[jaaz]

This information will help save on Fuel bills for the entire nation.

That's exactly the reason, Mahindra has introduced Micro chips in their models, where the Engine will cut off when the Vehicle idles for more than 10 secs. And restarts the Engine as soon as you press the accelarator.

[finneyp]

Very useful info!

I just idle for 5 - 10 secs after starting the car & then drive off.
And I normally switch off the engine whenever I have to wait for more than 30 secs.

[suman]

Originally Posted by jaaz

That's exactly the reason, Mahindra has introduced Micro chips in their models, where the Engine will cut off when the Vehicle idles for more than 10 secs. And restarts the Engine as soon as you press the accelarator.

We will have to see what long term damages this leads to in the Turbochargers since there is a recommended idling time of 30 seconds before switching off in the modern day common rail engines.

[vasudeva]

There is little data available internationally on the extent of idling, and thus based on that, on the amount of fuel spent on idling. Some studies I could dig out:

In Canada: average individual idles anywhere from 1.4 to 4.6 min a day in situations excluding traffic. In a 2003 nationwide telephone survey of Canadian residents, the average respondent reported idling for 26 minutes a week (3.7 minutes per day) to warm their engines and 13 minutes per week while waiting in their vehicles. The average participant believed a vehicle could be idled for more than 3 mins. before it becomes more efficient to turn it off.

In the US, an online research panel lab, managed by managed by Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management Participants surveyed 1,300 US residents in 2007. Based on their idling behaviour and extrapolating, the average American idles for roughly 16 minutes a day, resulting in close to 94 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and idling behaviour resulted in fuel consumption of 40 billion litres per annum. Further, 5-8% of fuel use in personal motor vehicles was due to idling. That is total idling which may or may be not less than 30 secs. Importantly, 48% of all drivers surveyed idling for longer than the 30 secs recommended resulting in close to 16 million tonnes of CO2 and 6.8 billion litres of fuel per annum.

[vasudeva]

Some more studies which are related to India can be seen here:

This seems like an old one: Welcome to PCRA.org
This is a CSE study (remember Sunita Narain and Pesticides in Cola): www.cseindia.org/AboutUs/press_releases/congestion.pdf

This seems like a 2007-08 study in Pune: Powered by: Doteasy - Bannerless Free Web Hosting and Email for Small Business and IndividualIdling.pdf

The basic message seems to be: not recommended to idle if you expect idling more than 30 secs.

I used to idle till around 2007 for max of 45-60 secs. However, had seen these EPA and other studies then, and so have reduced this to around 25-30 secs (lots of redlights in Delhi have time indicators). Even if that is not there, an experienced driver going thru the same point everyday can reasonably judge the expected waiting time (example what is the order of movement of green lights at intersections). Nevertheless, there is still a lot that can be done.

Lesser idling both by drivers and better sense by traffic authorities can further reduce idling, save us fuel bills, reduce subsidies, reduce oil imports (US$94.3 billion in 2008-09 or Rs. 192864 crores, 70% of our oil consumption) by some amount, and cause lesser CO2 emissions.

[dadu]

We discussed some aspects here too

[tush]

A real worthy thread contributing to the fact of global warming and imparting knowledge on how we can help the environment at individual level as far as our wheels are concerned.

I have seen many ICE lovers who keep their cars idling at hill stations like lonavala to enjoy the music and party there. The reason being the amps, subwoofer draw more power hence to save the battery from discharging they keep their engines idling. And this can go for 30 minutes to say 1 hour until they party in the open air. Imagine the impact on the environment.

[Akadian]

Dear friends,

This is absolutely fresh information for me as I used to religiously follow Tata Motors guidelines letting my turbo engine idle before starting as well as stopping. I still think that it will be hard for me to stop idling completely as old habits die hard but I will definitely look at reducing my idling duration. Some of the information posted above actually claims that idling is not even doing a favor to the machine at the cost of harming the environment. I'm a bit skeptical but shall change a little to accommodate for the future generations, to whom we owe a healthy environment

Regards

[vasudeva]

On a side note, India can claim justly about the developed nations contributing to global warming, but it is poor nations that will suffer more than their contribution.

[mithun]

Related Thread : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...-vehicles.html

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Akadian

This is absolutely fresh information for me as I used to religiously follow Tata Motors guidelines letting my turbo engine idle before starting as well as stopping.

If you care about the life of your turbo-charger, you must idle for 45 - 60 seconds after starting, and before shutting off the engine.

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by GTO

If you care about the life of your turbo-charger, you must idle for 45 - 60 seconds after starting, and before shutting off the engine.

Diesel vehicles anyway consume very little fuel at idle, and IEA-OECD 2007 estimates that idle fuel consumption reduction relative to a gasoline vehicles is on the order of 40 to 45%. Hence, fuel economy shortfall due to operation in dense traffic is reduced. In typical city driving, a gasoline vehicle can obtain a fuel economy benefit of 8 to 10% from “idle-off”, but the benefit is reduced to about 5% for a diesel. It should be noted that the first commercial `idle-off' technology introduction was on a VW diesel, but this was because VW was attempting to reach a very high fuel economy target. Due to the limited fuel economy benefit, the VW product was discontinued.

[(Alok)]

Few days ago, I noticed some notes on a Mahindra 575di tractor. Habitually use search option on Team-bhp to get appropriate thread and so posting here, as the matter is related to idling and it is a non turbo engine (for turbo engine there many different threads on Team-BHP).
Please elaborate the first two notes:
1. Operate with load for first 100 hours
2. Avoid unnecessary idling.

thanks

[condor]

That's correct

Unlike motor vehicles, Usage of tractor engines, Genset engines & many others is measured in terms of hours and not in distance travelled. Their maintenance is based on this kind of measurement.

Unnecessary Idling: idling also causes usage of engine. Pls refer above mentioned point.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by condor

Unnecessary Idling: idling also causes usage of engine. Pls refer above mentioned point.

Yes it does. And in fact, on many engines, engine wear is more during idling than when you load up the engine.

The worst, from an engine wear point of view, is to idle the engine for a long period when it's been started up from cold (especially really cold, below zero degrees)

Jeroen