Quote:
Originally Posted by zamler
It's a bit of a myth that idling a car is bad for it, it's not. The fact that you are causing normal wear without the car actually moving is obviously counter productive, but idling is no big deal. Starting a car and immediately driving away without giving the oil a chance to properly circulate is what to avoid (especially with a cold engine), I see people doing this all the time.
Fleet vehicles such as police cruisers spend a lot of time idling, and these engines regularly last 300,000+ miles, but keep in mind these cars are properly maintained. BTW, Lucas oil treatment works well to prevent "dry starts", it doesn't drain away from engine parts like regular engine oil does, it leaves a thin film. It's not as useful if you drive your car everyday, but if you have a car you don't drive frequently, Lucas is a good product to use.
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Oh man, where to start.
Idling a warm engine is fine, but that isn't what is being discussed here. Idling a cold engine is brutal. Your oil takes a lot longer to reach operating temperature than your coolant, and you'll notice your temperature gauge won't have reached operating temperature usually until about 5 minutes into a drive on a cold day. Your temperature gauge is based off of your coolant, your oil is still following behind. Really you shouldn't be accelerating your car hard until your oil is warm as you will cause premature wear to your engine.
When you idle a cold engine you are going through thousands of revolutions more with cold oil, causing excess wear. The guideline to warm up a modern gasoline engine is to give it about 30 seconds so the oil can circulate to the valve-train, and then start driving gently.
As for oil additives, if you use proper oil they aren't required. Oils with high ester content maintain bonding with engine components to minimize the amount of unlubricated operation on startup. Most synthetics are more than enough, but some are better than others if you're anal. Good oil and frequent changes is the best way to prolong engine life.