[Midnightsky228]

Well delivery day is Saturday and I wanted to check in with the masses and ask about excessive idling. Over the years I have developed an affinity for sitting in nature spots in my car for hours on end, 1-3 hours. Historically in the summer I idle the vehicle during those periods with the A/C running and in winter idling with the heat on. Where I live it gets frigid cold in winter and gross dry heat in the summer, Alberta to be precise. My body has never gotten very good at adapting to the heat of summer or the frigid cold of winter so I rely on my vehicle to help balance things out. Why I do this? I enjoy the solidarity, the peace and quiet away from general city noises, its a great way to collect my thoughts and relax. I generally do this once or twice a day depending on various life circumstances. Typically I will watch red winged black birds, hawks/falcons, deer, and coyote's. Occasionally I will have music playing in the background sometimes at minimal volume and sometimes its blasting. At worst my vehicles will idle for 3-4 hours a day, at best 1 hour per day. What negative effects may this have on my 2017 Mazda 3 Hatch 2.5L engine? What suggestions would you give me to prevent any excessive wear on my engine from all this idling? I could reduce idle time but if I am starting/stopping the engine alot that puts extra wear on my battery and could require a new battery more often, which may in the end be a cheaper solution than replacing an engine. Also for the initial "break-in" period I would assume I need to prevent any idling, more or less at all costs correct? For about 1000-2000km? Any information, thoughts, and opinions are greatly appreciated.

 

[CJR238]

Well delivery day is Saturday and I wanted to check in with the masses and ask about excessive idling. Over the years I have developed an affinity for sitting in nature spots in my car for hours on end, 1-3 hours. Historically in the summer I idle the vehicle during those periods with the A/C running and in winter idling with the heat on. Where I live it gets frigid cold in winter and gross dry heat in the summer, Alberta to be precise. My body has never gotten very good at adapting to the heat of summer or the frigid cold of winter so I rely on my vehicle to help balance things out. Why I do this? I enjoy the solidarity, the peace and quiet away from general city noises, its a great way to collect my thoughts and relax. I generally do this once or twice a day depending on various life circumstances. Typically I will watch red winged black birds, hawks/falcons, deer, and coyote's. Occasionally I will have music playing in the background sometimes at minimal volume and sometimes its blasting. At worst my vehicles will idle for 3-4 hours a day, at best 1 hour per day. What negative effects may this have on my 2017 Mazda 3 Hatch 2.5L engine? What suggestions would you give me to prevent any excessive wear on my engine from all this idling? I could reduce idle time but if I am starting/stopping the engine alot that puts extra wear on my battery and could require a new battery more often, which may in the end be a cheaper solution than replacing an engine. Also for the initial "break-in" period I would assume I need to prevent any idling, more or less at all costs correct? For about 1000-2000km? Any information, thoughts, and opinions are greatly appreciated.

Excessive idling is not good. Avoid it if at all possible.

Try walking in the woods, its better for you, your car and nature. The only way to adapt is to get out there and do it.:wink2:

Not sure there is anything you can do affordably to help your excessive idling.

Yes, you do not want the car to run at a specific RPM for too long. I took back roads mixed with highway for the first few thousand miles.

 

[johnzcarz]

If the car is idling for long periods of time you definitely want to follow the 'severe service' maintenance schedule. Also, if you spend a lot of time with many accessories on (lights, defroster/AC, wipers, rear defogger, hvac blower fan, etc.) I doubt your battery is ever being fully charged unless you have at least a 1/2 hour drive home after that.

 

[Midnightsky228]

What type of damage would be created by excessive idling?

 

[Road Trip]

As noted above, idling keeps your car's motor as a specific RPM, and even blipping the throttle does not properly load the piston rings to help them seat best -- which is best done via engine compression breaking described below and which is critical on a new car to develop best power, and nicely also results in the lowest fuel and oil consumption.

If you had a diesel, which is designed to run at low RPM's for long lengths of time, long length idling would be a different story -- but again even with a diesel only after Mazda's break in period is over.

The best way to break in a car is to vary throttle pressure (but not using more than 3/4 throttle at the beginning), and run you car up in the gears to around 4,000, then let the motor's compression "engine brake you to a lower RPM." This is easiest to do, and the way I do it, is to get to a top of long fairly steep hill, accelerate up to 4,000 RPM as a start down the hill, then take my foot off the gas entirely -- doing this a few times as I am going down it. Do this a couple of times a day during the first 500 miles of my new car's ownership.

Of course also critical and in conjunction with the above, is to not use cruise control during OEM break in period.

One last issue with extended idling, is that it results in accelerated oil wear (necessitating premature oil changing required as also posted above).

 

[JeanLucPicard]

What type of damage would be created by excessive idling?

Idling can quite literally "water down" your engine oil, mostly from condensation of combustion byproducts and not enough temperature in the oil to vaporize them. Engine Oil with water content will lose a good deal of its abilities, leading to lots of wear.

 

[oscargamer]

have to disagree with a lot of the above

yes - for the first 1500km or so, you need to load up the engine with a mixture of all driving, full throttle etc... to seat in piston rings, try and avoid excessive idling during this period, try and avoid long periods with the same revs

after that, no issues - do what you want

our work cars run for about 8 hours a day, for various reasons we don't turn them off, sometimes they are driven for those 8 hours, sometimes they idle for 7 hours

NEVER EVER had any issues with any cars over the 15 years we have been doing this - we run about 200 vehicles like this, day in day out and sell them once they reach 60000km

 

[Road Trip]

oscargamer, are your 200 vehicles diesels please?

 

[CJR238]

have to disagree with a lot of the above

yes - for the first 1500km or so, you need to load up the engine with a mixture of all driving, full throttle etc... to seat in piston rings, try and avoid excessive idling during this period, try and avoid long periods with the same revs

after that, no issues - do what you want

our work cars run for about 8 hours a day, for various reasons we don't turn them off, sometimes they are driven for those 8 hours, sometimes they idle for 7 hours

NEVER EVER had any issues with any cars over the 15 years we have been doing this - we run about 200 vehicles like this, day in day out and sell them once they reach 60000km

You can beat the heck out of any car for 60000km/37282mi and not see the damage you have done, let alone what excessive idling will do. lol

Now if you had one that went over 200000km/124000mi that would be saying something.

I know i don't want a car that lasts under 100,000mi. lol

 

[WheelMcCoy]

For modern cars, idling doesn't hurt the engine, but it does hurt the environment.

Blog Post | Idling for long periods might not damage your car -- but there are other reasons why it's a lousy idea. | Car Talk

 

[CJR238]

What type of damage would be created by excessive idling?

It doesn't really cause additional damage, just decreases the life of the car for the amount of idling you suggest.

Think of it for every hour you idle your putting 30 miles on the car. That could be an extra 1200mi+ a month, 14,000mi+ a year and 72000mi+ in 5 years. If you dump the car before 100000mi no big deal, but if you want it a long time and get the most out of it don't idol excessively and unnecessarily.

 

[Midnightsky228]

lots of great info, thank you all for the feedback, moving forward i will do my best to decrease my idling