Your Car Could Use A Morning Stretch: Warming Up the Car

Mr. José Ramirez from LATTC and I talk about the reasons we're adivsed to let your cars warm up for about 20-30 seconds before we start driving in the morning.

Just like your body, the car needs to get fluids circulating, and breathing regulated. Your car needs to get oil pumping through all parts of the engine. Air and fuel need a minute til it's regulated and burning the most efficiently.

Starting out the car and the day, it could be a great opportunity to take a few seconds and let things get harmonized.

A morning haiku break brought to us by Gemini:

Pause and let it breathe,
Needle drops to steady low,
Peace before the path.

Stay in touch, share your thoughts, recommend your trusted mechanic as a guest, get good tips and find out when episodes drop by subscribing! Email us at goodcarmapodcast@gmail.com and visit the website goodcarmapodcast.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Keep in mind this podcast is meant to provide general information and is not meant to replace having your car seen or serviced at a qualified shop. Hey guys, welcome to the Karma Podcast. I am very late posting the episode today because I'm on the road and we're in beautiful Cambria. And I thought it would be fun to record on the beach. I don't know if you can hear the beach. I'm gonna do my best to edit out the waves. But we drove up to Central California. I'm gonna try to meet Mrs. Shops while I'm up here. I already met with Richie Wimmert from Wimmert Automotive, and he's an awesome guy. He runs a shop and teaches at the local high school in Morave. And he's just great. He's helping get the next generation of technicians out there. And I'll do an episode with him sometime soon. I'm gonna stop by Cuesta College, which also has a big auto repair program. So I'm interested to see what their school is like up here. And speaking of trade colleges, I'm back this week with another conversation I had with my teacher, Mr. Ramirez. And we're talking about the kind of topic that I really like, which is when you you kind of know you're supposed to do something, but maybe you don't know exactly why. So we're talking about reasons that it's good to let your car warm up for 20 to 30 seconds before you get going on the road. And I mean, I know you kind of think, oh well, car needs to cool it warm up, but we're gonna get into specifics of what that really means and how it's uh helping your car be more efficient, be a little cleaner, and save a little gas. So I'm calling this episode your car could use a morning stretch, which there's a lot of similarities between getting up in the morning as a human and as a car. Just like the second you wake up and open your eyes, it's probably not a great idea to run out of bed and run across your apartment or your house. Your blood needs to get circulating, uh, and you need to regulate your breathing. So similarly, the oil pressure needs to build up and start circulating, and the air and fuel ratio needs to get regulated. So in order for your car to run the most efficiently. So I'm gonna drop us in. It's a bit of a rough cut again. I don't have an intro with him into the conversation. I'm gonna drop right where I asked him about the oil pressure and why it is a good idea to just let your car run for just even a half a minute before you take off for the day.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

The engine requires to pressurize the oil so it can travel right through the whole engine and lubricate everything. So the parts could be actually hydroplaning. You know, you got the crankshaft, camshaft, all those moving parts that are rotating needs to be lubricated at all times. In the morning, the car as has been sitting overnight, all the oil will drip down into the oil pan. We need to make sure that we keep enough lubricant inside or underneath those moving parts. That the main thing too is the oil filter is also important. The oil filter must have a nine-time drain valve, and that will that will that that little valve in the filter will hold oil in the galleys, oil underneath the crankshaft and the connecting rods, the bearings, and that way it can actually start up a lot easier and be able to cost less wear.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

And that's why it's important to get your oil change done at a good place, right? And where they're gonna use a quality filter.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Yes, the quality filter makes a big deal. Um, I always stress, you know, for owners to get a um the original filter or as closest to the original filter as possible. I mean, I give an example. Toyota don't make the filters, somebody else makes them. So we gotta find out who makes them and you can buy those filters from them. And that way you have a reputable filter and it's gonna make your engine last even longer.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Oil pressure needs to rebuild immediately so that it can be distributed. It needs to get all around the whole engine, and there's certain parts that are further away. It needs it needs a little bit of time, like a few milliseconds or seconds, would you say?

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Well, it would take about a few seconds, but yes, the part that takes the least oil is stuff um is the valve chain, which is normally it's at the top of the engine. So oil needs to travel up and it needs to get pressurized right away. As soon as the car starts up, the pump is operating and is making oil pressure. It takes some time to get into the valve train, and that's the least, that's the that's the part of the engine that's able to have the least amount of oil. That's the way it is. I mean, I'll give an example. Engine rattles in the morning for about maybe, maybe two to three seconds, and the customer complains of the rattling. People are at the shop are trying to sell them an engine. All it was is an oil filter. The oil filter was the wrong one. He uh he was buying the cheapest oil filter at the auto parts, and I basically asked him just to give me a motocraft. Uh we were talking about Dutch truck. He got me the Motocraft, I mean, I'm sorry, the Mopar oil filter, and he started up the next morning. No, it's just gone. It was just a matter of putting the right filter, and it saved him thousands of dollars because the mechanic does not know.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Anything else that um might be a symptom of uh a bad filter? Or is that is that the main one?

SPEAKER_02 4:50

That'll be the main one. And then of course, uh there are filters that will start leaking from the seams or from the seam if it's the old-fashioned oil filter. They're not made properly. They made, you know, again, and they're not spending the top money on the materials and the labor. So we get some crappy parts.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Yeah. Also, for letting your car warm up a little bit, it matters to get the temperature up to start um burning off some moisture in the engine?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Um, the vehicle has moisture. Once we come to a stop, and once we park the car overnight, or it doesn't matter what time of the day, uh, as the engine cools down, it's gonna attract the moisture from the outside. The moisture is gonna break down the oil. And if we don't drive the car properly, the moisture is gonna break down the oil even more, and that can cause some engine damage.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

So just letting your car warm up a little bit in the morning, the 20 seconds or so, it could at least burn off a good amount of that before it starts circulating in the car?

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Well, the the the moisture will would eventually evaporate and it'll go away as you start driving and the engine reaches no more putting temperature. But yes, it is a good practice to let the vehicle idle momentarily for you know for you know 20, 30 seconds. The best thing to do in many cases is uh if you if we were to look at every every manufacturer that we have, Toyota, Chevrolet, Ford, they all have they all have a different way of warming up an engine. They might tell you, let it idle. And if everybody pay attention to the RPM in the morning, the engine will idle a little bit fast. If you time it, it could be for 20 seconds, it could be for a minute. And once the idle drops back down to 750, and then you can pretty much say, okay, I'm ready to go. But every manufacturer has its own way. We can come up with a way to say, all right, let's do half a minute. That will give you enough time to just double check your mirrors, double check everything, make sure you got everything on hand, and that will give you enough time for the engine to idle and start the lubricant process and some of the moisture to go away.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Um, I didn't realize that the manufacturers would actually talk about that. They do the warm-ups.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

It's not a uh it's not a common thing, but it's in the shop manuals. It's in the part where is um, I believe it says we'll get to know your vehicle, and it tells you not everybody reads the shop manual. We're all, you know, we're all aware of that in uh or any manual at all until we I mean until we uh until we run into trouble. But once we start understanding what the manual is all about, and we should be able to get some pretty good information from them.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah, I'm trying to um uh promote the idea that you know cars are doing exactly what they're supposed to do, but as an owner, there are certain things you have to do too.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Definitely. We have to make sure that uh that A, they get everything they need. If they don't, we're not getting anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah, and you can uh run a perfectly good car into the ground pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

It's it it's it's been proven. I have seen it in 33 years of experience. I have seen vehicles low mileage engines toast just because the simple fact that they don't take care of it.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yeah. Um fuel trim is another reason, right? So can you explain a little bit about how a car you need to wait or it's a good idea to wait till the car just goes quickly into closed loop?

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Sure. So the logic, every car, every car, the computer has a logic. The logic is to make sure the engine is warmed up properly so it can function the way it's meant to be. The computer is already programmed to have something that we call open loop and closed loop. Open loop is basically in the morning, the vehicle is running on predetermined values for that minute, whatever time it is, and then the computer will take over after the engine warms up.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Basically, in terms of how much fuel the car needs, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yes. So the pre uh predetermined value in the morning, it's already given it a rich mixture. That's why the RPMs are up. And once the RPMs are up, then the temperature of the ECT, the engine cooling temperature sensor, has to reach approximately between 68 to 88 degrees. And that could be reaching half a minute. That could be reaching one minute or so. I mean, I mean it all depends on the make and models. Then after that, the vehicle will go into closed loop. The engine, the computer, is gonna use the values for the mass airflow sensor, the O2 sensors, throttle precision sensor, ECT, and everything else that it requires to give us the perfect air fuel mixture. And we're talking around, uh not around, we're talking uh exactly to be the 14.721 air fuel ratio. If we run the engine at that ratio all the time, we get the best mileage, we get the best power, and at the end result, the tailpipe will be as clean as anything that we can have coming out of the tailpipe of a vehicle. Meaning you have a little bit of uh well, I'm sorry, we have we have water, we have a little bit of nitrogen, we have a little bit of um of HC or almost none of the new car. So no emissions that can hurt the air, but we have to keep that air-fuel ratio. I mean, it has to be as content as possible. Oil plays a big factor because it can suck in the blow-by gases and be able to change the mixture.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

And blow by gases meaning it's pulling in um fuel from the engine.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Blow by gases is compression that is leaking past our piston rings, and that happening in every engine. But once once the oil is not treated or or not changed properly, though those blow up those blow by gases will be increasing dramatically, and it's gonna mess with the computer's information and then you know, it's gonna be try to adjust it accordingly, and it's gonna give us a run for our money.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, I want to talk to you again about this in the when we talk of uh uh exclusively about oil changes, but a lot of times if you uh cars that fail smog tests uh and there it has too much hydrocarbon, too much fuel in the exhaust, it's sometimes just based on needing uh an oil change, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Absolutely. I have seen so many vehicles coming in. They basically said, uh, you know, the customer says, Well, they told me that I need a caliber converter. Basically, they don't. The oil is so diluted with fuel because A, the customer doesn't change oil properly, they don't do it at the right intervals. And every fails, they always wait until the last minute to get it done because the car needs to get its mock chick. And they're they're willing to spend whatever money it takes, but at the same time, it doesn't take a lot of money. It's just a simple, basic oil change, and that will solve a lot of the issues.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

And not not doing the oil change for long intervals, not only is the tailpipe emission is worse, but you're risking damaging other parts in the car.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Yes, the uh the oil gets diluted, the oil breaks down, it's not lubricating properly, and now we have metal on metal wear, and slowly we're killing the engines as we drive.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Okay, thank you. This has been like amazing. Um is there do you have any other thoughts on um the benefits of not just turning your car on and and peeling out of your driveway?

SPEAKER_02 11:55

We are in uh how can I put it? We're all busy. We're all all we're always running late. But we need to slow down a little bit and basically think about the machine that is gonna take us to point B. We you know, I mean, it has no feelings. I mean, you know, some of us we I feel like my cart able to able to sense my urgency. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But uh but if we were to just to go back and try to remember when we were learning how to drive, they always gave us uh a thing to check our our light bulbs, our headlights, wipe the license plate, make sure the light bulbs all everything work while the engine is running. That's enough time for us to uh help the engine get lubricated properly so it can last you know a long time. Uh with addition to that, is keep with the oil changes. If you if you do it if you do the oil changes on your own, there's nothing wrong with it. Stick to the manufacturer recommendation. Do not listen to the parse guy. The parse person who's gonna sell you that oil, he or she is instructed to sell a particular weight oil, which is gonna be the wrong one for your car. If you listen to that person, then I can tell you that uh, you know, you'll be the one causing the damage on your engine. Okay. Oil filters as well. Just you know, recapping earlier, stick to the manufacturer or as close as possible to the map, just to the manufacturer oil filter, and I'll leave it a lot of headaches. Just a simple change will make your life a lot easier and your car will last longer.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Awesome. And that's what we'll talk about in the next episode we do together, which is the importance of regular oil changes.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Sure, no problem.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Be glad. Thank you so much. Thanks, guys. I hope you feel that was a helpful conversation. I know for me, even if I know you're supposed to do something, if I don't know why, then it's like not really gonna stick in my head. So I hope this was helpful. The peace of mind coiner, I want to do literal peace of mind this time. And so I'm trying to think for my own self. What can I do for 20 seconds to 30 seconds in the morning so that I remember not to just turn it on and go? So I have a list. Could be a great time to meditate, a really good time to do a quick box breathing, which is a lot of I think a lot of people know about box breathing, like a meditator kind of breathing where you go, you breathe in for five seconds. Well, you can pick the amount of time. But for example, it'll be 20 seconds exactly.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

You breathe in for five seconds, fold it for five seconds, breathe out for five seconds, and then hold out for five seconds. And then maybe even one more time that don't idle for too long.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Another thing would be you can set an intention for the day. Also, you can think about someone in your life who you appreciate and and maybe make a point to call that person or text that person later in the day. And lastly, 20 seconds is just about enough time. Create or read a haiku. So I'm gonna ask chat to write me a haiku about pausing in the morning before you take off in your car, and I'll post that in the show notes. I'll see what chat comes up with. Okay, thank you guys so much for listening. This was a short episode today. Maribel, I will get you a long episode. I just don't know when. I really appreciate you guys listening. Uh, I would love it if you could click five stars, write a review, or drop me a note, goodkarmapodcast at gmail.com, and that's karma with a C. Um, until next time, keep up with your oil changes, and I'll see you down the road.