Car's Like To Be Used.

[pop3]

I was reading a comment on here before about car's like to be used and then I started thinking how right he was.

I remember a friend years ago buying an old Volvo taxi, the car had done well over 100.000 miles when he bought it, the motor was perfect, very quiet, no smoke, and he knew the Taxi driver he bought it from who told him the motor had never had any majour work done on it, my friend had the car for years trouble free then sold it on.

I know of other people who have bought old Taxis and one who even bought an old Toyota Camry diesel that had over 200.000 miles on it. another perfect quiet motor.

It seems strange that cars that are used day in day out (Taxis ect) can go on and on and on, yet some cars used once or twice a week the engines can get very tired quickly ?

[Upcountry]

I wonder what you mean by 'tired quickly'.

My 15 year old 'BM has been happy sitting in the garage for days on end, but the other day I took it out after it had sat for a week or so - I had put a 1/2 tank of what I thought was 95 benzine, but it behaved like the Shell gas was bad. After fill-up everything was fine, but something seems to have gone wrong during the down time.

I wonder if I'd put gasohol in mistake (misinformed by station attendant). I've learned that the only thing my car needs is a rubber hose and fuel pump replacement to handle gasohol E10.

Seems to me that once or twice a week is plenty to avoid garage rot - though it also depends on how far it is driven each time. One 'old driver's tale' is that cars need to be taken out on the highway and be 'opened up' now and then. That is probably more true of older cars, before fuel injection, etc.

[pop3]

One 'old driver's tale' laugh.gif is that cars need to be taken out on the highway and be 'opened up' now and then. That is probably more true of older cars, before fuel injection, etc.

...........................

Yes you could be right there, I dread to think what my old Cortina mk1 would have been like if left in the garage more than a day !

Also these cars like Taxis that run hot all the time are probably better for the engine than a car that is let to get cold then re started.

[Crossy]

My 15 year old 'BM has been happy sitting in the garage for days on end, but the other day I took it out after it had sat for a week or so - I had put a 1/2 tank of what I thought was 95 benzine, but it behaved like the Shell gas was bad. After fill-up everything was fine, but something seems to have gone wrong during the down time.

I wonder if I'd put gasohol in mistake (misinformed by station attendant). I've learned that the only thing my car needs is a rubber hose and fuel pump replacement to handle gasohol E10.

Check that your injectors are gasohol compatible.

My 94 325i ran like a dog on gasohol and BMW were singularly unhelpful when trying to determine compatibility. No longer an issue, sold it and bought a diesel pickup

[dr_Pat_Pong]

My 15 year old 'BM has been happy sitting in the garage for days on end, but the other day I took it out after it had sat for a week or so - I had put a 1/2 tank of what I thought was 95 benzine, but it behaved like the Shell gas was bad. After fill-up everything was fine, but something seems to have gone wrong during the down time.

I wonder if I'd put gasohol in mistake (misinformed by station attendant). I've learned that the only thing my car needs is a rubber hose and fuel pump replacement to handle gasohol E10.

Check that your injectors are gasohol compatible.

My 94 325i ran like a dog on gasohol and BMW were singularly unhelpful when trying to determine compatibility. No longer an issue, sold it and bought a diesel pickup

We are never gonna avoid totally using a Gasohol mix. If it won't cause any engine troubles, how about a Goverment ironclad guarantee.

[michael233]

its just like any aplliance,have some much time of use before no good or need fixing and in Thailand fix 3 years continue fix fix fix,you can buy thai house for this mistake!

[Globeliner]

its just like any aplliance,have some much time of use before no good or need fixing and in Thailand fix 3 years continue fix fix fix,you can buy thai house for this mistake!

What are you smoking michael?

[bino]

It seems strange that cars that are used day in day out (Taxis ect) can go on and on and on, yet some cars used once or twice a week the engines can get very tired quickly ?

The greatest wear and tear on an engine is during startup. During those few seconds, all of the oil is down in the pan, and has to be pumped up through the engine. Imagine metal grinding on metal until the oil has circulated from the pump to the top end / valvetrain.

Cars such as taxis that are constantly running are constantly lubricated, and actually experience very little wear and tear.

[raybkk]

My friends back in Holland run a Taxi company. The Policy... never turn of the engines. Or as little as possible. All merc diesels.

During shift changes the engines just keep running. 24/7

They have their own filling station so no need to stop engines either.

Run them till they brakedown.

[Thaiboxer]

As for older cars needing to be "opened up" every now and then, this is for some carburated engines. Our old Toyota was driven in city traffic for a long time and was sluggish on a recent highway trip. After some quick runs on BKK's flyovers and an average speed of 10km/hr more than before, the junk seems to have been cleaned out.

[North]

its just like any aplliance,have some much time of use before no good or need fixing and in Thailand fix 3 years continue fix fix fix,you can buy thai house for this mistake!

What are you smoking michael?

North

[xbusman]

I can relate real life experience to exactly this issue and it has always been of passing interest.

At Greyhound Lines in the US, we used a bus called the MC-9. A veritable work horse, we seldom sold them before 2 or 3 million miles of use and then to a second hand tour operator who continued to flog them almost daily. I have sold twenty year old coaches with over five million miles on the structure to new owners who drove them off the lot and put them into immediate service.

Take the exact same bus though, put a million dollar interior into it and sell it to an owner who pampers it every day and the dam thing breaks down every few hours. Absolutely drive us crazy keeping them on the road for the 800 miles they are driven every year. At Greyhound, we would 700,000 miles on a Detroit Diesel before first rebuild, in a motorhome the exact same engine is shot at about 60,000 miles.

It may not be a rule but it is overwhelmingly true. I am interested in the theory of start up wear but we had the same problem with automatic transmissions. The Allison in Greyhound service had an average life of 1.7 million miles with about 380,000 miles between service. In the same bus used as a motorhome, life span was maybe 400,000 miles with constant service.

Has to be a study on this somewhere, good science to explain the physics, would have loved some sort of report to hand customers when they asked why their million dollar commercial bus was always in the shop.....