How important is it to first warm up the car? winter

Thank you!

(That was an easy one though. There's a lot more available than what I showed.)

-- Floyd L. Davidson Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) snipped-for-privacy@barrow.com

From what I understand, theft prevention. Even if you lock the car doors, they will still levy the fine

What is off that if cars emit 50-100 time more pollutants when cold, one would think that the air quality alerts we have so often in the summer time would actually happen more in the winter. Hmmm...

I would guess it is for safety reasons. An automobile which is not controlled can be come a lethally dangerous thing. If the vehicle were to slip into gear with no one to steer and shut it down it could be a disaster. Also, unattended running cars, if overheated could catch fire. Someone operating the car would in most circumstances prevent such things from happening. Thus the need for the operator to be present.

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Depends on local conditions more than anything else. Fairbanks sits in huge valley, with the Alaska Range to the south and the Brooks Range to the north, and sometimes the air just doesn't move for weeks. (Which is why it can get 80 below in some parts of that valley in the winter, and also be 100 above in the summer.)

They get temperature inversions in the winter, with cold air settling to the low areas and warm air rising above it.

And the EPA has been after them for 20 years because of the dozen or so pollution alerts a year that they sometimes have. Most of it is produced by car engines. They've done all kinds of studies on how to reduce air pollution, and one of the big ones is pre-heating cars before starting, even at 20 to 30 degrees above zero. Another is getting an annual tuneup (which is most effective for older cars).

In that particular location, air pollution is a winter only event.

The advice to plug in even at such warm temperatures ran into a serious conflict with the local military bases 15 years or so ago, as they were trying to reduce costs and decided one way to do was cut the power to all of the parking lot plug-ins any time the temp got up to about 10 degrees (if I remember right).

They eventually compromised and raised it a bit.

-- Floyd L. Davidson Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) snipped-for-privacy@barrow.com

I used to live in a part of Canada where every January we would see some nights -45 F and a lot of nights -25f to -40f. This was in '64. There was no such thing as Synthetic for the average motorist. We used 5w30 if we had a new engine or 10w 30 if it was a bit "Dodgy." If you lived in an apartment you didn't get a line for a block heater. We would warm the engine while we scraped the windshield, then drive "carefully" to the Highway when we would drive at the normal limit(60mph.) It was not unusual to get 150,000-200,000 miles from a small V8. Cars are for using! Buy 'em, drive 'em, maintain 'em and get rid of 'em. It's really not worth getting anal about a lump of metal. :-)) (Just my sense of humour)

Way back when... people used to literally drain the oil and take the battery out every night. They'd store it inside and keep both warm.

That was true of cars, trucks, tractors, bulldozers, airplanes, and whatever had an engine.

Lots of diesel engines though, like on bulldozers, would just be left running 24 hours a day. They had low speed engines, they get good lubrication when idling, and that was the cheapest way to keep them warm.

-- Floyd L. Davidson Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) snipped-for-privacy@barrow.com

I think that what Floyd has supplied us with here is best applied to the garden after the ground thaws - the bull can always make more of it. I seriously doubt that the military removes batteries from their aircraft because it would be too time consuming.

My uncle lived in Wyoming and he used to keep the battery and engine oil by the kitchen stove when the vehicle wasn't being driven. It's only a machine, not a person - get over it. Just change the oil regularly, use a very low weight oil in the winter (like 5w30, etc.), and if possible, use a block heater. I have never owned a vehicle that had less than

100,000 miles on the odometer when I got rid of it and only one of my vehicles ever required an engine overhaul (it was that way when I bought it). All these gyrations and Hous-Pocus garbage of yours are totally unnecessary (and I don't care if 10,000 websites say differently, I know what has worked for me and others). Rich B

When we had a really cold spell here in Upstate NY several years ago the local school left the busses running overnight. They left them going for about a week IIRC. 90% were diesel engines at that time, the rest were CNG. Ratio is quite different now, don't know the mix though...

Considering you called him a pussy, why should be be obliged to give you any of what you're asking for? If you want the info, go find it on google yourself. What are you, some kind of primadonna?

Or, keep starting your car in subzero weather without another thought. It's *your* car, and your money. Do whatever the hell you want with it.

Jinxter writes

In case you're responding to something I wrote rather than to Floyd (it's hard to tell, what with all the quoted text you included)...

Actually, they use bleed air generated by the APU, which in turn is started with the battery. (The APUs on the newer models generate electricity also, but the engines still use pneumatic starters.)

But I didn't mention C-130s in connection with batteries. I mentioned them in connection with somebody's assertion that the ones flown to Antarctica are never shut down, but are flown out again after unloading/reloading because of the cold.

Where I mentioned batteries was in regard to the small recips or turboprops that Floyd was describing before he mentioned

737s.

Actually, it uses a pull cord like a lawnmower. If you've ever noticed bootprints on the left landing gear sponson, that's why.

How can an airplane not have a battery? What provides standby power to things like instrument inverters and lights in the event of an electrical failure?

Geoff