Warming Your Car In Winter Can Burn A Hole In Your Pocket

Winter is a hard time for drivers and car owners. It wreaks havoc on your fuel mileage. Chances are you are an unwitting ally to hurting your gas mileage. The wrong idea about warming your car up might be burning a hole in your pocket.

Drivers are in the habit of warming their vehicle up in winter temperatures. Drivers seem to be under the mistaken idea that they need to warm up their car for it to operate properly. By warming up they mean idling the car for a considerable amount of time before driving. This misnomer is costing you money.

A great many car owners idle their car for anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to let their cars warm up in cold temperatures. The fact is,it takes no more than 30 seconds of idling to get oil circulating in the engine before you can drive away. Do not idle your car for more than 30 seconds. Anything beyond that is a complete waste.

When you idle your car to warm it up you are burning gas but not going anywhere. When you let that happen you are getting zero miles per gallon. You may think that idling your car for few minutes or so is no big deal, think again.

To get an idea about how much fuel you are burning by letting your car idle for 5 to 10 minutes when you start it consider this. Assume you idle on the short side, only 5 minutes when you start your car in the morning. Most likely you idle for 5 minutes again, when you start your car again to drive home.

Therefore your car is idling for a minimum of 10 minutes a day. For illustrative purposes we consider winter to be four months long, or 120 days long. If a car is idling for 10 minutes a day for 120 days then it is idling for 1200 minutes during the winter period.

1200 Minutes of idling is equal to 20 hours. That means that by warming your car up by idling for only 5 minutes amounts to letting your car sit and idle, burning gas and going nowhere, for 20 hours. Would you ever let you car sit and idle for 20 hours? Of course not. Then why would you idle for the equivalent of 20 hours warming your car up if you don't have to?

The best way to warm your car is by driving it. Most drivers don't realize that in order for your car to operate efficiently other parts in addition to the engine need to warm up. The tires, the transmission, the wheel bearings and other moving parts also need to warm up. The catalytic converter on your car doesn't function at its peak until it reaches between 400C and 800C. The only way to warm up the other parts of your car is by driving. The reality is your car needs to be driven to completely warm it up anyway.

To save gas and increase gas mileage in the winter one of the simplest things you can do is warm your car by driving it, not by idling. Not only will it save you gas and money but you will also be doing something positive for the environment. That warm car will stop burning a hole in your pocket.

Article Source: http://www.search4allinfo.com

Scott Siegel is the author of a 143 page book of automotive industry insider secrets on saving gas and dollars at the pump (beatthegaspump.com). Visit us to discover how you can get better gas mileage. Find out how to improve gas mileage. Get your own completely unique content version of this article.

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