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I stopped idling my diesel trucks before work. Here's what happened.
A lot of mechanics tell you to let diesel engines idle to warm up, but I disagree. I used to do it for years, but two years ago I quit that habit. Now I start the truck and drive off slow after about a minute. With my ten trucks, I've seen no extra repairs over 50,000 miles each. We actually cut fuel use by a good amount. Some say this hurts the engine, but my experience shows it's fine for modern diesels.
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fisher.thomas1mo ago
Your experience is lucky, but cold starts still cause extra wear on turbo bearings and cylinder walls. Letting it idle for a few minutes gets oil fully circulating before load.
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bell.emma1mo ago
Honestly shocked you think it needs to idle for minutes @fisher.thomas. Modern oil gets moving way faster than that. The worst wear happens in like the first ten seconds, not after it's already running. Letting it sit that long just wastes gas and heats things up without even driving. My mechanic said just thirty seconds is plenty, even for a turbo. Tbh yours is the first advice I've seen telling people to wait that long.
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