I'll Never Be Cold Again (There's an App for That)
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Running an engine at less than peak operating temperature is very bad for it because fuel is not completely burned, and puts more pollutants into the oil. Also it can corrode the spark plugs. When you warm up the car by driving it, the engine reaches peak operating temperature very quickly. When you warm it up by idling it, the engine takes a long time to reach peak operating temperature. There are also many more reasons that are contained in this book: Drive it Forever[^] I read that book many years ago, so I can't recall all of the reasons right now, but I do recall that idling is very bad for the engine.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
Running an engine at less than peak operating temperature is very bad for it because fuel is not completely burned, and puts more pollutants into the oil.
...to the point where it becomes a problem even though you follow proper maintenance such as changing the oil every 3 months/3000 miles? The other side of that assertion (from what I'm told) is that on very cold winter days, oil gets thicker and flows like molasses until it's had time to warm up. If you rev the engine and moving parts aren't getting lubricated properly yet, that's when the premature wear takes place.
Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
idling is very bad for the engine
Taxis, cop cars etc idle for thousands of hours each year. I'm not hearing that they cost more in maintenance than any other well-maintained car.
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I'm not in my car right now, or I'd test this, but don't you need to press the break to get out of park?
AspDotNetDev wrote:
I'm not in my car right now, or I'd test this, but don't you need to press the break to get out of park?
Older cars, not necessarily (although I wouldn't recommend doing that to your transmission). :) Newer cars, more likely, as it's a safety feature. Manual transmissions are another thing. If it's wired as it's supposed to, the remote start won't work unless you leave the car in neutral and with the parking brake on.
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Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
Running an engine at less than peak operating temperature is very bad for it because fuel is not completely burned, and puts more pollutants into the oil.
...to the point where it becomes a problem even though you follow proper maintenance such as changing the oil every 3 months/3000 miles? The other side of that assertion (from what I'm told) is that on very cold winter days, oil gets thicker and flows like molasses until it's had time to warm up. If you rev the engine and moving parts aren't getting lubricated properly yet, that's when the premature wear takes place.
Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
idling is very bad for the engine
Taxis, cop cars etc idle for thousands of hours each year. I'm not hearing that they cost more in maintenance than any other well-maintained car.
Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
...to the point where it becomes a problem even though you follow proper maintenance such as changing the oil every 3 months/3000 miles?
If you read my original post, you'd see that that is exactly what I recommended to him if he does do a lot of idling.
Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
on very cold winter days, oil gets thicker and flows like molasses until it's had time to warm up. If you rev the engine and moving parts aren't getting lubricated properly yet, that's when the premature wear takes place.
That is why they make multigrade oil, you know 10W-30? The first number is the weight when it's cold, so that it flows easily when it's cold. And I didn't say to "rev" the engine, only to drive it normally.
Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
Taxis, cop cars etc idle for thousands of hours each year. I'm not hearing that they cost more in maintenance than any other well-maintained car.
I don't know that what you "hear" is any kind of scientific metric.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
...to the point where it becomes a problem even though you follow proper maintenance such as changing the oil every 3 months/3000 miles?
If you read my original post, you'd see that that is exactly what I recommended to him if he does do a lot of idling.
Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
on very cold winter days, oil gets thicker and flows like molasses until it's had time to warm up. If you rev the engine and moving parts aren't getting lubricated properly yet, that's when the premature wear takes place.
That is why they make multigrade oil, you know 10W-30? The first number is the weight when it's cold, so that it flows easily when it's cold. And I didn't say to "rev" the engine, only to drive it normally.
Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
Taxis, cop cars etc idle for thousands of hours each year. I'm not hearing that they cost more in maintenance than any other well-maintained car.
I don't know that what you "hear" is any kind of scientific metric.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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There's no reason to be snarky.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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There's no reason to be snarky.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Indirectly, yeah. Realistically, you can't get too far on the road without touching the brakes.
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Starting the car cold and letting it warm up by idling is probably one of the worst things you can do to your engine. If you insist on doing it, make sure you change the oil every 3000 miles.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Today is the day I will be dropping my car off to get a remote starter installed. That'll allow me to turn my car's heater on before I leave for work in the morning and drive to work in a comfy, warm car. One of the remotes works from a mile away, and there is an iPhone app so I can use the iPhone to start my car via satellite, which will give it virtually unlimited distance (and no need to carry around an extra remote). It also has some other nice phone features, such as texting me when my car is started and showing the location of my car in a map. It'll even help me find my car in large parking lots (I never remember where I park). I'm excited. :cool: Have any of you installed a remote starter and have pitfalls / stories to tell?
AspDotNetDev wrote:
One of the remotes works from a mile away, and there is an iPhone app so I can use the iPhone to start my car via satellite, which will give it virtually unlimited distance (and no need to carry around an extra remote).
I can't imagine any reason why anyone would want to do this. Make sure there is an automatic shutoff feature. If you accidentally start your car and don't get in after it runs for a few minutes, it will turn itself off. You would not want it running all day in the parking lot or, even worse, in your garage. Our last car had a remote starter already installed when we got it. I used it a few times but I would not get it again.
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AspDotNetDev wrote:
Have any of you installed a remote starter and have pitfalls / stories to tell?
I'm still waiting for the remote gf starter version. ;P Marc
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Computational Types in C# and F#Hey Marc, been there... I figured out girlfriend hast to be installed first. The problem here is to find a "not so buggy" version with a pretty UI. After that an old-fashioned SMS like "Go to the kittchen and make me a sandwich" is sufficient to "get her started" :)
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AspDotNetDev wrote:
One of the remotes works from a mile away, and there is an iPhone app so I can use the iPhone to start my car via satellite, which will give it virtually unlimited distance (and no need to carry around an extra remote).
I can't imagine any reason why anyone would want to do this. Make sure there is an automatic shutoff feature. If you accidentally start your car and don't get in after it runs for a few minutes, it will turn itself off. You would not want it running all day in the parking lot or, even worse, in your garage. Our last car had a remote starter already installed when we got it. I used it a few times but I would not get it again.
Earl Truss wrote:
I can't imagine any reason why anyone would want to do this.
The remote starter is so I can keep my car temperate and defrosted. The long distance is so it will work from where I sit at work. I work very far from where my car is parked.
Earl Truss wrote:
Make sure there is an automatic shutoff feature
There is. It's configurable to multiple shutoff times, but all of them are less than an hour.
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Earl Truss wrote:
I can't imagine any reason why anyone would want to do this.
The remote starter is so I can keep my car temperate and defrosted. The long distance is so it will work from where I sit at work. I work very far from where my car is parked.
Earl Truss wrote:
Make sure there is an automatic shutoff feature
There is. It's configurable to multiple shutoff times, but all of them are less than an hour.
Sorry, I just meant that I could not imagine why you would want to start your car from such a long distance. I understand why one would use a remote starter.
