Is idling bad for your engine?

Question

If I sit in my car for 30-40 minutes with the AC and the car idling, does that "hurt" the engine, or does it simply waste gas and pollute the air? Would it be better if I turned off the car? A similar question was asked, but it never addressed non-diesel engines.

Answer 1

letting the car idle isn't good for the car, especially with the AC on. What you're basically accomplishing is aiding in the car wearing without racking up any miles. With the cylinders firing, you are using several electrical components, putting some small amount of stress on the belts, etc.

If you've ever seen ads for cars claiming high mileage but declaring that they are "highway miles" the claim they're attempting to make is that they aren't doing city driving with the vehicle (unnecessary idling and as such effectively putting miles on the engine but not the odometer).

Whenever the engine is running, you are slowly wearing out some of the components of the vehicle. Doing this for a few minutes here or there doesn't make for a huge difference, but 30-40 minutes at a time would be more than equal to the amount of time you'd spend idling at lights/in traffic in a major city during a 1+hour commute.

In short, 2-3 minutes is fine; anything over 10, and the general consensus is that it's a bad idea.

Answer 2

Anecdotally, I've seen a number of (and been in one) car(s) that has overheated while idling. Without airflow, you're depending on the fans and thermostat for more than if you were driving. If all's well with the car, you should be perfectly fine idling for some time. However, if the cooling system has an issue, or if the oil pump is getting weak, you may end up with a breakage that otherwise would not have happened (or at least wouldn't have happened as soon). Think of extended idling as a stress test for the car, no problem all is well, but if not, you'll find out about it! :-)

Answer 3

You have a much higher probability of not having enough oil pressure at idle. If the engine has any issues - such as wear causing tolerances to be larger than initially engineered, or too thin of oil - the lack of oil pressure will be more exaggerated. Idling for long periods could be disastrously more damaging to your engine then the same amount of time spent cruising.

Answer 4

Aside from financial and environmental considerations, U.S. and Canadian governmental agencies say that idling produces various negative effects on engine components.

During idling engine does not work at its most efficient mode, and the fuel combustion is incomplete. That leads to glazing of combustion chamber and reducing effectiveness of spark plugs in petrol engines (plugs with heavy deposits can foul, and that can reduce fuel consumption by 4 to 5%). Also petrol can contaminate the motor oil which reduces its lubricating qualities (that could mean more frequent oil changes and/or increased wear on the engine).

Also, as the engine runs at less than ideal operating temperature, which causes water vapour (a product of combustion) to accumulate in exhaust system (at proper temperature and at higher speed of exiting gasses caused by increased RPMs it clears out pretty good), which leads to corrosion. Also, idling produces up to 10–12% more emissions than driving for the same amount of petrol used due to incomplete combustion and ineffective operation of catalytic converter.

As for people worrying about excessive wear on starting system components, here is some math. According to some estimates, frequent re-starting of the engine can cost about $10 a year extra in replacement parts etc. (In my experience, I had never had to replace a starter (or solenoid, or flywheel gears etc.) in many years I owned several cars (I do drive less than most). And even if people treat their vehicles like junk it might be once in 8–10 years.).

Now, let us assume we drive mid-sized car that averages 25 MPG for a 1000 miles (~1600km) a month, or 12000 mi/year. That makes it use about 480 gal/year (12000/25). Assuming modest reduction in fuel efficiency of 5%, that amounts to 24 extra gal/year for the same amount of miles driven ((480 x 1.05) - 480). At low estimate of $3.50 per gallon, that amounts to $84 a year in increased fuel consumption. Saving that, new starter would pay off in less than three years.

Those are very, very conservative calculations. Some numbers cited by various no-idle campaigns estimate that 10 minutes of idling uses about 0.1 gallon of fuel (for a small car). If you idle 10 minutes a day, it adds up to more than 35 gallons a year. And it only takes 10-15 seconds worth of fuel to restart the car. You can save real money just by shutting off the engine on rail-road crossings, at drive-throughs, on long street lights (not recommended for average person) etc.