How short a regular journey is bad for your engine?
Discussion
I could cycle or walk, but quite frankly have no desire to tackle a big hill after a days work! Not sure if this applies but it always springs to mind when people talk of the short journeys thing. Short journeys aren't bad for your engine, it is just that longer journeys include a portion where there is less wear on the engine, ASWELL as the portion that is bad for your engine. You won't incur less engine wear by driving an extra few miles. If you only drive your car a few miles each day that is no worse than a guy who drives his car a lot more each day (arguably, it is slightly better). The only guy who needs to be wary is the guy you sell the car to, as unless he checks, he could be a buying a car that for a given mileage has been used for a low number long journeys or lots of short ones, and as such the wear would be a lot worse on the latter.
Now gunning it from cold - that is an entirely different thing, and this is not a short journey thing at all.
Now gunning it from cold - that is an entirely different thing, and this is not a short journey thing at all.
It's obviously a sliding scale. Engine wear is affected by many things, and factored in will be the proportion of your mileage done with sub-optimal temperature oil. Therefore, if you're regularly doing 4.5 mile journeys then a much greater percentage of your engine's life will have been with cold oil than, for example, someone who only ever gets in his car and drives 50 mile trips. Cars are meant for using though, and they generally are pretty tough these days, so I wouldn't worry about it unless it's a highly strung sports car with a tuned engine. Keeping the stress on the engine low is a great way to alleviate the problems, so small throttle openings and low revs is a good idea when you're running cold.
collateral said:
Getting on it in a turbo might make the oil warm more quickly 
Wonder if people have had warranty claims rejected due to 'you didn't drive it far enough'. Sounds iffy, although I remember there was something a while ago about VAG DPFs clogging up
That gets quite a few other manufacturers with DPFs also.Wonder if people have had warranty claims rejected due to 'you didn't drive it far enough'. Sounds iffy, although I remember there was something a while ago about VAG DPFs clogging up
I'm not sure if anyone had to sign a contract to say that they won't drive it around towns in traffic, or explained to them that it has great fuel economy, but every couple of weeks you need to drive it up and down a motorway in 4th gear to fix it.
I've been doing a 4 mile journey each way to the station for years - Not seen any evidence to suggest its harming the engine. Its hard to tell what the oils temp is though. Heater matrix is red hot so its certainly on the way to being fully warmed up. I generally make a point of not revving past 4k for the journey.
Blown2CV said:
Not sure if this applies but it always springs to mind when people talk of the short journeys thing. Short journeys aren't bad for your engine, it is just that longer journeys include a portion where there is less wear on the engine, ASWELL as the portion that is bad for your engine. You won't incur less engine wear by driving an extra few miles. If you only drive your car a few miles each day that is no worse than a guy who drives his car a lot more each day (arguably, it is slightly better). The only guy who needs to be wary is the guy you sell the car to, as unless he checks, he could be a buying a car that for a given mileage has been used for a low number long journeys or lots of short ones, and as such the wear would be a lot worse on the latter.
Now gunning it from cold - that is an entirely different thing, and this is not a short journey thing at all.
Nail on head.Now gunning it from cold - that is an entirely different thing, and this is not a short journey thing at all.
collateral said:
Getting on it in a turbo might make the oil warm more quickly
Wonder if people have had warranty claims rejected due to 'you didn't drive it far enough'. Sounds iffy, although I remember there was something a while ago about VAG DPFs clogging up
Well, mercedes can tell from a recoded mileage of 12k in 2 years that the premature battery failure was due to me "not driving it properly". Oh, and they could tell I hadn't carried out the "special battery maintenance" either, which is hardly suprising given they couldn't tell me what it was, or point me to it in the servicing instruction etc.... Wonder if people have had warranty claims rejected due to 'you didn't drive it far enough'. Sounds iffy, although I remember there was something a while ago about VAG DPFs clogging up
~
Actually an issue I'm worried about myself now- recently I've been making a number of 1 mile journeys on a cold engine (modern TD)
ukzz4iroc said:
Simbu said:
Shirley you mean water vapour from burnt fuel condensing on a cold exhaust, and the water rusts the exhaust inside out?
Aii that's the one 
In my IROC probably unburnt fuel more so They must had had litres of water inside the silencer.
As above. Apart from rusting the exhaust, I'm not convinced that short journeys actually do more damage than long ones, rather the opposite in fact. Obviously they do more damage per mile, but I can't see why a one mile trip is any worse in terms of wear than the first mile of a 100 mile trip.
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