To Idle or Not To Idle? that is the Question...

So what are your views in this matter? In a town in USA has made it illegal to idle your car.

Do you guys do it? Whats your reason?

Me I don't do it, my car manual told me not to idle for more than 1 min, even in the coldest weather!

What do you mean by idle? I gather you mean warming your car up rather then letting the car sit in neutral?

Idle as in warming it up or let it sit in one spot for too long.

Personally, I drive my car straight away after turning it over. I just make sure that I drive it sensibly until it is warm. Re letting the car idle in one spot, how long are you talking about? The only reason I dont tend to do it is it eats up fuel so might as well turn the engine off.

The only reason I let my car idle for 15-20 secs when starting in the morning is purely to make sure I got good oil pressure.. before taking off gently.

These people who complain about emissions from idling cars I bet are the same jackarses that on early on Sunday mornings have their petrol garden vac cranking..... while not knowing that those things have been shown to pump out more CO2 and unburnt hydrocarbons in 5 mins than your average car puts out in a 30 min drive.

My car runs like crap when cold so i always warm it up for at least 2 mins.
You should at least give it 60sec to get all the internals all lubed before driving off. Anything over 5mins is overkill and just wastes petrol

I like to start up my car before I go to the toilet, and when I'm done it's time to go :)

I just started up this thread so people can be more aware about what they are doing to their cars and mainly the environment.

This aint really a noob question or some sort. Just wanted to spread out the message with that article.

I got a friend who drives a 2001 dc2R and he would idle his car or any of his family's car for 5 mins max then drive off. I have told him repeatedly to not idle so long, but my words doesn't mean much to him...

i use to idle for 5mins
i kno better now

i idle for at least 10 mins with my sileighty and 5 mins with my DC2R

lol? 10min

i idle 2 minz on freezing mornings, of course after idling, i dont go off hitting vtec, and 8k shifting, drive the car very gently until at least 10min after starting

as with limbo, the car feels terrible until it has warmed up a little at least

the gear bos is annoying, the clutch is too sticky, very strange throttle response, everything is just plain weird until properly warmed up

Idling is not enough to warm up the engine oil. That's why I just start the car, take the next 30 seconds to put on my seat belt and put the items in my pocket into the cup holder compartment before driving off with gentle throttle and no high RPM. No point letting it idle for 5 minutes as the coolant gets warm but the engine oil and transmission is still cold.