Should you let your car warm up before driving on a bitterly cold Wonder Lake day?

It’s cold in Wonder Lake today – really cold. The temperature at 1 p.m. was -15-degrees Fahrenheit. Now that’s cold even without considering the windchill factor (-40 degrees). This means that frostbite is a real concern when you’re outside and your skin is exposed for even one minute. Bundle up. And even then, the cold will penetrate your gloves, hat, boots, coat, etc. The best bet is probably to just stay indoors. But what if you just have to go out somewhere? What about your car?

Should you let your car warm up for a while before you drive?

One good reason to allow the car to warm up a while, assuming you can safely lock the doors and wait inside, is so that you’ll have some heat when you get into the car and head off to your destination. It also helps, if the engine is warm, to defrost your windshield so you can see where you’re going. But, for the car’s sake, should you warm it up before you drive?

Is it an ‘old-wives tale’ that you should allow the car to warm up at least five minutes before driving in the winter (some folks let the car warm up even in the summer)? The answer depends on the kind of car you’re driving.

If you’re driving a car with an older style carburetor, it’s not such a bad idea to allow the car to warm up a little bit. But that’s not the case if you have fuel injectors that provide the air-fuel mixture to the engine.

With an engine that has a carburetor, the air-fuel mixture is affected by the cold. The fuel doesn’t evaporate the way it’s supposed to and fuel can wash engine oil out between the pistons and piston walls. This can seriously shorten the life of internal engine components.

But, with fuel injectors, sensors adjust the mixture so that, even in the cold, there is a proper air-fuel mixture in the cylinders when the spark plugs set off the controlled explosions that push the pistons down and drive the 4-cycle process of an internal combustion engine.

If you’re not sure if your car has a carburetor or fuel injection, as your auto repair technician. In the meantime, let’s hope the weather in Wonder Lake warms up soon.

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