Dumb Car Questions

[demonfire]

--Okay...so I'm a new car owner and this is it's first winter with me. How long do I run the engine for it to heat up before driving it? It's a 2002 Saturn, and do I wait longer when it snows VS when it's [below] freezing?

Comments

[killerweasel]

I always let it run for 5-8 minutes least, usually while I'm scraping all of the ice/snow off of the outside and windows.

[technomage]

Modern cars don't require the 20 minute warm up period cars in the 1970s did. Pretty much if you're getting hot air out of the heater vents she's ready to drive. Usually 5-10 minutes, depending on temperature. As killerweasel said, crank it up, scrape ice and snow, and drive away.

[whitewizard42]

being from south florida, such things are totally and completely foreign to my experience. the temperature got down to 60 degrees some weeks ago and everyone was huddling for warmth.

[pmp]

Warm up your car? I only do that if the windows are misted up tbh. Just get some good oil (in the UK it's Castrol Magnatec) and make sure you've topped up your tank recently to get the winter-grade petrol (has a higher octane to burn better in cold weather)