Engine wear question...

[JasonS8]

...will doing regular journeys in stop-start heavy traffic (up to 40 mins crawling along without a breather) cause premature engine wear or any other long term problems?

I bought my car to be used, not looked at, but do not want to keep using it for London commuting if the engine / other components will suffer from this sort of 'abuse'.

Car is a 996 C4?

[mondeoman]

If thats all you do, it'll die soon enuff... majority of engine wear is in stop/start....

[JasonS8]

No, I also do motorway journeys etc, but probably two or three times a week in stop/start traffic for about 10 miles.

Would frequent oil changes help?

[GreenV8S]

quote:
If thats all you do, it'll die soon enuff... majority of engine wear is in stop/start....

Majority of engine wear is after starting the engine from cold - not the same thing as crawling along in slow moving traffic.

These cars tend to run slightly rich and you might find it fouls its plugs if you only ever drive in traffic, but a good blast every few days will take care of that. Otherwise, the only problem I see is clutch wear (and a tired clutch leg).