General Question

majorrich's avatar

Winter pile-ups; to idle or not to idle my old diesel?

Asked by majorrich (14741points) February 14th, 2015
7 responses
“Great Question” (4points)

With the horrid winter weather, there have been a rash of accidents that hold up traffic for hours at a time. Thankfully I’ve not been in one, but wonder with my old (1978) diesel car would be better off to let it idle and keep me warm. Or shut it down and restart as traffic moves using the blanket and such I’ve equipped my car with. Given how heavy the load is on the battery to start, I fear a limited number of off and on cycles I have, but am cognicent of the pollution and fuel savings. For that matter, even with gasoline engines, which is better?

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Answers

ibstubro's avatar

I rarely find that turning the ignition off altogether is worth it. Seems like about the time I do that, traffic moves a car length ahead, and I hate starting and stopping the car. Putting it in park seems like the best alternative…the car idles smoother, I stay warm with radio, and I don’t worry about burning the starter up.

ibstubro (18804points)“Great Answer” (1points)
Tropical_Willie's avatar

Diesel starters are EXPENSIVE- – so limit the number of starts. Gasoline starters are a little cheaper but still if you have enough fuel let it run.

Tropical_Willie (31118points)“Great Answer” (2points)
SQUEEKY2's avatar

Let it run.

SQUEEKY2 (23113points)“Great Answer” (1points)
jerv's avatar

Given how old diesels are and how much it takes out of the battery to crank against that high compression, I say let it run. If you’re worried about pollution, most of the pollution is generated in the first few seconds before the engine gets into it’s normal operating RPM/temperature; in other words, the few seconds when it first starts spew out more crap than a few minutes of normal idling. Much of that is raw, unburnt or partially burnt fuel.

@ibstubro Park? Real cars only have one letter on the shifter, and it’s R :p

jerv (31076points)“Great Answer” (2points)
kritiper's avatar

Diesel engines are cleaner than gas engines because they always take in more air than they can burn and use only enough fuel to run the engine at the desired speed. Idling is the WORST thing you can do to a diesel because, since very little fuel is being injected, the engine will cool down during the idle and unburned fuel deposits will accumulate on the cylinder walls, piston, and rings causing premature engine failure, or poor running due to the loss of compression due to the rings getting stuck in their grooves due to the deposits. Only idle the Diesel at 1000 RPM or higher to keep it hot. It will still produce less pollution than a gas engine.

kritiper (25757points)“Great Answer” (1points)
ibstubro's avatar

Okay, @kritiper, are you saying better to shut the diesel off and back on every 2–7 minutes for ‘hours at at a time?’

We need the definitive answer.

ibstubro (18804points)“Great Answer” (0points)
kritiper's avatar

@ibstubro If there are no questions about the reliability of the starter or batteries, it would be better to shut it off for a while, but when it is restarted, run it as I described. It will heat up faster. get hotter, and provide more heat while running.

kritiper (25757points)“Great Answer” (0points)

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