There has been a
dispute going on since decades, whether or not you should allow some idling
time for your car engine. While some people believe that this idling of car
engine will help in warming up the engine, others argues that it does nothing
good but sucks up all your fuel.
Experts have been working hard on this issue
to come out with a solution and establish this either as a solution or negate
it as a myth. However, till then the issue doesn’t get a proper attention so
that it can reach all the drivers across the world, the habit of letting their
vehicle get “warmed up” or enjoy some idle time before driving. What more, some
drivers even do not care about the environment and keeps the engine on even
when they are waiting for a long signal queue to get cleared, or when the car
has been pulled aside to have a small break from a long drive.
So, is it a good habit
to make the engine idle for some time before you head towards your destination?
Does it really help the engine in any way? Well, our questions and doubts were
finally answered by the experts we accidentally met at the Moreno
Valley Volkswagen service center during a routine checkup of our new
Volkswagen car.
What
we Learned
The experts explained
that today’s cars are built following the latest technologies that are readily
made to start driving all of a sudden even in extreme cold temperatures without
having the requirement to exercise excessive idling time.
They further explained
the fact that unless someone is trying to defrost the windshield of the car or
warm up the interior cabin to make it ready to welcome the occupants, in plain
language, idling is not necessary at all.
According to these
experts, in most cases, imposing an idling time more than 30 seconds longer is
unnecessary. On the contrary, they suggested that to warm up the car’s engine
the best way is to drive at a slow speed at the beginning. So, if you are
driving a car that is not older than three to four years, you need not idle the
engine for warming up the vehicle before a drive. They even warned us that a
vehicle gets down to score zero miles per gallon during the idling time and frequent
events like this will result is lower fuel economy that will do nothing but
wasting your money.
A
Look Back at the Theory
But why did this idea
of idling the engine came into existence at all, if nothing is benefitted from
it? Theexpert’s team who visited the VW dealership near Moreno Valley
explained, that this idea of idling the car engine before starting the drive
dates back to the time when cars were usually built with the help of
carburetors. That was a mechanism that used oils that thickened with the drop
of temperature, so it needed to get warmed up if you are starting your car
after few days in a cold night or at the wee hours of the day.
But with the new
fuel-injection technology, that involves complex computer systems to operate
the engine and thinner synthetic oils, the modern engines don’t need to be warmed
up before hitting the road.
