would that include being at high speed, i.e more that 3500/4000 rpm for long periods of time?
Why cars' engines maintenance schedules are being specified in mileage is beyond me. I used to work with tractors and heavy earth-moving equipment, and they only have an engine work-hour meter, no mileage, and the maintenance and servicing schedules are based on engine hours alone. OK you could argue that this type of equipment does not cover a lot of mileage and that the engine revs are relatively constant, but still I think that ignoring completely the working hours of a car engine is a mistake.
The engine does not know how fast the wheels are spinning. If you do 70mph on a motorway, you cover 70 miles in one hour. If you do 70 miles in heavy city traffic at an average speed of 20mph, you will cover the same 70 miles in 3.5 hours. Does the engine work harder on motorway cruising? I am not sure at all, I think that the frequent rev changing in city traffic is actually much more wearing than motorway cruising, but either way I prefer an engine that did 1 hour on the motorway than one that did 3.5 hours in the city... the problem is that purely from the car's mileage you can't really tell where it has been or how it was driven.
As for driving at high speeds and high engine revs - for the SAME mileage, I still prefer a car that has been driven fast on motorways then on that has been used as a taxi in town...
With regards to the rest of the drive train, then yes the wheel bearings are more mileage-sensitive than the engine, as they actually do the mileage of the car... but if you look at the rest of the suspension components, e.g. bushes, shocks, brakes, etc - these get much more hammering in city driving considering the frequent stops, turns, and speed humps and pot holes then motorway cruising.
If you are doing 20k of motorway driving in a year, and want to keep the car reasonably maintained then you might just get away with 20k/1y oil changes as long as you use semi or full synth oil... but for the cost of an oil change and to help prevent long-term engine wear and other maintenance issues such as blocked breathers etc, it is better to stick to 3-5k intervals especially in mixed town/motorway driving.
Incidentally, my previous Omegas was purchased in 1998 when it was 10 months old and had 20k on the clock, it was never serviced before so I had the oil changed immediately - as you can imagine it was black as coal. However this was the best engine I ever had - it was definitely far smoother than my current 2.6 - I ran the car up to 60k using mainly motorway driving and had it serviced once a year / 10k (I sold it after a lucky escaped with a failed tensioner...). The reason it was good in spite of the lack of oil change for the first 20k is again because anyone racking-up 20k in 10 months is bound to have done this on motorways, and in terms of engine hours the car probably did as much work as one that has covered just 5k in town...
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Topic: Ive just found out im wasting money! (Read 3054 times)