,(07 and newer) have a dpf system that will clog with soot and result in a de-rated engine power if they are idled to long and a clogged DPF will result.
"I guess all those hundreds of thousands of taxis, Police cars, UPS trucks, and USPS vehicles are all suffering from "damaged engines " as they run for hours at a time."
many do suffer from this, it's oil dilution and it will shorten the life of an engine.
idling is a concern for every fleet manager.
We over the look any damage to emergency vehicles as we want them to be ready to respond and they need to keep the battery charged up to run all of their electronics.
and the ups truck only idles for a minute or two while a delivery is made.
ps if your going to do any idling for an extended time, set the throttle so the rpm's are over 1k this will help to keep up the cylinder temps
Last edited by SOON2BNSURPRISE; 01-23-2013 at 10:09 AM..
One thing idling can do on older carbureted engines is foul spark plugs. It is a bigger problem with 2 stroke engines like on older jetskis. The richer fuel mixture of these engines with the colder spark plug temperature at idle can cause fouled plugs.
But is isn't damage.
Modern EFI engines don't have this problem.
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