DRIVERS have been warned that they risk significant engine damage by using a common car warming trick in cold weather.
With snow flurries falling across the country and a health alert in force due to the deep freeze this week, motorists must bear in mind how the icy temperatures affect their vehicles or else face hefty repair bills.
GettyDrivers could cause serious engine damage by pushing their cars too hard before they warm up[/caption]
Seb Goldin, the CEO of RED Driving School, urged vehicle owners to avoid a “tempting” hack to warm up their cars quickly, as it could cause serious damage.
Revving your engine while stationary can be very effective in kicking your heater into gear and even clearing ice from your windshield.
But it can also hit the engine hard when it is in a very vulnerable state before it properly warms up.
Seb told The Express: “The cold temperatures can impact engine activity.
“Avoid high engine revs until the engine has reached operating temperature as this can damage the engine.”
Damage can include an issue called piston slap, where the pistons slightly contract due to the cold and rock side to side, which can cause scratching to the cylinder wall.
Seb also advised keeping a particularly close eye on your “engine fluids”, particularly oil and anti-freeze, to make running the engine as efficient as possible.
In the worst cases, a lack of lubrication can lead to the engine seizing.
Either way, pushing your car too hard on a cold start could leave you in need of a full replacement, with costs running into the thousands.
Instead, the best thing to do is to simply turn your engine on and set off driving normally or a little more sympathetically than usual.
Modern cars with fuel injection do not need to idle for prolonged periods to warm up before beginning your journey, so the best way to get heat through the system is to drive steadily in the correct gear with smooth gear changes and braking where possible.
As for defrosting your windscreen, drivers are just realising that a 12p household item can stop ice in its tracks.