My dad raised me with the "drive it forever" mentality for caring for cars - respect your machine he always told me. He always told me that it put a lotof wear on an engine simply starting it. I don't mean in cold weather necessarily, but just going out to the garage in the morning and starting it. You have to start a car to drive it obviously, so you can't very easily get around it. But he always told me to do it minimally.

When I wash my car, I try to push it around in neutral to avoid starting it. This morning I felt bad though, because I had JUST washed it the evening before and when I pulled out of the garage today little specks of rain were hitting the windshield, so I put'er back in drive and pulled it back in the garage (I rode with someone else because we were going to the same place). I felt bad for starting it and killing it.

Is starting a car really that bad? Was it worse back in the "good ole days" of automobiles, from my Dad's era? Maybe cars are better designed so that starting it isn't really that big of a deal anymore. Thoughts?

 

i think your dad has taken it a lil extreme

 

yea, most definatly too extreme. the only thing that is dangerous is revving it when you start it because the oil hasnt flown to the valvetrain yet. but starting it normally wont hurt it because there is still a film of oil on everything.

 

But when doing a cold start, meaning the engine hasn't been started in a while, most of the oil will be sitting down in the pan and not circulating yet right? So won't the engine be trying to run with little oil lubricating it and the oil that it does have will be cold and thicker? How fast is the oil pumped and circulated around the engine upon starting it?

 

Oils, lubricants and engines in general have been designed with all of that in mind. The oil galleys and journals on the internals have oil on them well after the vehicle has been shut off, they have a natural 'adhesive' to them to stay on there, even if it a minute amount. If they do loose this property ithappens long after the reccomended lubrication changes (so change oil and lubricate according to mfgr reccomendations!!) and the waer that starting does cause will have adverse affects insidentaly when its time for an over haul, so it all works out. The most damage to the vehicle by starting it and then stoping it will occur to the battery, You should drive 5 miles to recharge the battery for every start. Also the starter will go before the effects on your engine will do damage.

 

Thanks very much for the info. Everything you mentioned addressed every concerned I've had about cold starts. But still, I'm going to have a hard time breaking free from my tendency to want to start a car minimally. But at least now I won't be so phobic about it.

Oh - and another thing my dad always told me to do to go easier on a car:
Only turn the steering wheel when the car is moving because turning the wheel with the front tires gripped still on the ground is harder on the steering. I was riding with a guy (who is undeniably hard on his car - grinds the gears and is pedal to the metal ALL the time) and he was pulling out of a parallel parking spot (cold start). He was turning the wheel several rotations each way with no real effort to do it while moving. I commented on it. He said it was hard on the tires but didn't think it mattered much else - that it was simply the rack and pinion turning against each other. But I said I thought it was putting way more strain on the power steering pump, and the extra power needed turn the wheels firmly gripped on the ground would further tax a still-cold engine. He thought I was crazy. But it was about a 2003 model car. I drove a 1991 Lumina for years - and it didn't put up with that crap. You treated it like that, and it made horrible sounds to express its incontent.

 

Yes, with power steering turning the wheels will tax the engine. However, the stress it causes is so minimal it really isn't enough to mention. I would say less than 1% (I could be wrong, just an opinion) of the end result of wear. At times some will notice the engine begin to strain as you are tuning, of course this is more noticeable during idle, if the engine seems it will die from this I would recommend a tune up and set the timing. Turning in place at idle will wear your tires out alot sooner than the engine.

 

Again, thank you for the information! This post wasn't to state what I thought was right - I just wanted to state what I'd been told and see what y'all thought. I'm glad to hear your opinions and how they compare to what my ol' dad used to tell me. Because when you're young, you take everything your dad says as true and don't try to disupte it. Now that I'm older, think independently, and have begun to question things,it's interesting to hear opinions that vary from what I always used to think was indisputably right.

As you can imagine, (according to my dad)the 11th commandment is"thou shall not bunout."

 

Another thing I do - I make sure the AC is off before I start the engine (less the engine has to deal with). Same goes for the radio too, but that's just a preference. I don't like to hear "Smack that all on the floor" blaring through the speakers from the night before, at 7:30 in the morning when I'm groggy and have started the car to go to work.