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Manitoba, Canada | There is no doubt that the auto shutoff features save fuel. Like everything the actual advantage changes with different situations. It makes really good sense in stop and go traffic and in general in the higher population areas. Out where I live, if I drive 2 hours and only stop 3 times in those two hours the advantage drops off drastically. Of course I’m using a rather extreme example as often I have to stop a lot more than that but you understand what I mean. Another issue that can happen here is when it is -37c like today and if a person is stuck in stop and go traffic for any length of time both the engine and the passenger compartment will get cold very fast. The only way to overcome that is to run the engine.
As far as wear goes you are correct in saying that your engine isn’t wearing out when it is stopped. That was never in question. The question is how much wear is caused during the restart process. There will be different forces acting on the components during the start up/shut down process than while idling. Is there more or less wear? I wouldn’t want to say for sure. It might not matter anyways as the engine can be engineered to cope with the expected use. The difference in wear is likely almost a moot point anyways as I would bet that most engines built today will not wear out before the rest of the vehicle and the most common engine failure is likely caused by a mechanical failure rather than wear. The mechanical failure issue come back to is it easier on the engine to leave it idling or to start/stop it a lot. I don’t know the answer to that any more than you do. | |
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how long do you let engines idle?
