Do what i,ve been doing , cars on the drive so i,ve run an exstension into the car , folded the back seat down and put a 2Kw blow heater in the back pointing forwards , when i get up and about half an hour before leaving i plug the extension cable in which is already run into the house , it warms up inside nicely and melts all the ice of your windows and demists them as well , far better than freezing ya nads off scraping ice at 7 in the morning :thumbup::thumbup:

Good tip.....

 

......but all i do is fill a large saucepan with water from the hot tap (NOT boiling for obvoius reasons:w00t:); pour it over all the windows, start the engine and away!

 

a/c and heated rear window/mirrors on.....

 

No frosted or steamed windows; no leaving the car idling unnecessarily and just drive away in under 1 minute. With no cold hands either......

 

Not in the Z though - it's safely hidden away in the garage during the snow & ice:lol:

 

Richard:cool2:

I`ve seen on cars abroad they have something not sure what but looks like an electric cable hanging out the front of the car which is plugged into the mains , these werent electric cars so I`m guessing its some sort of heater .Anyone seen them or know what they are.

I`ve seen on cars abroad they have something not sure what but looks like an electric cable hanging out the front of the car which is plugged into the mains , these werent electric cars so I`m guessing its some sort of heater .Anyone seen them or know what they are.

 

Yea - its an electric heating element & pump that warms up & circulates the coolant while you eat your brekkie!! :thumbup1:

some bmw's have that its called 'auxilery' heater or something.

Yea - its an electric heating element & pump that warms up & circulates the coolant while you eat your brekkie!! :thumbup1:

 

After seeing what you said it does I googled a bit and found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_heater

After seeing what you said it does I googled a bit and found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_heater

 

Thats it - probably a good mod to do for performance cars actually as most of the wear on the engine occours during the warm up phase! Could help prevent engine wear & keep your toes warm as soon as you get in your car LOL! :thumbup:

Group buy... lol

Blimey lads, whats wrong with the waiting for the engine to warm up a bit, and let the oil get round. get out of bed 10 minutes earlier I say.

Blimey lads, whats wrong with the waiting for the engine to warm up a bit, and let the oil get round. get out of bed 10 minutes earlier I say.

 

Thats actually even worse for an engine - leaving it to idle right from cold! :no:

Much better just to get in & start driving!

Thats actually even worse for an engine - leaving it to idle right from cold! :no:

Much better just to get in & start driving!

 

^^^^^ couldnt agree more.Does a car no good at all leaving it idling on cold start.

^^^^^ couldnt agree more.Does a car no good at all leaving it idling on cold start.

 

I've heard this mentioned a few times, now I'm no expert but how does it damage the engine compared to getting in and driving it? When I start the car from cold the revs stay around 1500 until the engine is warm surely that's better than driving off from cold and putting a lot of strain on a cold engine? Please can somebody tell me WHAT damage is caused by doing this as it's making me think that its an urban myth??

Sorry, this is a cut+paste answer from Jimmer on another thread....

 

Under cold start conditions fuelling is increased.As the car is only idling it cant burn the rich mixture fully so the bores get washed by fuel.Bore washing is when the oil on the bores which is whipped up by the crank gets washed away causing wear and glazing.This applies to all petrol vehicles turbo or non turbo.If you read any owners manual it will state the vehicle should be driven straight away and brought up to temperature gently.

 

Deffo NOT a myth, but of course some people do this for years without issues. I have a brand new round around car with 5yrs warranty so don't care - I let it warm up.

My 18yr 67000mile 300zx is not under warranty, costs more to fix & as my pride n joy car won't doing anything like this that might cause premature problems.

Oops! Can't edit my last post, must point out last part of post is NOT cut+paste quotation, but my opinion, forgot the quotation marks....

Sorry, this is a cut+paste answer from Jimmer on another thread....

 

Under cold start conditions fuelling is increased.As the car is only idling it cant burn the rich mixture fully so the bores get washed by fuel.Bore washing is when the oil on the bores which is whipped up by the crank gets washed away causing wear and glazing.This applies to all petrol vehicles turbo or non turbo.If you read any owners manual it will state the vehicle should be driven straight away and brought up to temperature gently.

 

Deffo NOT a myth, but of course some people do this for years without issues. I have a brand new round around car with 5yrs warranty so don't care - I let it warm up.

My 18yr 67000mile 300zx is not under warranty, costs more to fix & as my pride n joy car won't doing anything like this that might cause premature problems.

 

 

So what boldy first wrote on this thread is probably the best option then!! the car is nice and warm inside and you arnt damaging the engine by idleing for a long period, exellent :santa:

Sorry, this is a cut+paste answer from Jimmer on another thread....

 

Under cold start conditions fuelling is increased.As the car is only idling it cant burn the rich mixture fully so the bores get washed by fuel.Bore washing is when the oil on the bores which is whipped up by the crank gets washed away causing wear and glazing.This applies to all petrol vehicles turbo or non turbo.If you read any owners manual it will state the vehicle should be driven straight away and brought up to temperature gently.

 

Deffo NOT a myth, but of course some people do this for years without issues. I have a brand new round around car with 5yrs warranty so don't care - I let it warm up.

My 18yr 67000mile 300zx is not under warranty, costs more to fix & as my pride n joy car won't doing anything like this that might cause premature problems.

 

Cheers, that helps me a bit. However, and I'm probably showing my ignorance of engines here, surely the revs being twice as high when you start from cold i.e. 1500 instead of 750 helps burn off the extra fuel :confused1:

Is this the same for diesels? Also what if you gently rev the car?

rpm doesn't matter...extra fuel is added under all conditions (aka. choke)

 

 

and it's not just the extra fuel that causes damage...

 

what do you think the white smoke from the exhaust is when the engine is idling ?

 

...it's basically water (vapor).

 

Especially when the engine is still cold, water vapor will condense on the cylinder walls and be picked up by the oil...

water and oil don't mix very well and it will contaminate oil and may damage engine components.

 

This condensation happens mostly under idling conditions, because combustion temperatures and exhaust-gas velocity are relatively low.

 

it has been tested/proved several times that an engine (especially larger engines with over 2000cc) will warm up over twice as fast when driving it, instead of leaving it idling.

I've heard this mentioned a few times, now I'm no expert but how does it damage the engine compared to getting in and driving it? When I start the car from cold the revs stay around 1500 until the engine is warm surely that's better than driving off from cold and putting a lot of strain on a cold engine? Please can somebody tell me WHAT damage is caused by doing this as it's making me think that its an urban myth??

 

Certainly not a myth.........:flowers:

 

Thats actually even worse for an engine - leaving it to idle right from cold! :no:

Much better just to get in & start driving!

 

^^^^^ couldnt agree more.Does a car no good at all leaving it idling on cold start.

 

.....especially when 2 highly respected mechanics on the forum say the same thing.....!

 

Richard:cool2:

Certainly not a myth.........:flowers:

 

.....especially when 2 highly respected mechanics on the forum say the same thing.....!

 

 

Gorden Ramsey and Ric Stein plus many other top chefs say that you should throw away any oysters that don't open when you've cooked them, this is taken as fact by just about everyone. However according to QI this is not true and indeed closed oysters are fine. It's the ones that are open before you cook them that should be chucked. This "Myth" started when a cook wrote a book about seafood years ago. Chefs have since taken this as gospel and it has become fact..

 

The moral of this story is "just because something is repeated often enough, don't make it true" :sailor:

 

 

Anyway, think I've got this sorted in my head now! Thanks for the explanations folks :thumbup1:. I don't doubt that Jimmer and co know what they are talking about, just wanted it explained rather than the usual "Don't do that you'll knacker the engine" quote. Starting from cold and warming the car isn't an issue in my zed as I don't drive it in the winter. But I think this thread will have helped a lot of people understand the issue of cold starting (including me) :thumbup:

Sorry, this is a cut+paste answer from Jimmer on another thread....

 

Under cold start conditions fuelling is increased.As the car is only idling it cant burn the rich mixture fully so the bores get washed by fuel.Bore washing is when the oil on the bores which is whipped up by the crank gets washed away causing wear and glazing.This applies to all petrol vehicles turbo or non turbo.If you read any owners manual it will state the vehicle should be driven straight away and brought up to temperature gently.

 

 

I am not arguing that this is true - but assuming it is, does anyone know a way to reverse the effect bore washing? Jimmer - Help!!?