Fact or Fiction: To Warm Up or Not To Warm Up

There’s much information out there that could help you get to know your auto repair needs, but not everything you read is right. Today we will dispel a common auto maintenance misconception to keep you and your vehicle safe on the road. Let’s explore the topic of warming up your car.

We’ve all heard that you need to warm up your car for at least five minutes in the winter.  But how true is this? Some sources say that the oil and the engine need to be at a specific temperature to work correctly. If not adequately warmed up, the engine oil becomes thick and syrupy and won’t sufficiently lubricate the engine. This is fiction mostly. Older models and anything running on diesel will need some time to warm up, but more recently manufactured vehicles may not need to warm up at all. They also have elements to warm up specific parts of the car, like the windshield. The baseline is if it’s below freezing, start your car and take off any ice on your vehicle, and by the time you finished, you should be good to go. If it isn’t that cold, it’s OK not to warm it up.