Tips for Starting Your Car on a Cold Morning

One of these frozen mornings I'm going to wake up to va-rrooom, va-rroom, va-BANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLUNK-dinga-linga-ling. "YOU STUPID @#%&! CAR!" Followed by a couple swift kicks to the side of a car. And it won't even be the car's fault.

I don't know who has taught most people how to start cars on a cold morning, but they weren't taught by someone with any car sense. Cold oil has an adverse dislike to speed. It likes to linger in the oil pan just like people like to linger in bed on a cold morning. And motor parts don't like rubbing together without lubrication. Oil slowed by cold doesn't make it to the moving parts as fast as warm oil. Yet, people have a need to make those moving parts work their metals off. And, yes, synthetic oils are getting better, but even they still like to be somewhat lazy on cold mornings.

Maybe people start their cars this way because they get a thrill out of listening to a revving motor. Maybe it's the only time a person gets to act like A. J. Foyt. Or maybe it's like the cartoon I saw when I was in grade school. A cartoon to teach children how not to drive when they grow up.

Goofy walks down the sidewalk careful not to step on even a flea, but once he gets behind the wheel, he turns into a deranged maniac. He fires the car up, revs it to the max four or five times and peels out, not giving the slightest thought of whom or what might be in his way. And without giving the car a chance to warm up.

"Well, my car won't idle when it's cold," you complain.

Then take it to the shop and have the choke adjusted and/or a tune up.

"That costs money."

Not half as much as buying a new car or engine or even rebuilding the engine.

If you're always in too big of a hurry to let the engine idle awhile, there is no need to. Matter of fact, letting a gas engine idle too long is almost as bad as revving the carbon monoxide out of it on a cold morning. Idling a gas engine lets gas deposits seep past the rings down the cylinder walls into the oil. An idling engine doesn't burn gas as well as a working engine.

Now you're saying, "So, Mr. Car Smarts, what am I supposed to do on a wintry morning?"

The answer is start your car and let it idle while you scrape the windows then slowly drive away. Don't go over thirty-five miles-per-hour for at least ten blocks (about a mile). This will warm up your engine faster than seeing how much petrol you can shove through a cold motor without blowing it up.

Now if you're talking diesel, you're talking a different story. No, you still can't play A. J. Foyt and rev the pistons out of it on a cold morning. But a diesel can idle without doing the harm to the engine a gas motor does. But think about your neighbors. I had a neighbor a few years back that fired up his diesel pickup at about five o'clock every morning and let it idle one to two hours next to my bedroom window. That knocking engine didn't help my sleeping any. Nor my temper. Especially on weekend mornings when I didn't have to crawl out of bed that early.

So be nice to your car and be nice to your neighbors. Don't rev the car up in the morning, nor let it idle too long. Both car and neighbor will respect you all the more in the morning.