Great "Cutting the Cost of Driving" Hunt: Liftshares, carclubs and more.

sandspider2000

Welshlassie wrote: »

Your driving style is the biggest way you can cut costs. These tips come from the Energy Saving Trust

4. Drive away immediately when starting from cold. Idling to heat the engine wastes fuel and causes rapid engine wear.

Hi all.

I have a query on this one. I had a look at the EST's website, but couldn't find any answers.

Surely, it must be more wearing to the engine to pull away cold, as the oil isn't warmed, isn't sticking to the bearing surfaces, and basically isn't really doing its job. If you sit for a moment with the engine at idle, the oil will warm up, and you will be putting less strain on it as you're not actually using the engine to pull the weight of the car. I read (on the the Honest John website I think) that the best way to warm the engine quickly is to rev it a couple of times (with no load on it) before you pull away. Obviously this will use more fuel immediately, but as the engine warms up more quickly, the increased efficiency of the warm engine should more than make up for this.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? (Not doubting or asking you Welshlassie, I know you just pasted it from another website, but just curious...)

Cheers,

Giles

Welshlassie

sandspider2000 wrote: »

Hi all.

I have a query on this one. I had a look at the EST's website, but couldn't find any answers.

Surely, it must be more wearing to the engine to pull away cold, as the oil isn't warmed, isn't sticking to the bearing surfaces, and basically isn't really doing its job. If you sit for a moment with the engine at idle, the oil will warm up, and you will be putting less strain on it as you're not actually using the engine to pull the weight of the car. I read (on the the Honest John website I think) that the best way to warm the engine quickly is to rev it a couple of times (with no load on it) before you pull away. Obviously this will use more fuel immediately, but as the engine warms up more quickly, the increased efficiency of the warm engine should more than make up for this.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? (Not doubting or asking you Welshlassie, I know you just pasted it from another website, but just curious...)

Cheers,

Giles

This site suggests only idling for no more than 30 seconds in cold weather although this site does suggest that idling won't achieve anything if the temparture is very low.

All I could find!!

hewhoisnotintheknow

matt_outandabout wrote: »

We also happen to be 5mins from the train station, and now have lots of days out via train, which on a family railcard is often cheaper for local journeys than a car (one you factor in parking and 40p a mile to run...)

Its not as straight forward as that though, the car is still costing you money when its sitting at home, that 40p is not just fuel, its wear and tear, mot, servicing etc etc

So sometimes not using it is actually costing you more even though it is not always obvious

sandspider2000

Welshlassie wrote: »

This site suggests only idling for no more than 30 seconds in cold weather although this site does suggest that idling won't achieve anything if the temparture is very low.

All I could find!!

Many thanks WL. It seems no one's really that sure! Well, I'll stick with 30 seconds of idling I think, and I'll be glad that we're not living in temperatures of -27C!

Cheers,

Giles

hallucenogenic_midas

See also liftshare.com

Cut my bills in half and now only need a service once every 12 months rather than 6!


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Socket2000

Having taken a few engines apart and seen exactly how much oil gets pumped around in a short space of time I would have thought that the engine is fully lubricated after a couple of seconds. Modern oil seems to be quite thin and 30 seconds of running isn't going to increase the temp of 4 litres or so of oil in the sump by much so I can see no advantage to idling the engine. Start and set off straight away for me.

What about coasting up to a junction or traffic lights, does anyone try that.

Steve

hewhoisnotintheknow

Socket2000 wrote: »

Having taken a few engines apart and seen exactly how much oil gets pumped around in a short space of time I would have thought that the engine is fully lubricated after a couple of seconds. Modern oil seems to be quite thin and 30 seconds of running isn't going to increase the temp of 4 litres or so of oil in the sump by much so I can see no advantage to idling the engine. Start and set off straight away for me.

What about coasting up to a junction or traffic lights, does anyone try that.

Steve

my car very rarely stops, keep it moving no matter how slow, a car works hard to get moving from a stand still and shortens the lifetime of the clutch

sandspider2000

Well, my car is old, and modern synthetic oils tend to be too thin for it. I see no harm in idling the engine briefly while I set up the CD player, program the SatNav etc. I do see your point about it not actually warming things up much though - it takes at least 5 mins proper running to get near to operating temp.

I do coast from time to time. I know you're not supposed to as you're not under so much control, but with the price of fuel being as high as it is I see no problem in coasting uphill to a traffic light in neutral, or rolling down a hill in traffic without going in and out of gear all the time. As long as the brakes work!

Giles

yinhong

dipashah wrote: »

I think Car sharing is a great idea but would not know where to look to organise this! Have you any tips?

Liftshare. I think it's the biggest car sharing service/website in the UK.

It's a .org, and I always read about it in the papers (for winning awards) so I assume it's credible.

I've signed up to it, but I've never tried it out. When you sign up, I think you just enter where you live and/or enter journey details, and it'll find matching journeys.

A_Doonhamer

sandspider2000 wrote: »

I do coast from time to time. I know you're not supposed to as you're not under so much control, but with the price of fuel being as high as it is I see no problem in coasting uphill to a traffic light in neutral, or rolling down a hill in traffic without going in and out of gear all the time. As long as the brakes work!

Giles

Your using more fuel by coasting though. Its more fuel efficient to leave the car in gear and simply remove your foot from the accelerator. Whilst you do this the engine uses no fuel. When you are coasting the engine has to use fuel to keep it ticking over. So not only do you have less control when costing it is also costing you more.