Habits That Wear Out Our Engine

There are many habits that we have every day and that little by little wear out the engine of our car. This can be a problem, since in the long run they can lead to costly breakdowns and, where appropriate, traffic accidents. Let’s see the most common.

Dangerous customs

We are going to talk about some of the customs that make the life of our engine shorter and shorter. One of the urban legends that can do a lot of damage to the engine is the one that says that warming up the engine with strong accelerations on winter mornings helps it to work better. This is harmful to the engine because the oil and other components have not yet reached the ideal temperature.

By not reaching the temperature they need to work correctly, these elements suffer greater friction and pose a dangerous wear on the car’s propeller. This can cause a high cost overrun in repairs in the long run.

Another of the hobbies that we thought harmless, but which really is not, is the fact of leaning on the gear lever. By exerting constant pressure on it, we create problems in the looseness of the washers, the springs of the gear lever and we can cause damage to the forks of the gearbox selector.

In this sense, the manufacturers recommend only manipulating this lever only when we have to change gear and do it smoothly.

On the other hand, we  must avoid steering manipulation when we have the car stopped whenever possible. This is so, since if the tires are wide or we are talking about a heavy car, we will wear out the steering rack.

This will be reflected in driving, as it  will suffer a lack of coordination between the angle of rotation of the steering wheel and the reaction of the steering; it is very dangerous at high speeds and in crosswinds.

In the case that we talk about cars with power steering, the problem is even more serious, since we will force the mechanism.  It will be easier for this to break down.

Another of the elements that we punish the most in our cars is the clutch. It is still a mechanical element that works by friction, and that suffers great wear every time we support the foot without using it.

The fact of reproducing this bad habit, supposes an extra effort for the pressure plate. Such extra load can damage the thrust bearing, shortening its life.

Something that is not talked about much, and that is a major problem for our vehicle, is the act of pushing an automatic car. We should never start an automatic car by pushing it into neutral, as we will damage the gearbox.

Revolutions

We must not abuse power at very low revs. For example, when going up a port in fifth gear, at less than 2,000 revolutions per minute, since this implies a higher gear ratio than adequate.

Performing this bad habit can be more damaging to the engine than over-revving, as we cause it to idle enough to get to peak performance, which can result in crankshaft problems.

Additionally, driving very low of turns can lead to the accumulation of carbon residues – the product of engine combustion – especially in diesel engines.

These residues ‘carbonize’ parts of the engine such as the cylinder head (jerks when accelerating), turbo geometry (loss of performance) or its lubrication, which can split its shaft to end up bending the turbine blades.

These breakdowns can involve up to 1,500 euros of repair invoice. To avoid seeing yourself faced with this situation, you should, from time to time, practice energetic driving, especially when overtaking and merging. Do not be afraid to raise the revolutions of your car to 3,000 rpm, in the case of a diesel, or 5,000 rpm when it is a gasoline engine; in fact, you will lengthen its life.

Basic maintenance

There are two essential elements that we must not stop taking care of when talking about the maintenance of our car:

• Oil: we must bear in mind that it is advisable to change it every year  and that, in the event that the oil level is below the minimum, our engine will begin to suffer excess temperature and wear of its internal parts. In the long run, this will pose serious problems that will shorten its useful life.
• Tire pressure : if we have a high pressure we will accelerate the inner wear of the tread, while if it is insufficient it will be the outer one. We must bring the pressure recommended by the manufacturer, since otherwise we can end up suffering a blowout.

Accelerations

Although we have already talked about it before, the fact of accelerating is not only useless if we want to save time, but it also has negative effects. With them we consume more gasoline, we overheat the engine and the tires and the clutch will have greater wear.

For this reason, we should never start by spinning the driving wheels, since it is a useless waste of gasoline and wheels. They also damage transmissions, clutch, gearbox and differential.

On the other hand, if we have a turbo engine, we must pay special attention to greasing and oil level. We must not accelerate abruptly or give maximum power to the engine when cold, since the lubricating properties of the oil are poor at low temperatures.

After making a long trip we will have to let it idle for a minute, so that the oil circuit cools the turbo shaft. Otherwise, and we do not usually respect this process, the repeated immediate stops of the engine after these conditions would cause seizure due to poor lubrication and high temperatures.