Considerations for Frequent SHORT Trips?

[Chuck1986]

I just moved somewhere where literally everything is really close to me. School is 0.4 miles away...the gym is 1.2 miles away...grocery store 3 miles away, etc. Literally nothing seems to be longer than 5 miles away and rarely do I have to drive longer than 2 miles to go anywhere. (I would walk everywhere but there are few sidewalks to provide for a safe commute).

Does anyone have suggestions regarding necessary changes to my OCIs and just how bad it is to be making these short trips without the engine reach operating temp? I'm in Erie, PA so once the winter comes I'll really be having issues with getting the car to operating temps!

Any advice/experience appreciated. Thanks!

 

[pickled]

Definitely you are in severe service mode. If you use dino oil follow the severe service guidelines for OCI per manufacturer's recommendation. Don't even think about extended drains unless you are ready to do UOA's. Fuel dilution and water are going to be your enemy! Just be sure to get that vehicle out for a longer warm-up stretch every weekend if you can...it will thank you for it!

 

[2003f7]

That is about the same driving I do to my cars. I change my oil every 3 months regardless of the miles and I have not had any oil related problems. My engine look clean when looking in in the fill hole.

 

[ADFD1]

Severe service for sure. I'd say you can do 6 month OCI's with a synthetic oil, or change dino oil 3 times a year. I wouldn't want to leave any oil in that sump for more than 6 months, unless you plan on having the oil tested.

AD

 

[FZ1]

Try to bunch your errands and run your longest errand first so the motor is running at operating temp as much as possible.

 

[dkryan]

Chuck,

I have the same problem, though not as consistently as you do, with the short trips. My wife's workplace is no more than 1 mile from our house. She works on-call at a hospital and this may entail workdays of once per week up to four times per week.

The issue is not your engine temp nearly as much as it is the temperature that your oil never reaches. Fuel dilution will kill any oil, synthetic or dino, that endures this type of driving.

Getting it out for long drives does help somewhat, but not to the extent that a few folks believe that it does.

If you're stuck on Castrol GTX, fine, change it out every 4k miles. I would not worry about "every three months." Go with the mileage and change it out at 4k miles.

If you can live with it, I'd switch to Motorcraft 5w-30 and enjoy the "syn blend" and quality reputation of this oil. It's cheap by the 5-qt jug at AutoZone and WalMart.

 

[GhostFlame]

I like to drive. I will add a few miles to short trip after a cold start. Take time to smell the asphalt and view the scenerty, enjoy the sound of your smooth running engine, get it hot. It doesn't take much just a few more minutes or a few more miles. Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers say 10 miles or 10 minutes Whichever occurs first.
Those short trips will rust out yoy exhaust system prematurlly as well. My dad had a 2 mile trip to work for the last 3 years of his work life. His cars cat Converter and mufler just flaked away at 30,000 miles. It should go 100,000

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: GhostFlame
I like to drive. I will add a few miles to short trip after a cold start. Take time to smell the asphalt and view the scenerty, enjoy the sound of your smooth running engine, get it hot. It doesn't take much just a few more minutes or a few more miles. Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers say 10 miles or 10 minutes Whichever occurs first.
Those short trips will rust out yoy exhaust system prematurlly as well. My dad had a 2 mile trip to work for the last 3 years of his work life. His cars cat Converter and mufler just flaked away at 30,000 miles. It should go 100,000

I thought I was the only one that did that..I also like to get the car warmed up before shutting it down.

A friend of mine who drives very short trips [1.5 miles each way]on his 04 Crown Vic just flaked out his cat Converter at 19K miles.

 

[strombony]

Originally Posted By: Chuck1986
I just moved somewhere where literally everything is really close to me. School is 0.4 miles away...the gym is 1.2 miles away...grocery store 3 miles away, etc. Literally nothing seems to be longer than 5 miles away and rarely do I have to drive longer than 2 miles to go anywhere. (I would walk everywhere but there are few sidewalks to provide for a safe commute).

Does anyone have suggestions regarding necessary changes to my OCIs and just how bad it is to be making these short trips without the engine reach operating temp? I'm in Erie, PA so once the winter comes I'll really be having issues with getting the car to operating temps!

Any advice/experience appreciated. Thanks!



Chuck, our driving conditions are identical. Where I live it gets hot in the summer and very cold in the winter here in Illinois. during the warm months, I change every 4 months. once winter hits, I change after 3 months. just to be on the safe side. It's the colder weather that kills your OCI due to condensation

 

[river_rat]

Originally Posted By: CROWNVIC4LIFE
I thought I was the only one that did that..I also like to get the car warmed up before shutting it down.

Nope. Me too you guys.

 

[[RT] ProjUltraZ]

but if you live very steep hill, high revs cold 5+ times per week, it's not severe duty according some here

ie your car should just take it, no problem at all right Ghost Flame?

 

[TAP]

To the OP, I asked the same question about a week back and am not too far from you in Y'town Oh. I am going to try a thinner oil for my frequent short trips. My car calls for a 5w-30 so I looked for the thinnest oil that can pump at low temperatures and decided upon Castrol Edge. If your application calls for a 5w-20, I would recommend a 0w-20 for the short trips and cold winters that you and I will be experiencing in a few short months.

 

[GhostFlame]

Originally Posted By: [RT
ProjUltraZ]but if you live very steep hill, high revs cold 5+ times per week, it's not severe duty according some here

ie your car should just take it, no problem at all right Ghost Flame?


No, You are confusing the two situations. One is a short trip where the engine never gets to its operating temperature which allows condensation to collect and not get cooked off. The water will lay in your oil causing sludge and the condensation will just lay in you cold exhaust system rusting it while it sits there all cold and stuff.

A steep hill is not severe service. cold, hot, warm or otherwise. The engine is doing what it was meant to do and that is run. There's a 5 mile hill (vewy, vewy steep too) here on Rt 322 I keep it at 60 to 75 mph and it never exceeds 2300 RPMs. That is hardly hard on the engine even if the engine is cold. Just get your engine hot on as many trips and you can and your engine will love you back, long time.

 

[Alamogunr]

Over 40 years ago, I had a '65 VW bug. It got lots of long trips on the highway. Then I moved, had kids, etc. Less than ½ mile to work and back. Changed the oil every 6 mo. or when I thought about it. If anyone remembers, you had a drain plug in the middle of a plate that secured the permanent filter. When I would remove the drain plug: NOTHING! Had to remove the filter plate(or whatever it was called) and then it was PLOP! PLOP!, a lot of white goo which I figured out was condensate in the oil. I didn't dare touch it. The filter was so clogged with that stuff that it wouldn't let the oil through. Cleaned the filter, put on a new gasket, filled with oil and ready for another 6 mo. or so. It was still running after 4 years and not many miles of that treatment when I sold it. Don't know how long it lasted. Those little cars endured a lot of abuse. I suspect that todays cars endure more than most of us realize.

 

[Superbuick96]

Thanks for posting this question, I wondered this myself. I swear if you check in on BITOG often enough every oil related question is answered eventually