can overnight idle hurt a car?

I did a foolish thing yesterday. At 3pm, I turned my minivan on to warm it
up as it had been sitting two days, and it is severe cold here in Maine.
Well, as I go back in the house my wife says I have leaking water pipes
(frozen pipe problem). Well, I then FORGOT that the minivan was on, and I
left it on all night until 7am the next morning.
It was still running, and appeared to use about 5 gallons of gas. No sign of
damage thus far. This is the first time I ever did this. Does a one time
mistake like this hurt a car?
I plan to change the oil a bit earlier than planned though.
Any information appreciated.

snow wrote:
> I did a foolish thing yesterday. At 3pm, I turned my minivan on to
warm it
> up as it had been sitting two days, and it is severe cold here in
Maine.
> Well, as I go back in the house my wife says I have leaking water
pipes
> (frozen pipe problem). Well, I then FORGOT that the minivan was on,
and I
> left it on all night until 7am the next morning.
> It was still running, and appeared to use about 5 gallons of gas. No
sign of
> damage thus far. This is the first time I ever did this. Does a one
time
> mistake like this hurt a car?
> I plan to change the oil a bit earlier than planned though.
> Any information appreciated.

Other than wasting gas you most likely harmed nothing. It's a good
thing you didn't have a leaky pipe from the minivan and leave it
running though.

I'd say that it all depends upon how warm the vehicle got. Assuming
that your cooling system is in good condition and your engine didn't
overheat, then I wouldn't worry much. If it was extremely cold out and
the engine never really reached operating temperature, then you've
contributed to engine oil contamination but if you change the engine
oil soon, then you will address that issue.

If the engine gets to opeating temperature, I'd say that the only real
danger with allowing an engine to idle unattended is the risk that your
gauges and idiot lights will attempt to warn about a serious problem
(low oil pressure, high engine temp, etc.) and there is nobody in the
driver's seat to notice and shut down the engine.

We live somewhat close to a home for troubled teens and every
month or so one of them runs away and grabs the first vehicle
that he/she spots that is running unattended in somebody's driveway.
Nobody stole you car, so obviously you escaped this danger also.

Next time you leave you vehicle running in the driveway to warm the
engine, you may want to be certain that the headlights are on and
the driver's side door is very slightly ajar to force the dome light to
stay on. This increases the chances that somebody in your house
or a neighbor will notice that the vehicle is running unattended.

snow wrote:

> I did a foolish thing yesterday. At 3pm, I turned my minivan on to warm it
> up as it had been sitting two days, and it is severe cold here in Maine.
> Well, as I go back in the house my wife says I have leaking water pipes
> (frozen pipe problem). Well, I then FORGOT that the minivan was on, and I
> left it on all night until 7am the next morning.
> It was still running, and appeared to use about 5 gallons of gas. No sign of
> damage thus far. This is the first time I ever did this. Does a one time
> mistake like this hurt a car?
> I plan to change the oil a bit earlier than planned though.
> Any information appreciated.
>
>
nah, truckers do it all the time to keep their
heaters/air conditioning working while they sleep
on the road.

the worst thing that i can think of happening if
your car was in good shape to begin with is that
if you ran out of gas, you'd have some misfire or
air/fuel codes to sort out when you got it restarted.

--
Ben Jerew AKA PolarPuppy
ASE Certified Master Technician
New Country Lexus of Latham, NY, USA
Amateur Off-Roader 93 YJ 4.0l 3spd

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 03:39:51 GMT, "MudPuppy76
<\"<moc.rr.pacyn\"@\"pupralop\">" <--SDRAWKCAB> wrote:

>snow wrote:
>
>> I did a foolish thing yesterday. At 3pm, I turned my minivan on to warm it
>> up as it had been sitting two days, and it is severe cold here in Maine.
>> Well, as I go back in the house my wife says I have leaking water pipes
>> (frozen pipe problem). Well, I then FORGOT that the minivan was on, and I
>> left it on all night until 7am the next morning.
>> It was still running, and appeared to use about 5 gallons of gas. No sign of
>> damage thus far. This is the first time I ever did this. Does a one time
>> mistake like this hurt a car?
>> I plan to change the oil a bit earlier than planned though.
>> Any information appreciated.
>>
>>
>nah, truckers do it all the time to keep their
>heaters/air conditioning working while they sleep
>on the road.

In the wintertime, truckers do it to keep their fuel from turning to
molasses, IIRC. And it costs them $150 for a jump start. That was
way back then, probably a lot more now.

Lg


>
>the worst thing that i can think of happening if
>your car was in good shape to begin with is that
>if you ran out of gas, you'd have some misfire or
>air/fuel codes to sort out when you got it restarted.