Oil Pan Heater

[Jeff Mruss]

Hi,

I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba and it gets pretty cold here in the winter - we regularly see temperatures of -30C or lower.  I'm debating whether to install an oil pan heater on my newish to me car, a 2007 A4 avant 2.0T.  The car is garaged at home, and while the garage is unheated, we've never had to plug any of our vehicles in.  At work I park outside and I'm wondering whether an oil pan heater is worthwhile, given that I use full synthetic oil.  I also plan on charging the battery throughout the winter to keep it fully charged.  On my 2003 Jetta 1.8T we went the first winter without an oil pan heater and had no issues, but subsequently had one installed.  

Block or oil pan heaters are the norm here, but I'm wondering whether this is still necessary with modern cars, given that VW/Audi makes no provision for a block heater, not that this necessarily indicates anything.

The cost of the heater is not really an issue, they're $100 locally from the dealer and likely less online and I can easily install it myself, but if unnecessary, I won't bother.

Thanks,

Jeff Mruss