Remember the days when dad would warm up the car while he brushed snow and scraped ice from the windows? He would call it “warming up the car” and when you began driving he cautioned it was better to let the engine run a few minutes. He would add the idling would avoid unspecified engine damage. 
While warming up the vehicle may have made scraping snow and ice easier, idling is now considered an unnecessary practice. The efficiency of the modern fuel injection system eliminated the need for carburetors, chokes and warming up the car. The only reason to leave a car to idle is to get the oil circulating; this takes a mere 30 seconds. Coincidentally this is also the amount of time it might take to clear your car of snow and ice.
Engine Idling Tips & Myths
- The Environmental Defense Fund’s the Idling Gets You Nowhere campaign advises drivers to turn off their cars if stopped more than 10 seconds. After 10 seconds more money is wasted running the engine than stopping and restarting it.
- Did you know driving the vehicle warms it faster than letting it idle? It is true. It is also true that drivers enjoy a warm car but idling doesn’t do anything to preserve the vehicle’s engine. The new Nissan Leaf electric car will have a feature that allows the owner to use his or her cell phone to tell the car to pre-warm or pre-cool the interior, without having it idle.
- Idling puts the pinch on your wallet. Idling a vehicle for five minutes a day every day for a year will waste up to 20 gallons of gasoline. At $3 per gallon that’s an annual waste of $60; at the estimated future price of $5 per gallon is an annual waste of $100. Ouch!
- Running the car in the driveway causes the engine to operate in an inefficient manner that can degrade your engine’s performance, reducing its mileage and causing carbon residue to build up inside the engine.
- Idling in the garage is toxic even with the door open. An idling car releases dangerous carbon monoxide and other noxious gases.
Idling may even be against local ordinances enacted by local communities while remote starters make it easier than ever to “warm up” a vehicle. Keep in mind the cost of warming up the vehicle and the benefit that driving will warm the engine faster than idling.
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