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Christ, I'm officially old now. Current PhD candidates think cars needed to warm up in the 80s.

by ianamartin 8y ago

CSDude 8y ago
Well my car from 93 needed to warm up :(
- hinkley 8y ago
  When it was new or when it was old? Cars from the 80's only needed to warm up if you lived in the upper Midwest, or when they got old and started falling apart. If you were a kid in the 80's or 90's and your neighborhood wasn't well off you might be forgiven for thinking all cars had this problem, because everyone drove used cars until they fell apart. [Edit] Looks like OP is going to a University in Turkey. The possibility of cultural disconnects with SV and PNW is not surprising at all.
  - CSDude 8y ago
    Well, it was a Renault 21 with a carburetor, and it had only 150K kms for over 20 years and nice use. It used to work great in Izmir where it was warm but when I attended University at Ankara where it was freezing, it required more than 3 ignitions, keeping it above 2.5k RPM and the handle (I do not know its Enligsh name) must be on (https://youtu.be/jLfnwRavuy8?t=1m4s https://youtu.be/jLfnwRavuy8?t=1m4s) which pumped more gas so cold weather was reduced, I guess. But it might happen in kinda in warm weather too, at 5C
kuwze 8y ago
Wait, don't cars have to warm up so you don't damage the engine when it's cold outside?
- roywiggins 8y ago
  Modern cars don't. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/29/the-biggest-winter-energy-myth-that-you-need-to-idle-your-car-before-driving/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/29/the-b...
  - kuwze 8y ago
    That doesn't say anything about engine damage though. It just comments about the obviously wasted fuel during the idle period.
    - bpicolo 8y ago
      > Moreover, older cars -- which relied on carburetors as a crucial engine component -- did need to warm up to work well, according to several auto industry experts. Without warming up, the carburetor would not necessarily be able to get the right mix of air and fuel in the engine -- and the car might stall out. During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, however, the auto industry did away with carburetors in favor of electronic fuel injection
  - maerF0x0 8y ago
    The article notes at the end other realities than fuel economy. You often cannot see because of frost on the inside of the windshield. Save a few drops of gas and have to replace a whole car (due to a crash) is a weak strategy.
chimeracoder 8y ago
> Christ, I'm officially old now. Current PhD candidates think cars needed to warm up in the 80s. To be honest, I think most people would (if you ask them) assume a carburetor is a part of a typical car, even though fuel injectors have been commonplace for decades now. Most people just don't think about how cars work.

Christ, I'm officially old now. Current PhD candidates think cars needed to warm up in the 80s.

CSDude 8y ago

Well my car from 93 needed to warm up :(

hinkley 8y ago
When it was new or when it was old? Cars from the 80's only needed to warm up if you lived in the upper Midwest, or when they got old and started falling apart. If you were a kid in the 80's or 90's and your neighborhood wasn't well off you might be forgiven for thinking all cars had this problem, because everyone drove used cars until they fell apart. [Edit] Looks like OP is going to a University in Turkey. The possibility of cultural disconnects with SV and PNW is not surprising at all.
- CSDude 8y ago
  Well, it was a Renault 21 with a carburetor, and it had only 150K kms for over 20 years and nice use. It used to work great in Izmir where it was warm but when I attended University at Ankara where it was freezing, it required more than 3 ignitions, keeping it above 2.5k RPM and the handle (I do not know its Enligsh name) must be on (https://youtu.be/jLfnwRavuy8?t=1m4s https://youtu.be/jLfnwRavuy8?t=1m4s) which pumped more gas so cold weather was reduced, I guess. But it might happen in kinda in warm weather too, at 5C

kuwze 8y ago

Wait, don't cars have to warm up so you don't damage the engine when it's cold outside?

roywiggins 8y ago
Modern cars don't. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/29/the-biggest-winter-energy-myth-that-you-need-to-idle-your-car-before-driving/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/29/the-b...
- kuwze 8y ago
  That doesn't say anything about engine damage though. It just comments about the obviously wasted fuel during the idle period.
  - bpicolo 8y ago
    > Moreover, older cars -- which relied on carburetors as a crucial engine component -- did need to warm up to work well, according to several auto industry experts. Without warming up, the carburetor would not necessarily be able to get the right mix of air and fuel in the engine -- and the car might stall out. During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, however, the auto industry did away with carburetors in favor of electronic fuel injection
- maerF0x0 8y ago
  The article notes at the end other realities than fuel economy. You often cannot see because of frost on the inside of the windshield. Save a few drops of gas and have to replace a whole car (due to a crash) is a weak strategy.

chimeracoder 8y ago

> Christ, I'm officially old now. Current PhD candidates think cars needed to warm up in the 80s. To be honest, I think most people would (if you ask them) assume a carburetor is a part of a typical car, even though fuel injectors have been commonplace for decades now. Most people just don't think about how cars work.