More idling = more car­bon = more cli­mate change.
Good news:  Com­pared with unreg­u­lated vehi­cles 30 years ago, today’s new cars gen­er­ate 98 per­cent fewer hydro­car­bons, 96 per­cent less car­bon monox­ide and 90 per­cent fewer nitrous oxides.

Bad news:  One ele­ment in tailpipe emis­sions can’t be “cleaned up” – car­bon diox­ide (CO₂). This is the prin­ci­ple green­house gas linked to cli­mate change. Every gal­lon of fuel that is burned pro­duces about 20 pounds of CO₂. The bot­tom line: the more fuel you use, the more CO₂ you pro­duce. And one of the best ways to cut fuel con­sump­tion is to avoid idling. After all, it gets you nowhere.

Is it impor­tant to idle my engine to warm it up, espe­cially in win­ter?
No.  Idling may be a habit bestowed upon us by our beloved grand­par­ents, but remem­ber that they had cars with car­bu­re­tors. Today, we rely on fuel injec­tion.  Tests show that you need no more than 30 sec­onds of idling to cir­cu­late the engine oil before you can drive away on cold days.  The best way to opti­mize engine com­bus­tion and vehi­cle per­for­mance is to warm up the tires, trans­mis­sion, wheel bear­ings and other mov­ing parts. As well, the cat­alytic con­verter doesn’t func­tion at its peak until it reaches between 400°C and 800°C. The best way to warm the engine and all other com­po­nents is to drive your vehicle.

Is it more eco­nom­i­cal and fuel-efficient to leave my car run­ning for a few min­utes than to con­stantly turn it off and on?
No. If you’re going to be stopped for more than 10 sec­onds (except in traf­fic), you’ll save fuel and money by turn­ing off the vehi­cle and then restart­ing it when you’re ready to drive again. Every 30 min­utes of idling costs you nearly one-tenth of a gal­lon in wasted fuel – and more than three-tenths of a gal­lon if your vehi­cle has an eight-cylinder engine. As well, restart­ing a car many times doesn’t wear out the bat­tery and starter motor too soon. And cat­alytic con­vert­ers stay warm for up to 25 min­utes after you turn off the engine, so fre­quent stops and starts don’t pro­duce the large amount of harm­ful emis­sions seen with cold starts. There’s no ques­tion about it – idling gets you nowhere. Instead, it wastes fuel and money and dam­ages the environment.

Can idling dam­age my car’s engine?
You bet it can! Because the engine isn’t work­ing at its peak oper­at­ing tem­per­a­ture when it’s idling, the fuel doesn’t undergo com­plete com­bus­tion. This leaves fuel residues that can con­t­a­m­i­nate engine oil and dam­age engine parts. For exam­ple, fuel residues tend to deposit on spark plugs. As the amount of engine idling increases, the plugs’ aver­age tem­per­a­ture drops, and they get dirty more quickly. This, in turn, can increase fuel con­sump­tion by four to five per­cent. It’s a vicious cir­cle of wasted fuel and need­less green­house gas emis­sions. Exces­sive idling can also let water con­dense in the vehicle’s exhaust. This can lead to cor­ro­sion and reduce the life of the exhaust system.

What steps can I take to min­i­mize idling?
It’s easy – think about fuel effi­ciency every time you use a car. Try these sim­ple steps:

• Min­i­mize warm-up idling. This is espe­cially impor­tant in win­ter, because emis­sions can dou­ble in a cold engine. Drive away after no more than 30 sec­onds of idling, assum­ing the vehicle’s win­dows are clear.
• If you’re going to be stopped for more than 10 sec­onds, turn off the engine. Never leave the vehi­cle run­ning while you zip into a cor­ner store or fast-food restau­rant – it’s hard on your pock­et­book, bad for the envi­ron­ment and an invi­ta­tion to car thieves.
• Avoid using remote car starters. They encour­age you to start your car before you’re ready to drive it, which just means need­less idling.