Shouty says that idling is stupid. Now I want to! :D

[Xist]

He talked about this video where a mechanic looked at a 5-year-old tow truck with 27,000 miles, but it never left an auction lot, it didn't have much power, and it was badly leaking oil.

The oil sludged, damaged the engine, and ruined the turbocharger:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4dp8izGO7tQ

Okay, but how bad would it be for a car with 12,000 city miles a year an hour of idling daily?

[oil pan 4]

That sounds like extreme idling

[Isaac Zachary]

I think this is why owner's manuals usually state that the oil should be changed 1) more often if the car idles a lot (e.g. usually every 3,000mi/3mo to 5,000/6mo but older cars could be more) and 2) the oil should be changed at a monthly interval even if it doesn't reach the mileage interval (e.g. every 3 months or 6 months, depending on the manufacturer's recommendations, even if you only drove 1,000 miles or less during that time).

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Maybe this could be a good point to convince my mother and grandparents to avoid idling.

[Isaac Zachary]

For some reason a lot of people believe that idling is somehow good for the engine.

In my 1972 Super Beetle owner's manual I had it specifically said to not idle as much as possible. Idling doesn't do anything good.

Unless you live in the cold and want your interior of your vehicle warmed up for you. Back in the old days of carburetors the engine would also be less responsive and more likely to die when cold.

But in warmer climates, especially with fuel injection, idling is like buying gasoline but putting it into your oil and filling your engine with carbon deposits at the same time.

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

For some reason a lot of people believe that idling is somehow good for the engine.

In my 1972 Super Beetle owner's manual I had it specifically said to not idle as much as possible

Probably the same people that think you need to fully warm the oil before putting a load.on the engine.

If you ever checked the dash heater, it wouldn't even defrost while idling in a 72 super, or at least mine didn't. So it isn't doing much cooling

[JSH]

Yes, excessive idling is bad for engines. This is one of the reasons automakers are adding yearly oil changes to the service schedule as a minimum.

Idling is also really bad for diesel particulate filters.

[Xist]

The mechanic in the video said that it was also "Whitesmoking" and kept saying the oil looked like pancake syrup, but that would be the non-sludge parts of the oil.

He pinned a comment saying

If you have a vehicle that idles a lot like this there are multiple things that could go wrong such as your DPF system could fail and that's $5,000 minimum and a waiting list to even get the entire exhaust treatment system.

Also:

If you know your vehicle is going to be idling a lot and you're not getting it on the road you can't do this 15000 mile standard diesel oil change it doesn't work you need to start doing your oil changes by about 7,500 miles and you should periodically run some kind of motor flush through the system and it would be nice once or twice a week to get the vehicle out on the road and running at highway speeds so the aftertreatment system can actually do its job.

An RJ Cormac responded:

Ford released a guide to help owners that let's stupid kids drive.
https://www.powerstrokediesel.com/do..._Intervals.pdf
"One hour of idle time, is equal to ~25 miles of driving. If a Power Stroke vehicle averages 6 hours of idle time per day, its maintenance schedule would look different based on engine hours instead of just the miles driven, the oil change interval would be ~30 day cycle."

25 equivalent miles per hour x 6 hours per day x 20 days = 3,000 equivalent miles per month--unless the auction lot runs 7 days a week, then 4,200 miles.

Remember the girlfriend who drove my Subaru?

I still wish that everything went differently. Anyway, one time we were visiting her grandparents and someone left their truck idling in the street. This was the Phoenix area, so they were probably keeping their air conditioning going, but I see people idling up here when the weather seems nice.

That girlfriend later told me that the car was old, so it needed to idle to warm up before she drove it. Of course, she may have been idling it to warm up the car during our infamous Arizonan winters (called spring or fall everywhere else).

Someone commented that idling isn't good for anything, you just drive gently until it is warmed up.

I understand wanting your car to be comfortable before you get in, but I have always been a huge advocate of insulated garages. In Phoenix it would help keep your paint from fading and here it would keep the snow and ice off.

[Isaac Zachary]

I live in one of the coolest towns in Colorado, don't have a garage, and I rarely idle to warm the engine, even if it's -40⁰F (-40⁰C). The only reasons are, 1) if I or someone in the family is sick (it's just more miserable to be in the cold when you're sick.) Or 2) if it's obvious that the windows will need more than scraping to stay clean (last thing you want is to drive blind down the highway.)

I really, really want to get a 1,500W circulating block heater again and install it in my Avalon. I've used these on other cars. My 1972 Super Beetle even had a block heater I installed, albeit only 150W.

With a 1,500W block heater on a small engine it's possible to warm it up to 165⁰F (75⁰C) without idling in just a couple hours.

I will mention something I've noticed on the Avalon. Maybe the Prius dies this too but I haven't driven it enough to really pay attention not have the gauges to properly check. And that is that the vehicle will on purposely "baby" the engine when first started, using the electric drive train a lot more until the engine has warmed up for a couple minutes. I assume it has something to do with getting better emissions, mainly.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Babying the engine in order to allow enough oil pressure to build-up, preventing damage to the valvetrain.