Is this for real?

[72scoutman]

I honestly can not even believe this was published! Warming your cars engine in the winter will strip oil away from vital components?!? WTF?

Yes, warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine

Letting your car idle when it’s cold outside can shorten the life of your engine.

www.verifythis.com

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[Tinman357]

Are they saying that the oil pump only works when the car is rolling?

 

[72scoutman]

Are they saying that the oil pump only works when the car is rolling?

That's certainly exactly what I gathered from it. Wonder how much it cost the "greenie" sponsors to get them to write this garbage. Apparently thermal expansion is no longer a factor with engines manufactured after 1980.....I read it on the internet.

 

[titsonritz]

 

[Tinman357]

Oil pumps are predominantly mechanical in nature. As soon as the engine moves to start, its pumping oil. The few electric oil pumps I've seen start pumping as soon as you turn the key.

If oil drained out of an idling engine, it would lock up most riki tik.

Verify this is just another "woke" pseudo journalistic outled that panders to whoever pays them.

Anything resembling integrity in media is long dead. I'm just hoping only leftists believed that garbage.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Uh. Huh. Did not know that engines would act differently if the car is stationary or not... as if transmissions don't exist

 

[Provincial]

I suppose that they could be confusing engines with towing an automatic transmission. Most automatic transmissions have a pump run by the input shaft. It provides pressure and lubricating oil whenever the engine is running. Towing most automatic transmissions results in the road wheels spinning the output shaft, which will have no circulating oil for lubrication.

I can see how someone with a Journalism degree could fail to understand oil circulation.

 

[Flopsweat]

I suppose that they could be confusing engines with towing an automatic transmission. Most automatic transmissions have a pump run by the input shaft. It provides pressure and lubricating oil whenever the engine is running. Towing most automatic transmissions results in the road wheels spinning the output shaft, which will have no circulating oil for lubrication.

I can see how someone with a Journalism degree could fail to understand oil circulation.

Or they could be just speaking from the unmentionable canal.

 

[clanhanson]

Modern gasoline engines need no more than a few minutes to get fluids circulated after startup, even in sub zero temps. Driving heats up an engine much more quickly than idling, and YES, it's better for the environment to idle only as much as required before taking off.

However, when it's -60 I like climbing into a warm car!

 

[Ruger Rich]

Or they could be just speaking from the unmentionable canal.

OK, I'll give you a funny on this one. Made me laugh

 

[WAW44]

Actually, it's not that far off. Yes, oil pump is working, but cold oil is still cold oil and it's thick, so it does not circulate as well as warm oil. Running the engine at idle, in freezing outside temps, does not really move all that much oil through the engine as running it at higher RPM.

Do I think it matters in the long term of things given todays engines, no, not really. So the theory is not false, just not as consequential as they make it to be.

 

[Provincial]

Cold oil is thicker, and doesn't like to establish the thin film necessary for proper lubrication of bearings. The faster you turn the shaft, the more you need that thin film flowing out. Turning the shaft too fast for the oil leads to spots without lubrication film, and metal-to-metal contact. You don't want that.

Multi-grade oil is supposed to address this, but isn't as good at it as the sales people like to claim. It is a little better than single-grade oil, but not as much as you might think.

Ideally, the idle speed should be increased as the oil temperature increases. This would heat the oil faster, and require less time to get up to temperature. Computer controls, with the proper sensors, would do this job quite well. It would make engines last longer, but is that what the manufacturers want?

 

[Flopsweat]

I remember when I used to run thinner oil in the winter.

 

[jackrv]

I remember when I used to run thinner oil in the winter.

I had a 77 Harley and the recommendation was 50w in the winter and 60w in the summer.

Now they recommend 20w50.

 

[Member 5605]

Wow.

I'll have to change the policy in the shop from now on. As soon as you start the car you better put it into gear asap and get it moving.