Here’s some good news to brighten your day: it’s completely possible to extend your engine’s life by thousands of miles.
And here’s some better news: you don’t need any specialist mechanical knowledge to achieve this. A spoonful of patience, a dollop of common sense, and a frosting of prompt action will do just fine.
The simple tips below are designed to boost your engine’s lifespan, potentially saving you from a huge bill and a lot of inconvenience.
Let’s dive in.
1. Don’t drive it like you stole it.
Hey, we said the tips would be easy. We didn’t say that they would be fun. The unfortunate truth is that there’s always a trade off between performance and endurance. Flooring the go-pedal and redlining the revs increase the mechanical strain placed on the engine’s internals, as well as challenging its cooling abilities. But even braking and cornering hard increases external forces on the engine.
For maximum engine lifespan, make your driving smooth and relaxed as late night jazz.
2. Go gentle in the cold.
You hate being cold and so does your engine. And it really hates being challenged when it’s cold.
This is because cold engine oil is too thick and treacly to lubricate all the moving parts properly, leading to increased wear. The faster those parts move – say, when the revs rise – the more extreme is the wear. In addition, the oil pump also has to work a lot harder to push all that viscous oil around the system.
The solution is NOT to leave your vehicle idling while you scrape the windscreen. Modern engines don’t need to do this and you’re just pumping particulates up your neighbours’ noses. All you need to do is drive gently for the first few minutes until the oil is nice and mobile. Keep the revs way down and drive as outlined in (1) above, but more so.
3. Look after your oil
Back to oil again. Modern engine oil is pretty incredible stuff. Its cocktail of ingredients work like cartilage in human joints, stopping surfaces from grinding together and wearing away. So, to keep your engine running sweetly, your oil has to be in great condition.
The problem is that over time, engine oil degrades and loses its ability to lubricate. You can see this happening: as the oil degrades, it darkens from a straw colour, through amber, to dark brown, and eventually to a sludgy black. The trick is to replace the oil before it degrades too much. Checking the colour yourself is dead easy – there’s about a billion YouTube videos to help – or get your local garage to take a look.
While you’re checking the condition of your oil, make sure you check the levels too. Even the best quality oil won’t do much good if there isn’t enough of it.
Bear in mind that as engines age, they can start getting through oil faster, so don’t be caught off-guard. It’s like the investment people say: “past performance does not guarantee future results.”
4. Listen for engine noises
When it comes to engine life, early warning signs are everything. Often, these manifest themselves as noises, including knocking, ticking, pinging and lumpy, uneven running. Acting promptly on these can nip problems in the bud, preventing excess wear or even catastrophic engine problems.
Admittedly, if you’re not mechanically inclined, it can be hard to distinguish unusual engine noises from the myriad of other sounds a moving car can produce, including things innocently rattling around in the side pockets. And we certainly don’t want you to get paranoid every time the car squeaks. But at the end of the day, if an unusual car noise becomes persistent or recurring, it’s wise to get it checked out.
5. Don’t ignore warning lights either
One of the reasons that car engines last so much longer than in the past is their electronic early warning systems. These complement, but do not replace, your ears (see above).
Therefore, please don’t ignore engine warning lights. If an engine-related dashboard light comes on, check it out as soon as you can do so safely. It might be something that you can easily remedy yourself, such as low oil levels, or you might need to get a recovery service. If you’re in any doubt, ask a garage.
It sounds obvious, but at any one time, there are an awful lot of owners ignoring those pesky dashboard lights.
6. Check your tyre pressure
This might sound a bit left-field, but consistently low tyre pressure can reduce engine life. Here’s the logic behind it:
- For maximum longevity, we want our engine to have an easy life, with as little strain as possible.
- Decreased tyre pressure increases the rolling resistance that the engine has to overcome.
- This means the engine has to produce more force.
- Over time, this equates to greater wear.
We wouldn’t like to put a number on how many miles correct tyre pressure can add to your engine’s life, but it’s so easy to take care of, and so often neglected, that we’re adding it to the list.
7. Minimise short journeys
Most of us know that from your engine’s point of view, 100,000 motorway miles are way better than 100,000 miles spent popping down to the shops. This is because on short journeys, your car is spending a greater proportion of its time warming up. As we’ve noted, this means the oil isn’t yet up to temperature and wear is greatly increased.
For maximum engine life, try to ditch as many short journeys as you can. If there’s a short trip where you can take public transport, bike or walk, you’ll be doing your engine a favour. Car sharing help too – provided it’s not always your car.
8. Get. Your. Car. Serviced. Regularly.
If we could pick one single tip for better engine life, it would have to be this. We know servicing isn’t cheap, and you have a million other things to do, but sticking to the recommended service intervals gives your engine the best chance of reaching a ripe old mileage.
True, we’re a garage, so we’re motivated to recommend a service that pays our wages. But if we ever shut up shop and open a scented candle business, we’ll still be giving the same advice. The fact is that few car engines survive too long without regular, expert servicing. You heard it here first!
The WVS blog covers a wide range of automotive topics, from the contentious to the light-hearted. WVS is an independent garage specialising in all the VW group marques, including Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda and SEAT. WVS provides services, repairs and MOTs, delivering a main dealer level of care at affordable prices. To book your vehicle in, or for any enquiries, get in touch.