Ladies and gentlemen...stop your engines!

Here's part of an article on why it's unnecessary to idle your vehicle's engine. It's a bit of a read but worth it. This is my new motto: "Save the planet, damn it!"

Idling away doesn't pay
By: David L. Flewelling, CA
President, Canadian Automobile Association

Canadians unnecessarily idle their vehicles an average of five to 10 minutes per day. The result: increased greenhouse gas emissions, urban smog, acid rain, and wasted fuel.

Nobody that I know likes to waste money. Yet many of us abandon our common-sense approach when it comes to idling our vehicles; we continue to run our automobile engines even when we are stopped for minutes at a time at a store, school, car wash and the like. Research shows that idling a vehicle for 10 minutes a day uses an average of 100 litres of gasoline a year. At 70 cents a litre, you would save $70 per year just by turning off your engine when you stop your car for more than 10 seconds.

Need another reason beyond saving money? We read or hear about vehicle exhaust emissions, greenhouse gases and climate change on a daily or weekly basis. Believe it or not, by not idling your car for just five minutes a day, you could help prevent more than 4,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide (C02) from entering the atmosphere, save 1.9 million litres of fuel and more than $1.3 million in fuel costs every day, according to Natural Resources Canada.

How about the damage to your car's engine? Despite what you may have heard, idling is not the proper way in which to warm up your vehicle's engine, even in the winter. In fact, you do not need to idle your vehicle for more than 30 seconds before driving away, even on the coldest of days.Excessive idling can actually harm your engine. Because an idling engine is not operating at its peak temperature, fuel combustion is incomplete. As a result, fuel residues can condense on cylinder walls, where they can contaminate oil and damage engine components. Idling can also generate water condensation in your vehicle's exhaust. This can lead to corrosion and can reduce the life of your exhaust system.

Some believe that turning off and restarting your vehicle harms your engine. In reality, frequent restarting barely affects your engine's components. If you idle your vehicle for more than 10 seconds, you are using more fuel than if you restarted your engine.