Mileage Tips: Engine Start-up & Warm-up
Created May 10, 2006, at 10:02 am by Anonymous
In the Mileage section of this site, you advise drivers not to allow their car time to warm before driving. I disagree.
First, this wears heavily on an engine, lowering its overall efficiency and the efficiency of parts related to it (including pollution controls). Next, most computers enrich the fuel/air mixture in a cold engine to make it burn more effectively and run properly. At idle, this process takes in very little fuel. However, at highway speeds, it requires massive amounts of fuel to move such a large object and make the engine run in a proper manner. Additionally, computer controlls will prohibit a car's torque converter from locking up until the engine has warmed up, making the car run an average of 500 rpm faster to maintain the same speed. In three ways, not allowing a car to warm up destroys fuel economy in both the short and long term.
A similar argument is needed to refute the tip that turning off one's engine while waiting in line at a fast food chain is a good idea. The most damaging process an engine and its associative parts experience is start up. Start up usually involves a temporary poor charge of fuel to get the engine running, thus wasting gas. Only if the car predates the 1990s and the car needs to idle for more than 7 minutes should it be shut down. Also, right after restart, a car engine runs at a higher rpm than at idle. Again, restarting an engine several times greatly increases wear on an engine and decreases efficiency.
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More proof that knowing what you are talking about is not a prerequisite for posting stuff on the internet.
What you say is mostly true for NON-HYBRID vehicles. Hybrids work differently, and are specifically designed for repeated ICE stop/start and other things. Also, at least in my FEH, when you start out cold, the ICE runs, but the first driving is done with the electric motor - so the ICE isn't taxed with any extra load during the critical initial warm up time.
My HCH does run at a slightly higher RPM until it heats up, but otherwise, from my own observations, warming up actually does cause a loss in fuel consumption.
Sometimes when it is really cold, I'll put my HCH's Continuously Variable Transmission into "S" for a short time to make the engine run at higher rpms and heat up quicker. A; it increases fuel efficiency, and B; it makes the car's heater get hot quicker, which is a good thing when the ambient air temperature is like 5 degrees F.
What is "S"? ....."HCH's Continuously Variable Transmission into "S" for a short time"
Ed,
My HCH's CVT Goes like this: Park, Reverse, Nuetral, Drive, S (I assume is like 2), and L (which is like 3)
[P]ark [R]everse [N]eutral [D]rive [S]port [L]ow Range
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