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 Let your engine idle briefly. Anything more simply wastes fuel, increases engine wear, and increases emissions.
With computer-controlled fuel injection engines, you need to idle only a few minutes on winter days. When it’s below -20°C, plug in the block heater for 2 hours. Timers are great for this! The block heater will help to warm the engine block and lubricants. In temperatures below 0°C, block heaters can improve overall fuel economy by at least 10%.
Driving is also the only way to warm up the wheel bearings, steering, suspension, transmission and tires. To warm these up drive your vehicle.
Avoid using a remote starter unless you plan to drive off in 30 seconds. Remote starts can waste your money and add to pollution.
 Computer-controlled fuel systems adjust the fuel mix-ture to the temperature.You’ll only waste fuel by gunning the accelerator.
Giving your engine “lots of gas” will also increase air pollution of unburned hydrocarbons and can increase smog. This is damaging to both human health and the nat-ural environment. The best way to warm up an engine and all the other moving parts of a vehicle is to drive away slowly for about the first five kilometres. Accelerate slowly for maximum fuel economy. If you gun your engine while driving, you’ll only spin your wheels and waste fuel.   Northern winter roads, espec-ially secondary ones, can put you and your passengers in real danger if your vehicle breaks down, you have an accident, you get stuck in a snowbank or your vehicle slides off the road. Always be prepared for an emergency in winter:
1. Install good winter tires
2. Don’t let your fuel level drop below half a tank
3. Make sure that every passenger in the ve-hicle has warm winter clothes available
4. Prepare a “Winter Travel Kit” with candles, matches, sleeping bags (or blankets), first aid kit, pocket knife, canned nuts, energy snack bars and a brightly coloured cloth to use as a flag
5. Put a small shovel, a bag of sand and a tow strap in your trunk
6. Tell someone your travel plans
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 Auto manufacturers agree that modern engines do not produce much heat at idle, and don’t need much internal heat to operate properly.
Diesel engines will cool off until their fuel injectors no longer contain the fuel properly and “slobbering” takes place. This puts excessive fuel into the combustion chamber and can damage your engine.
 
Once you’ve started your vehicle and driven some-where, it is actually less harmful to your engine to turn it off and restart it. The fuel to restart the warm engine of an average sized vehicle is less than the fuel burned in approximately 10 seconds of idling.
Restarting a vehicle many times has been proven to have little impact on starter motor or battery life. However, idling does significantly reduce the life of engine oil, which breaks down much more quickly with prolonged idling. It also uses a lot of fuel, rusts out your exhaust system, and increases pollution.
 Not true. Cars and trucks
simply don’t like the cold.
Keep your vehicle properly
maintained and tuned. Modify your driving habits. It can save you money, help the environ-ment and allow your vehicle to start and run more efficiently.
Make sure your battery and charging systems are in good operating condition. Be especially alert if your battery is more than four years old. It may only work well when the weather is warm. Carry a set of jumper cables in your vehicle at all times.
Make sure all filters – oil, gas and air - are in good condition. Coolant should be changed every two years unless you are using exten-ded life coolants which are good for about five years.
To ease engine start up in winter use a 0W-30 or 5W-30 oil which provides for engine starts at the very low temperatures that we have in the NWT. Even better, switch to synthetic oils in both your engine and transmission. Motor oil should be changed routinely to prevent exces-sive moisture and fuel buildup in winter
conditions.
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