Let a car run before driving?

[SkaGoat]

I got curious. I remember seeing the option when I was pricing a Subaru, so I checked Subaru.ca. They're actually showing the block heater as an optional accessory, with a suggested price of $189.95, which appears to include installation.

http://www.subaru.ca/WebPage.aspx?WebSiteID=282&WebPageID=18614&Range=Impreza&ModelYear=2015

This one looks like it fits in the engine block's coolant drain hole and not a freeze plug. The cord is also partially foil insulated to protect it from the heat. The heating element is pretty tiny, and I'm wondering how hot it can really get.

I would have thought that if any manufacturer would have a block heater standard in Canada, it would be Subaru. They kind of market it as a vehicle for driving in cold/inclement weather. However, the likelihood is that it might be easier to prep the vehicles for sale to both the US and Canada, as vehicle standards are pretty similar. I wouldn't be surprised if dealers automatically install them as a dealer-installed option before delivery. I've seen cars in showrooms showing various dealer-installed options, like ground effects, racks, or aftermarket wheels.

Honda Civics are actually assembled in Canada for the domestic market. This one says a block heater is an optional accessory.

http://www.honda.ca/civic_sedan/parts-accessories

That heating element is really small.

Here's a photo of where the capped plug is located in my 2011 Nissan Juke

 

[cfriend416]

As you can tell, I'm not too concerned with whether you believe it is necessary or not.

Again, good for you. But the OP was asking about if it's necessary for the sake of the engine, which it is not. There's no "belief" about it. Just because you and others do it for comfort does not make it necessary.

 

[maxiesmom]

Again, good for you. But the OP was asking about if it's necessary for the sake of the engine, which it is not. There's no "belief" about it. Just because you and others do it for comfort does not make it necessary.

I think some of us disagree with you, and do think it is necessary. At least, after a bunch of cars in the area breaking down, that is what we are being told to do.

 

[JanaDee]

Again, good for you. But the OP was asking about if it's necessary for the sake of the engine, which it is not. There's no "belief" about it. Just because you and others do it for comfort does not make it necessary.

Just curious where you live? Because where I live, it is a necessity to let the car run for a couple mins before driving away. Getting a stone cold car up to highway speed immediately after starting isn't a good idea.

 

[nugov2]

Make sure you check your local ordinances. Where I live, puffing (leaving a car running unattended to warm it up) is illegal and cops do ticket.

I had no idea that such laws existed. Can they come on to private property and ticket? I always open my garage a little and run my car so the seat warmers run and the heat is blowing hot before I get in.

 

[pat fan]

My Cherokee came with heated seats/steering wheel that come on automatically if it's below 40º, and while I thought it was ridiculous, now I'm loving it! I can't believe I've lived in N.E. all my life and never had heated seats! It also has a remote start...love love love!!! And yes, I pre-heat my Jeep, and have always pre-heated my vehicles regardless of what they were. I'm a cold person and getting in a cold car is miserable and it runs better once it's warmed up.

If you don't want to pre-heat your car, great. But don't tsk tsk at those of us who do. Live and let live people!

It is against the law here for busses to "warm up" but I don't believe there is any law regarding personal vehicles. Shocker. Mass is a crazy state, let's not give them any ideas!

 

[tvguy]

I had no idea that such laws existed. Can they come on to private property and ticket? I always open my garage a little and run my car so the seat warmers run and the heat is blowing hot before I get in.

The laws do exit. $200 fine in Minneapolis. Often the issue is pollution, but an awful lot of idling cars get stolen. And the cops are probably tired of looking for cars that the owners basically handed over to thieves
http://www.carinsurance.com/Articles/idling-car-tickets.aspx

 

[tvguy]

Just curious where you live? Because where I live, it is a necessity to let the car run for a couple mins before driving away. Getting a stone cold car up to highway speed immediately after starting isn't a good idea.

Look at your owners manual. I haven't seen one myself in about 30 years.....when fuel injection became standard.... that recommended warming a car up.

 

[bcla]

Look at your owners manual. I haven't seen one myself in about 30 years.....when fuel injection became standard.... that recommended warming a car up.

It's not a great idea to rev up or put a car under heavy load until it's reasonably warmed up, but just driving off is never an issue with a modern car.

As for idling, I don't do it much, but occasionally I'll use a separate key and then lock the door. I keep another key in my pocket. I suppose someone might break a window, but usually window breakers don't intend on driving away with a car since it's kind of messy. Most window breakers do snatch and grabs and then it's more important what can be seen rather than the car itself.

 

[tvguy]

It's not a great idea to rev up or put a car under heavy load until it's reasonably warmed up, but just driving off is never an issue with a modern car.

As for idling, I don't do it much, but occasionally I'll use a separate key and then lock the door. I keep another key in my pocket. I suppose someone might break a window, but usually window breakers don't intend on driving away with a car since it's kind of messy. Most window breakers do snatch and grabs and then it's more important what can be seen rather than the car itself.

If they are a pro they will have a master key to open the door lock. The advent of chipped keys has made those master keys useless on the ignition, but if you have left a chipped key in the ignition and running, they just use the master key to open the door and drive off. We did a story on the master keys, cops here confiscate about one of them a day now.

 

[bcla]

If they are a pro they will have a master key to open the door lock. The advent of chipped keys has made those master keys useless on the ignition, but if you have left a chipped key in the ignition and running, they just use the master key to open the door and drive off. We did a story on the master keys, cops here confiscate about one of them a day now.

Mine is a dumb key. I generally don't worry too much about my car being stolen these days. It's kind of old and doesn't really have desirable parts at this point. Very few thieves actually want an entire car. They're typically looking for parts or perhaps looking for a vehicle to use in a theft and then ditch. I had a car stolen once, and it was abandoned the next day with parts (and some stuff in the car) missing. Mostly they wanted the alloy wheels and the seats.

My wife has an older Civic. It's still in good shape, but the time I tried to duplicate the key it wouldn't start it. I could also open the trunk with the duplicate key, but the alarm would go off. For a long time we only had one key that worked, and she preferred that I drove even if it was her car. So I would occasionally pocket her key, forget to give it back to her, and then take my car to work only to get a panicked call that she had no key. Eventually she found the other factory key and now everyone is happy. I think a new key from the dealer would have been more than $100, although I've heard anywhere from $30 to $150 depending on what the dealer felt like charging for the labor to program a new key to the immobilizer. The aftermarket duplicate keys would typically "clone" the RFID inside the key.

I suppose they work. Civics used to be among the top 10 stolen cars, but not any models since the change to these RFID keys.

 

[mommasita]

It's hard to buy a car in Canada without a block heater, they are on almost all of them, sometimes the cable, and plug for them are wrapped, and tied up somewhere in the engine bay for storage, but 9 times out of 10 a vehicle purchased in Canada, will have the block heater. I have never special ordered it, and have had it in every vehicle I've owned, and that's been at least 5 or 6 difference manufacturers. In fact, I'd bet you'd have to special order a block heater delete option to get not get one.

Again, I have never known a soul (except for my uncle in the 70's) o have one.. I have bought a few cars now.. I will ask around though.


or option 3, which is better for the environment and your pocket book, you grab your ice scraper, and scrape the ice off the wind shield yourself.

To be 100% honest with you, before I got sick it was much easier for me, now I couldn't if I wanted to.. I have EDS< I tear a rotator cuff in my sleep turning around.. Some is luxury, I will readily admit, some is needed, like my handicap card. .I have zero shame in admitting it at 45.
TVGuy, I wouldn't trust running an electric heater in my car un-supervised, and can honestly say I've never seen anything like it in Mid-Western, and South-Western Ontario. I've also never seen the mirror mittens, but I have seen the other tricks. Both my vehicles have heated mirrors, and I just use the ice scraper for all the other surfaces. I don't use the block heater in either of my vehicles, simply because before last winter, we didn't have enough super cold days a year to go through the bother of hooking it up.

 

[tvguy]

Mine is a dumb key. I generally don't worry too much about my car being stolen these days. It's kind of old and doesn't really have desirable parts at this point. Very few thieves actually want an entire car. They're typically looking for parts or perhaps looking for a vehicle to use in a theft and then ditch. I had a car stolen once, and it was abandoned the next day with parts (and some stuff in the car) missing. Mostly they wanted the alloy wheels and the seats.

My wife has an older Civic. It's still in good shape, but the time I tried to duplicate the key it wouldn't start it. I could also open the trunk with the duplicate key, but the alarm would go off. For a long time we only had one key that worked, and she preferred that I drove even if it was her car. So I would occasionally pocket her key, forget to give it back to her, and then take my car to work only to get a panicked call that she had no key. Eventually she found the other factory key and now everyone is happy. I think a new key from the dealer would have been more than $100, although I've heard anywhere from $30 to $150 depending on what the dealer felt like charging for the labor to program a new key to the immobilizer. The aftermarket duplicate keys would typically "clone" the RFID inside the key.

I suppose they work. Civics used to be among the top 10 stolen cars, but not any models since the change to these RFID keys.

RFID keys have helped a lot, I have seen that thefts are down 70%. . But crooks are smart. A guy with a laptop can be parked near you at the mall, and with the right software grab the key code as you exit your car and your car is gone when you return.

 

[maxiesmom]

Look at your owners manual. I haven't seen one myself in about 30 years.....when fuel injection became standard.... that recommended warming a car up.

I don't think they assume you will be driving your car when it is -20 either. I know when we went way into the negative temperatures a couple of weeks ago, they had mechanics on the news telling people to warm up their cars a bit before driving.

 

[JanaDee]

Look at your owners manual. I haven't seen one myself in about 30 years.....when fuel injection became standard.... that recommended warming a car up.

I'll ask you the same thing I did cfriend - how often do you drive a vehicle when it is single digits for weeks at a time?

 

[Disneylover99]

Just curious where you live? Because where I live, it is a necessity to let the car run for a couple mins before driving away. Getting a stone cold car up to highway speed immediately after starting isn't a good idea.

Simply driving the car will sufficiently warm it up for highway speeds. No need to let the car run, unless you live 5-10 seconds from the highway on ramp.

 

[Laura66]

It's not illegal - that I know of - to warm up your car here. Mine is in the garage and I warm it up. Especially if I'm driving the kids. Heck the newscasters are telling folks to do so!
I'm not comfortable driving in -10 to -20+ temps!
Need or not - I'm doing it!

 

[Mizzoufan]

A little off topic, I just saw on Dateline or 20/20 or something like that. There has been a major increase in cars being stolen, while they are being warmed up. It was a wake up call to see the report. I always go warm up my car and go back in and get kids ready to go out.

 

[cfriend416]

Just curious where you live? Because where I live, it is a necessity to let the car run for a couple mins before driving away. Getting a stone cold car up to highway speed immediately after starting isn't a good idea.

I live in northern New England. We have been "enjoying" temps as low as -20 F lately. I'm an early morning commuter, so it's typical for the temperature to be in the single digits when I leave in the morning. However, where I live or where you live or where anyone lives does not change the fact that idling a modern car for minutes or more is not necessary. You can believe it all you want, but it's simply not true.

I wonder if you even checked out the article I referenced in my post your first quoted? Not that you should take everything you read on the internet as fact, but this is not simply a baseless opinion I'm spouting.

 

[bcla]

I live in northern New England. We have been "enjoying" temps as low as -20 F lately. I'm an early morning commuter, so it's typical for the temperature to be in the single digits when I leave in the morning. However, where I live or where you live or where anyone lives does not change the fact that idling a modern car for minutes or more is not necessary. You can believe it all you want, but it's simply not true.

I wonder if you even checked out the article I referenced in my post your first quoted? Not that you should take everything you read on the internet as fact, but this is not simply a baseless opinion I'm spouting.

It's not strictly necessary for the longevity of the engine, but mostly people want heat. I don't think that a couple minutes really matters for the longevity of the engine either way, as long as one is doing easy driving until it reaches full operating temps.

Mostly it's drivers trading heat for fuel.