Idling your Car to Warm it up - The facts!
It’s winter time and see you a lot of cars running all the time in their drive ways. People are warming up their cars, and most of them will tell you that it’s good for the car. The fact of the matter is that it has no good results. 10 seconds is all the car needs, the rest of the time is selfish and very bad for your car and the environment.
When a car is idling it runs pretty rich, and that’s why you can usually smell gasoline. Excessive idling will decrease your engines performance over time and it wastes fuel.
Getting in your cold car and driving it will warm it up much faster than it sitting in your driveway. Not only that, but you will do your neighbour a huge favour from forcing those fumes on them. Environmental impact is huge as well. It wouldn’t be illegal if it wasn’t. Oh you didn’t know that it was illegal, well face it Londoners, it’s against the law to idle for more than 2 minutes, and when 10 seconds is all that you need, they’re being quite generous. Too bad they aren’t that generous on other things, like speeding :)
If you really want to have a nice and toasty car in the morning as soon as as possible consider investing in a block heater. It is probably the single most effective investment that you can put in your car. Not only will it get your car warm very fast in the winter, but your car will never have to start up cold. That’s right, unlike remote starters that still have to start the car up when it’s basically frozen, a block heater keeps your engine block and oil slightly warm. Your car won’t know it’s winter and it will always have a nice warm start - translating to a long lasting motor and components, just like the southern cars get.
A block heater works on a timer and you set it for a couple of hours before you have to start it up. A small element heats the engine block and gets the oil and block nice and warm for you. So that when you get it in, you will have your heat on in no time.
We are looking forward to meeting some of our readers at our shop. Please stop in and meet the team at Top Gear and mention our blog. We always love to hear from our readers. If you haven’t changed your oil or checked your fluids or swapped your tires yet, it’s not too late. Remember winter just started 3 weeks ago. We still have over 2 months of it left :( So come on in to Top Gear and we will look after you and your car. That’s what makes us an excellent alternative to your dealer. We treat you right, and save you money!