Eli5 Why do cars need a cold indicator?
In: 5
My car has a “cold indicator”, but it’s more designed to indicate that the roads might be icy and slippery
Can you clarify what you mean by a “cold indicator”? Most vehicles I’m familiar with don’t have such a device or reading. Some electric vehicles will need to have their batteries within a specific temperature range to operate properly, so there may be warnings on the display about extremely cold conditions with those.
Cars should not be run hard when very cold. The oil is thicker, more viscous, and doesn’t flow as well. The engine temperature being monitored is really the oil temperature and its quality basically improves as it gets warmer.
In the winter I usually start the engine first, then let it warm up while I do any prep work, like scraping ice off the windows or just moving snow off the car in general. It buys the engine some time to warm up a little, and when you get in the seat warmers have had a chance to do their job.
The alert is to notify driver that roads may be slick due to ice and snow, so to use caution.
Depends what you mean by ‘cold indicator’?
If you mean engine temperature gauge or a blue ‘cold engine’ light, it’s an indication that the engine has not fully warmed up and should not be driven hard.
If you mean a warning that the outside temperature is below freezing, some cars include this to warn of possible ice/snow on the road. It can also be a notification to check the battery, coolant, etc that can be affected by cold weather.
It means engine and transmission is not up to operating temperature. The oil is thick and won’t operate engine solenoid valves properly causing slow shifts. Usually, the only thing it effects is the torque convertor won’t lock. A torque convertor that won’t lock has a side effect of heating up transmission fluid. When the blue light goes out you will notice shifts are more solid. You can run it not properly warmed up but you’ll notice the engine winds out a lot more.
Because you will have a hard time starting the car if it’s too cold. Source: one time I went on a date and pulled over on a side road to make out with this girl before dropping her off at home, only for the car to not start and thus require us to do a mile long walk of shame in -30 type of windchill to ask her dad to jumpstart my car.
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