Should you warm up your car before driving it? It’s one of the more heated winter-driving debate topics, but experts say it’s a throwback to the days of carburetors. If you’re an old-school idler, here’s why you might want to rethink your position:

It’s unnecessary: Modern fuel injection, which eliminated carburetors and chokes, is much more efficient. With newer cars, the only reason to let the car idle is to get the oil circulating, but after 30 seconds that’s taken care of. Idle any longer than that, and you’re just wasting fuel and adding to greenhouse gases.

It’s inefficient: According to the Hinkle Charitable Foundation’s Anti-Idling Primer, idling forces an engine “to operate in a very inefficient and gasoline-rich mode that, over time, can degrade the engine’s performance and reduce mileage.”

FACTS

1. Idling gets you nowhere -– and it can be costly. Excessive idling wastes a significant amount of fuel and money and generates needless greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If drivers of light-duty vehicles avoided idling by just three minutes a day, over the year Canadians would collectively save 630 million litres of fuel and 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and $850.5 million in fuel costs [at current fuel cost of $1.35/L).

2. Warming up the vehicle means more than warming the engine. The tires, transmission, wheel bearings and other moving parts also need to be warmed up for the vehicle to perform well. Most of these parts don't begin to warm up until you drive the vehicle.

MYTHS
Myth #1: The engine should be warmed up before driving.

Reality: Contrary to popular belief, excessive idling is not an effective way to warm up your vehicle, even in cold weather. The best way to warm it up is to drive it. In fact, with today's computer-controlled engines, even on cold winter days, no more than two to three minutes of idling is usually enough warm-up time before starting to drive. This also reduces fuel consumption and GHG emissions.

Myth #2: Idling is good for your engine.

Reality: Excessive idling can actually damage your engine components, including cylinders, spark plugs and exhaust systems.

Myth #3: Shutting off and restarting your vehicle is hard on the engine and uses more gas than if you leave it running.

Reality: Any more than ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than is required to restart the engine. However, the break-even time to offset any potential incremental maintenance costs to the starter or battery is under 60 seconds. So, as a guideline, if you're stopped for more than 60 seconds -– except in traffic -– turn off the engine.

[Peel Regional Police spokesperson] adds that warm-up theft is normal during the winter months, but the extended deep cold this year has created a heated climate for car abductions.