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I've searched the net for specific info, but have come up empty, other than the usual "highway miles are easy on the car", but I'm wondering specifically about this hypothetical situation.
Lets say I were to drive 2000 miles, (500 miles a day) on wide open and relatively flat highways, with just a stop or two each day for gas. Lets assume that I drive the car gently (70 mph w/CC set and no sudden starts or stops).
If one were to do a microscopic analysis to get a quantitive figure on engine and transmission wear and tear, just how much would it likely be, compared to let say just 200 miles over 10 days committing to work 10 miles each way.
What % per mile of wear and tear would most cars likely exhibit (tolerances with piston wear, etc) on a 2000 mile 4 day trip in the example i listed, compared to just 200 miles over 10 days of committing to and from work on suburban backroads with several traffic lights and a fair amount of stop and go traffic?
I recently did this over a 2 day period. Negligible wear, be it tires or oil or I'm sure the engine internals. It's simply not a great percentage of overall miles.
I think if you dig into any real research, you'll find that nearly all the measureable wear on a gasoline engine occurs at startup, when everything's moving at full-speed, and the oil is still in the pan & thicker than molasses. That said, the amount of wear is minuscule for each cold start, otherwise everyone in Minnesota would need a new engine every spring.
If you've ever done work on older engines - like say your 1955-1995 Chevy "small block" v8, you would see that you could pop a valve cover off, start the engine & literally wait a few minutes before any oil starts to circulate to the top of the motor. Cams, lifters, pushrods & rocker-arms are all hardened steel alloys that can take that abuse & still routinely go 150,000 miles.
In a perfect world, no one would move a car until the oil was circulating freely & fully up to temp, but automakers have compensated for everyone's impatience with improved designs, oils & materials that let us get away with abusing the schnizzle out of cars & still having very good lifespans.
You have it backwards. A commute, by it's very definition, consists of stop and go and stop and go....
Every time that the engine has to move the weight of the vehicle from a dead stop, up to the posted speed limit.........The engine is working to get up to that speed.
The car on the highway, at the posted speed limit, is NOT working hard at all. In six hours of driving, at 70 mph, the rpm is going to be some where around 2200, to 2500 depending on the gear ratio . The car doing the city street commute, will be working harder.
Highway driving is less of a stress on an engine, than stop and go city driving is.
A bigger factor is an automatic transmission, every time it shifts gears there's wear and heat build up... once it gets into its top gear and the torque converter is locked there's very little wear. Ten miles of constant stop and go driving will cause more wear and tear than driving 500 miles non-stop in top gear.
Same thing for a manual transmission, city driving will wear out a clutch way sooner than highway driving where there's little or no clutch wear.
I think the most of any wear would be on the suspension like the shocks and bushings from driving so long and being constantly pounded on from the road below after a trip that long rather than engine and tranny wear.
If you are driving into a hot desert, the excess heat will put a strain on the coolant system and maybe some other rubber components on the engine that can possibly shorten the lifespan of the parts like hoses and fittings from prolong driving, but really it shouldn't be an issue.
You should definitely take breaks tho and give the car a rest here and there, that will help cut down on any heat related wear.
Driving 200 commute miles is gonna cause a lot less wear than a 2000 mile road trip.
no its not. the large majority of wear in an engine is at cold start up. once an engine is warmed up and running at a sustained rpm, wear drop dramatically.
OP 2000 miles is not really enough to determine how much wear an engine would sustain under your test. you need more like 30,000 miles in each scenario, and you would not need to tear down the engines to determine wear these days, send an oil sample to the lab and have them give you a report on those samples. back in the early 80s when i first became aware that labs were testing oil samples for aircraft engine, the writer doing the article said that many was the time that the lab called the airport and said not to run a particular engine until is was rebuilt, and they found the report was quite accurate. and i can only assume they have gotten better over the years.
I've searched the net for specific info, but have come up empty, other than the usual "highway miles are easy on the car", but I'm wondering specifically about this hypothetical situation.
Lets say I were to drive 2000 miles, (500 miles a day) on wide open and relatively flat highways, with just a stop or two each day for gas. Lets assume that I drive the car gently (70 mph w/CC set and no sudden starts or stops).
If one were to do a microscopic analysis to get a quantitive figure on engine and transmission wear and tear, just how much would it likely be, compared to let say just 200 miles over 10 days committing to work 10 miles each way.
What % per mile of wear and tear would most cars likely exhibit (tolerances with piston wear, etc) on a 2000 mile 4 day trip in the example i listed, compared to just 200 miles over 10 days of committing to and from work on suburban backroads with several traffic lights and a fair amount of stop and go traffic?
Thanks
Don't forget to check your oil and tire pressures first.
Good chance you will want fresh oil before this trip. Make sure the radiator coolant levels are at proper levels. Make sure your tires are properly inflated. Anything that isn't up to snuff will be like having salt rubbed into a wound.
Highway driving is very easy on a car. Towing a heavy load being a major exception.
If you drive less than 76 in a 75 around our large cities, be prepared to see some middle fingers and possibly other adolescent behaviors. Why do I mention this? I am a nature lover. Unable to enjoy nature at 76 mph. Especially when people like to pack themselves like sardines.
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