I live in central Canada, and temperatures reach as low as -30C. Just this week, it’ll be -20C overnight and I always park my car outside. From what people have told me I should idle for 10 minutes when it’s extremely cold, and then drive off. What should I really be doing?
There’s nothing wrong running the car for ten minutes when it is below 0°F. The engine and transmission will be warm, and so will you.
People here seem to think that running our vehicles 10 mins only in the morning at these temps is the same as a pipeliner running his truck all day and night to have a warm space to go to, or to keep the def tank warm. It’s not like we rack up 20k engine hours for every 200k miles this way. It’s barely noticeable on the hour meter when compared to the mileage. At -30c, I like to make sure everything is warmed up and circulated a bit.
Exactly this. While you can technically pull off after it idles down and drive with a light pedal so you’ll warm up + get warm inside, idling for like 15-20 mins during the winter once/twice a day really isn’t going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things.
I’ll be damned if I’m sitting in a cold car waiting for things to get comfortable when it’s -20 out. Not to mention dealing with windows fogging up with no heat coming out when driving. Fuck that, lol.
And I bet you also haven’t had issues doing it this way either. Vehicle is warm, hydraulics and components are warm, and most importantly you can see out your windows!