I live in central Canada, and temperatures reach as low as -30C. Just this week, it’ll be -20C overnight and I always park my car outside. From what people have told me I should idle for 10 minutes when it’s extremely cold, and then drive off. What should I really be doing?

  • lillpersBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I live in northern Scandinavia with similar temperatures in the winter.

    Pretty much everyone here uses an electric block heater along with a cabin fan. I usually set it to turn on (using a timer) two hours before leaving when it’s cold and the drive gently (below 2000 rpm or so) until the engine is up to temp. The block heater makes a huge difference in the time it takes the engine to warm up.

    Over 10 years of driving, this has worked fine for me.