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I stopped idling my diesel trucks before work. Here's what happened.
A lot of mechanics tell you to let diesel engines idle to warm up, but I disagree. I used to do it for years, but two years ago I quit that habit. Now I start the truck and drive off slow after about a minute. With my ten trucks, I've seen no extra repairs over 50,000 miles each. We actually cut fuel use by a good amount. Some say this hurts the engine, but my experience shows it's fine for modern diesels.
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fisher.thomas7mo ago
Your experience is lucky, but cold starts still cause extra wear on turbo bearings and cylinder walls. Letting it idle for a few minutes gets oil fully circulating before load.
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bell.emma7mo ago
Honestly shocked you think it needs to idle for minutes @fisher.thomas. Modern oil gets moving way faster than that. The worst wear happens in like the first ten seconds, not after it's already running. Letting it sit that long just wastes gas and heats things up without even driving. My mechanic said just thirty seconds is plenty, even for a turbo. Tbh yours is the first advice I've seen telling people to wait that long.
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nancy9295mo ago
You said "the worst wear happens in like the first ten seconds" and I think that's actually the key. The thing nobody brings up is that idling for minutes doesn't help with the real issue, which is getting the transmission fluid and differential oil moving too. Those don't circulate until the car is actually driven a bit and the gears start turning. So sitting there for a few minutes just warms the engine oil while everything else stays cold and thick. That's the part of the drivetrain that actually takes the beating when you finally pull away.
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