Plugging in new cars?

[jay42w8]

My car is left parked outside....its a 2007 Mazda 3...should I be plugging it in? or is that only for older cars that need that?

Also, I usually only drive when I go out at night, for the first 2-3 minutes, when the engine isn't as warm, as soon I squirt the windshield with fluid, it just freezes and I can't see shit...what do you guys do? Warm up your car before washing the windshield or do you just wait till the car is warmed up after driving off before ever washing the windshield??? I'm already using fluid that says down to -25 (?) degrees????

[dr_jared88]

any car should be plugged in when its cold. its easier on the car. you should also let it run for a couple minutes before driving too. let your oil and everything warm up and start flowing.

[RZRSHARP_SVX]

it wouldnt hurt to plug it in. just because its new doesnt meen that it isnt subseptable to the cold weather.

warming up your windsheild would stop the washer fluid from freezing instantly when it hits your windsheild. fluid rating doesnt meen to much.

[jay42w8]

hmmm..ok so you guys DO warm up your car when its -15 temperatures even if its a new car.....I had no idea lol

[RZRSHARP_SVX]

yes I will run it for about 5 minutes before I start driving at -15

[blueripper6]

Yea.. plug in your car. Dont forget to get winter air for your tires.. summer air is only good till about -15 to -20... any colder and you could risk a blowout!;)

[RZRSHARP_SVX]

that is a very good point. I am a mechanic and I run across under-inflated tires all the time. especial this time of year

[88CRXGUY]

Yeah its ok to let it run for a few mintues, its now when you leave it running for 15 mintues/30 mintues etc it coud put useless wear on the car. But yeah when it gets below -10 without the windchill I would put it in just in case. Its not good trying to do a cold start when its -30 outside with your car not being plugged in.

[Xamim]

Any car should be plugged in when its cold. Makes it easy to start up after a cold night. When its like -30 outside and my car is plugged in, in the morning its starts as if it was +5, no issues what so ever.

[heizervr6]

New BMW's don't come with block heaters nor does BMW endorse them. Warm up the car for 30 secs and drive gently 'til fully warm. Everything else is a waste of gas and unnecessarily hard on the engine. Having said that, if you have a block heater, may as well use it! My $0.02.

[250and3]

You can also get better windshiled washer fluid, that will help a lot. Yours may say -25C on the bottle, but it may not be as good as another brand. I'm running Rain-X winter fluid with some of that "booster" stuff in it. Been working like a charm.

As far as idleing your engine to let it warm up, the engine is good to go in about 30 seconds. Anything longer than that is just for your comfort and a warmer interior.
Things like the shocks and brakes don't start to warm up until the car is in motion.

[01RedDX]

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[badatusrnames]

Originally posted by 01RedDX

http://gallery.8thcivic.com/albums/album01/notfunny5.jpg

:werd:

[Zero102]

Cold starts cause more wear than a couple minutes of idling. Since your car isn't turbocharged there is really no harm to a couple of minutes of idling before getting going. Plug the car in for a little bit before starting it (1-2 hours), start it then scrape the windows and such, this gives it some time to run before you hop in.

If you are really having troubles with this then look into a coolant heater they are wonderful. When I start my golf after it's been plugged in the engine is 90* and if I leave the heater set to defrost when I turn the car off there is no ice on the windshield or front part of the windows due to the wonders of convection.

As for the ice on the windshield issue, washer fluid is rated to remain liquid down to a certain temperature, this is accomplished by adding alcohol to the mixture. The problem with this is that alcohol evaporates very easily, leaving behind the water in the mixture when it hits your windshield. The fact that it sprayed at all says it was indeed liquid down to that temp, but once the alcohol evaporates it freezes at ~0*C just like water.


Warm the windshield up before spraying washer fluid on it and don't use washer fluid to de-ice your windows either.



Good point on the tire pressures. Temperature changes can cause large variations in tire pressure, sometimes as much as 5-10psi. Also in cold weather some tires develop sealing issues on the rim. Keep an eye on tire pressure, flats/blow outs really suck in the winter.

[dooman24]

Originally posted by heizervr6
New BMW's don't come with block heaters nor does BMW endorse them. Warm up the car for 30 secs and drive gently 'til fully warm. Everything else is a waste of gas and unnecessarily hard on the engine. Having said that, if you have a block heater, may as well use it! My $0.02.


:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
good answer..
letting the vehicle warm up for 5-10 is kinda useless these days..
vehicle manufacturers told us to let the car run/warm up back in the days because back in the days cars were carburated.. and it was harder for fuel to vaporize when it's -30.

fuel injected vehicles vaporizes fuel alot easier and it's kinda useless to let the car run/warm up for 5-10min..

[Mazstyle]

I plug in at work whenever it's below freezing (free electricity) At home tho I won't bother till it's at -10 or so.

[RickDaTuner]

Block Heaters are mandatory in Canada, that being said, would you rather have oil circulate through your cold engine @ -20deg or semi warm oil @ around 30deg?

block heaters work, the argument most commonly presented is that block heaters that heat the coolant cause scaling, thus causing blockages in the coolant system. There are also those that heat the oil directly, some say that this causes premature oil failure along with coking and sludge build up.

The truth is though those conditions only occur when you leave the heater plug in for more than 3 hours, which is more than enough time to get your engine warm enough to have a smooth start in the morning.

go ahead use your block heaters, they if used corectly prolong the life of your engine.

[The Cosworth]

Originally posted by RickDaTuner
Block Heaters are mandatory in Canada, .....

no they are not, my 2008 BC car didn't come with one, and IIRC most, if not all BMW's do not




edit: dont get me wrong the rest of your post was good, but still just had to point that out.

[RickDaTuner]

Originally posted by brendankharris


no they are not, my 2008 BC car didn't come with one, and IIRC most, if not all BMW's do not

well i guess you're right....

[Supa Dexta]

of course he is, why do you think every winter ppl ask where to buy block heaters,

[dustin7077]

well i don't have any where to plug my car in so i have a remopte starter set is up so every 2hours cars starts for a few mins then before i go anywhere after it has been sitting over night i let it run for about 20mins never had a problem my car starting in winters even when it was like -40 out :) oh and who ever said change your tires to winter air not summer well never heard of that before and i work at Kal-Tire

[5hift]

Originally posted by RickDaTuner

The truth is though those conditions only occur when you leave the heater plug in for more than 3 hours, which is more than enough time to get your engine warm enough to have a smooth start in the morning.

go ahead use your block heaters, they if used corectly prolong the life of your engine.

I'm on the 10th floor of an apartment building, and its not realistic to back and forth, plugging my car in 3 hours before I need to leave. Are you saying that if I plug my car when I come home at night, and dont unplug it until I leave in the morning, that will be bad for the engine over time? (Not sure if the power is cycled on/off for my parking lot plugs).

I also havent plugged my car in yet and it has started on the first try from my remote on even the coldest mornings. So regularily doing this is bad for my engine as well even if I let it warm up properly?

[5hift]

Originally posted by dustin7077
oh and who ever said change your tires to winter air not summer well never heard of that before and i work at Kal-Tire

Are you for real?

[bobby_lu]

^ You could use a plug timer.

[RickDaTuner]

Originally posted by 5hift


I'm on the 10th floor of an apartment building, and its not realistic to back and forth, plugging my car in 3 hours before I need to leave. Are you saying that if I plug my car when I come home at night, and dont unplug it until I leave in the morning, that will be bad for the engine over time? (Not sure if the power is cycled on/off for my parking lot plugs).

I also havent plugged my car in yet and it has started on the first try from my remote on even the coldest mornings. So regularily doing this is bad for my engine as well even if I let it warm up properly?

you are not causing damage to your engine, you are just introducing more debris into at a faster rate than normal, over time an engine will develop grime, sludge and scale, a prolonged use block heater will just bring that about sooner. in your case, its just a matter of doing a rad flush and engine flush at an earlier time, than what is normally recommended for your veh.

[The Cosworth]

Originally posted by dustin7077
well i don't have any where to plug my car in so i have a remopte starter set is up so every 2hours cars starts for a few mins

personally I think this would be harder on the engine then one cold start first thing in the morning, you are causing 4 or 5 cold starts everyday on your car, most cars can't hold any substantial amount of heat at -30 for over 2 hours.

I think you should stop and just let your car warm up once in the morning

[sputnik]

Originally posted by brendankharris


personally I think this would be harder on the engine then one cold start first thing in the morning, you are causing 4 or 5 cold starts everyday on your car, most cars can't hold any substantial amount of heat at -30 for over 2 hours.

I think you should stop and just let your car warm up once in the morning

:werd:

The only time I plug in my car is when it is so cold that it has trouble turning over (colder than -25C).

When it is warmer than -25C letting the car run for a couple of minutes basically does the same thing as leaving the car plugged in for hours.

[Unknown303]

I have my truck plugged in all night when i can and if its under zero during the day I'll even plug it in at work. When i fire it up you can just tell that its running smoother and causing a lot less wear.

And if you are worried about debris in your coolant you can always purchase a coolant filter. At least you can get them for trucks and they run parallel to your radiator. I've seen some pictures of them cut open and you'd be disgusted to see all that crap that floats around in the coolant.

[Annoyingrob]

Originally posted by dr_jared88
you should also let it run for a couple minutes before driving too. let your oil and everything warm up and start flowing.
I'm going to disagree with you on this. Idling cold puts a lot of wear on your engine. When you're driving it moderately when it's cold it at least heats up faster

There was a big thread on this subject a few months back. If you would like I could find it, and re-post the post I made explaining why I think idling cold is bad.


Originally posted by 5hift
Are you saying that if I plug my car when I come home at night, and dont unplug it until I leave in the morning, that will be bad for the engine over time? (Not sure if the power is cycled on/off for my parking lot plugs).
Plug it in at night when you get home, but put a timer on it. Have it set to turn on a few hours before you leave. You can get them at Canadian Tire for decently cheap.

[whiskas]

Let it idle for maybe 20-30 seconds until you no longer hear valve train noise, or until your RPMs reach near normal idle which means your ECU has finished it's cold start program.

[bmeier]

block heaters are pointless, especially on new cars that use synthetic oil. a block heater doesnt heat the oil anyways it heats your coolant so it doesnt help engine wear for cold starts anyways. Its also bad to idle your car for longer than 30 seconds , cars need to be under load to warm up properly. the best thing you can do is turn the car on and just keep the rpm down until the car is warmed up...

Half the cars made these days you cant even get a block heater if you want to.

[rage2]

Originally posted by bmeier
a block heater doesnt heat the oil anyways it heats your coolant so it doesnt help engine wear for cold starts anyways.
Actually, a block heater heats up the block and all fluids in the block. Meaning oil and coolant. It does reduces wear (to a degree) because by keeping the temerature of the block in check, it reduces metal contraction, which keeps all the tolerace of metal parts in check.

[canuckcarguy]

I'd definitely use a timer but still plug the car in. I heard once that you need about 30 minutes of timer time for every 1 litre of displacement in the engine. This is only a guide, obviously, but the bigger then engine and the more coolant, the more time it's going to take to get it warm. When we had a 1.6L Civic, you could plug it in for 1 hour even in extreme temperatures and it would be warm, but my truck needs a couple of hours.

[jay42w8]

I've currently got bigger problems lol....I went into my Mazda 3 the other night after not driving it for almost a week, the entire inside of the windshield was frosted up....how do I deal with this???....just crank the heat and wait for 20 min+ min. every time? this didn't happen last winter when I had my Explorer...weird....I ended up scraping half of it, getting frost bits all over my nice clothes (heading out to the bar) and all over the dash :banghead:

[The Cosworth]

Originally posted by jay42w8
I've currently got bigger problems lol....I went into my Mazda 3 the other night after not driving it for almost a week, the entire inside of the windshield was frosted up....how do I deal with this???....just crank the heat and wait for 20 min+ min. every time? this didn't happen last winter when I had my Explorer...weird....I ended up scraping half of it, getting frost bits all over my nice clothes (heading out to the bar) and all over the dash :banghead:

make sure your not leaving the HVAC on defrost setting, really cold air might be getting in through the vents and frosting up.

Or it might be because the weather stripping is so much better than your explorer that it is keeping more moisture in the car.

I know on my new car, when I put it on full defrost, it kicks on the AC as well (this is because the AC not only cools but dehumidifies, so why not check to see if yours turns on, and if not, then turn it on when you crank the defrost.)

[Zero102]

If the inside of your windows have frosted up it's because there is water in the car. Usually when you get in the car you track small amounts of snow in on your shoes, they melt when you turn the heat on and build up in your carpets and the humidity inside the car goes up, then the windows cool off first so thats where all the excess moisture starts to collect.


Whoever said plugging modern cars in is useless is just plain wrong. I don't want to even have that argument, but you're wrong.

[lowryder99]

Originally posted by Xamim
Any car should be plugged in when its cold. Makes it easy to start up after a cold night. When its like -30 outside and my car is plugged in, in the morning its starts as if it was +5, no issues what so ever.

Why would it make your car start any easier? A block heater heats the coolant in the car through a frost plug in the block, unless you have a pan heater it's doing NOTHING to make the car turn over easier. Basically the point to a block heater is you start getting warm air out the vents a little faster because slightly warmer coolant is passing through the system and heater core.

Whoever said a block heater heats the oil.....not true. I don't know what engine you are speaking off but in school we did tests by plugging vehicles in the shop for hours and then we could read the results with scan tools and the coolant temp would change but the oil temp would never change. Look at where the frost plugs are on the block and then look at where the oil flows throughout. WITH THAT SAID, warm coolant throughout the block will eventually start to warm the oil but when we were testing it out cars plugged in for 2 hours were still not changing the temp of the oil, I would imagine that maybe over 4 hours or so you might start to see overall warmer fluids. If you want warm oil get a pan heater from crappy tire.

So uhh yea....why do people think plugging cars in makes them start SO much better? haha...it's like it's "extra juice" to the battery, or by plugging in that little cord makes the engine all nice and toasty warm....