Have just taken delivery of a new car and due to parking restraints there is a lot of juggling of cars in the morning and evening in my drive. Am I damaging my car by just starting and moving the car a few yards twice a day.
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Have just taken delivery of a new car and due to parking restraints there is a lot of juggling of cars in the morning and evening in my drive. Am I damaging my car by just starting and moving the car a few yards twice a day.
In a word ~ yes. In particular, the catalyst and the engine will suffer. But if there is no alternative, then obviously you have to do it. We live in an imperfect world.
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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As a regular reader of the great man's column, I am aware that HJ has covered this subject quite extensively in reply to similar queries on many occasions. As I understand it, starting up any car just to move it a few yards. especially on a regular basis, isn't going to do it much good. I believe that, apart from the wear on the engine itself which such treatment imposes, there is risk of damage to the catalytic converter, which is an expensive item to have to replace on any car. At the very least, the EMU must be allowed to complete its initial warm up cycle.
Having said this, I sympathise with you, Julie, because I have similar problems when all the family are at home and I think that, from time to time, everyone gets faced with it. But then, think of a dealer's forecourt and all the juggling that must go on there. Those vehicles go on to be sold and as far as I know, there are not hoards of folk beating a way to dealers doors complaining that the cars they've bought have been knackered by this treatment.
For my own part, if I start my car, I then like to drive it far enough to get the temperature guage up to working temperature before parking up again but I accept that this isn't always practicable. However, if you work on this principle as a general rule, I'm sure you won't do too much damage on the odd occasion you can't follow it.
I will now wait for someone to shoot me down in flames!
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One has to be realistic: a car is bought to do a job and should be capable of standing up to the requirements of the job without unnecessary cosseting. It's unreasonable to assume life is so simple that every operation is a simple start 'er up off we go, ideal 20km run etc and that's the standard of usage expected. If we can put a man on the moon etc etc we ought to be capable of making a motor vehicle which doesn't act up just because it gets a certain amount of treatment it is isn't comfortable with but is a necessary part of its life with its owner.
Having said that, with 3 vehicles and three motorcycles always being moved around, I always make sure that each reaches its operating temp before turning it off. It's a habit I learned long before catalysers and electronics ever appeared based on my workshop foreman's simple wisdom that you " 'ad to get the oil goin' to shift the c**p". If I'm too lazy to walk the 600m to the bottle shop (far too often!) then at least I drive a longish way back so things can get warm. But then it's easy for me to say with an ambient temp which never drops below about 18C.
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All you can do is minimise any load before the oil has circulated properly: don't use too many revs - no more than twice tickover speed should allow you to pull away.
I'm certainly not going to volunteer to come over and push it around to save on your engine wear!
Gareth
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Whenever possible try and do the juggling when both cars still have relatively warm engines. If one person leaves for work first but then tends to get home first, do all the moving when the second person returns home and the parked car is still likely to have some residual warmth in the engine.
We have the same problems here at No Dosh mansions and try and stick to this approach to save wear and tear.
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Right --- and surely there is a dichotomy here -- synthetic oils ought to banish any fears about undue wear on a cold engine, or so we are led to believe (so that's out of the way), so that leaves us with what happens to the cat? Well if manufacturers can't produce a cat which can manage short stop-starts then they have some work to do.
I don't cosset my washing machine based on whether it's full of my greasy bike attire after an 800km run last weekend or Growlette's latest flimsy acquisitions from Henry and June, so why should my car be any different?
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Well if manufacturers can't produce a cat which can manage short stop-starts then they have some work to do.
Well, right at the moment they can't so you're left with a choice. Cosset your car or kill it.
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Can't or won't.
Jesus mate.
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Fair point.
I suspect can\'t. It\'s the initial fuelling cycle that\'s the problem. The first 30 seconds or so in a petrol car are very fuel rich and it isn\'t just the cat that\'s in danger. If you stop the car in those first 30 seconds there is a whole load of unburnt fuel sat in your upper cylinders. Some of this washes down past the pistons, removing lubrication from the cylinder walls and leaving an unlubricated head for the next start. Some of the remainder will wash past the exhaust ports and settle in the cat.
A lot of cars have sensors that prevent you starting the car until the unburnt fuel has evaporated. HJ had a letter on this subject a couple of weeks back from a Jag owner.
Engineering a car is a compromise between what can be acheived and what customers can afford to pay for. I\'m sure there is a solution to this problem, but I doubt it\'s a cheap one!
What am I saying, this is Growler I\'m talking to! Here Grandma, have an egg. I shall go an get a straw.....
I\'ll get back in my box.....
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Is this manouvering the only driving that it does or does the car get a good run during the day. If the car goes out regularly for a decent trip then that should mitigate some of the damage done during the daily car shuffle.
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Have just taken delivery of a new car and due to parking restraints there is a lot of juggling of cars in the morning and evening in my drive. Am I damaging my car by just starting and moving the car a few yards twice a day. >>
Julie - relax. Don't worry. Its an urban myth.
Some cars did use to have software/electronics which ensured that if the car was used as you describe, then the car would not be easily restarted. You do not say what make/model the car is, but your fear is groundless. I have not heard of a single car found to have actually been damaged from the such "mis-treatment".
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Julie - relax. Don't worry. Its an urban myth.
Worked in the motor trade long, have we?
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"found to have been actually damaged" ?
But the damage would only become apparent a few years later, when the accumulated wear means the engine or catalyst need replacing prematurely?
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Simple answer: buy a diesel. Works much better when cold..
As for petrol engines, my wife has destroyed 2 in 20 years through an average journey length of 1 miles, 4,000 miles a year. Mind you it took 4 years and 7 years repectively to do so.
Diesel Peugeot 106 on same cycle has now lasted 39,000 miles in 10 years... still going strong.
madf
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not sure about long term damage, but my S reg 1.0 litre Micra flooded after a very short trip i.e. side of the road onto the drive. Happened twice, then i learnt that it needed a run to burn off the fuel. Only happened in very cold weather and the AA fixed it both times by cleaning the plugs.
Bit of a nuisance really, would agree with the diesel comment, get no starting problems with the Octavia
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a couple of notes have been removed, including my own.
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Worked in the motor trade long, have we? >>
Yes. But clearly you resent my knowledge. Goodbye.
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>> Worked in the motor trade long, have we? >> Yes. But clearly you resent my knowledge. Goodbye.
{waves}
That will be the day.
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There is an answer.
Buy two of the same car. That way, no need to move cars, just take the one nearest the road. And just take out the CD changer magazine, to make sure you have 'your' music. And don't carry too much other carp, which is good to keep the cars clean anyway.
--
Dr Alex Mears
Seat Leon Cupra
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner.
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i did chuckle when i read this, but then realised that there is a couple up my road who have two Ka's, complete with consequetive number plates, but oddly they still seem to treat them as his and hers i.e. move one to release the other.
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>>Yes. But clearly you resent my knowledge. Goodbye.
Dammit, sometimes I\'m slow. I just realised, you\'re <0.One%, aren\'t you. I thought I recognised the style.
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