Secrets To A 500,000 Mile Car
 

There are people who get three, four, even 500,000 miles on their car with the original engine and transmission! What are your secrets? What are the products you'd recommend? What kind of cars are more likely to last that long?

Fordman and I both have Fords... FWIW...

Otherwise, simply do what the owner's manual says; no warming up? Check. Change regular ol' dino oil at 7500 miles and change filter every OTHER time? Check. And so on.

I'm sure the debate could go on and on, but what's the logic behind each side? Logically you'd think that the more often you change your oil and filter, the safer it is, even though you could get more life out of your oil. The better-safe-than-sorry, severe service route, just playing it safe, cheap insurance, sort of thinking. Is there harm in it? And I'm sure there could be a debate about synthetic vs regular oil. And I've heard both sides of the warming up question. Aren't there block heaters that people use solely to warm up the engine so that it would be more fuel efficient, running off charged deep batteries? Do you recommend no warming up at all, not even thirty seconds or a minute? What's the thinking behind that? Does it matter what kind of car it is?

Are you sure there aren't any other secrets? Wouldn't we expect to see more cars with super high mileage if it were really that simple? Are there special products and additives you'd recommend? What are the top reasons cars fail and die, and what could be done to prevent it?

All those items have been discussed and dissected here many times so I'm not going to go in depth on them again. The short version is, the Owner's Manual is right and Grandpa, Dad, and all the online recreational oil changers probably aren't, mainly because it isn't 1953 anymore and things have changed, the biggest being EFI (no more flooding and oil dilution), along with much improved engine design, materials, tolerances, and oils. It does bear repeating, though, that idling is an awful (and inefficient) way to warm an engine.

Re: excessive oil changing: I think the more times those little hands are in there taking filters and oil caps on and off, the more chances there are of contaminants getting in the engine vs not doing it at all. The engine normally is sealed up against the environment after all.

Most people get sick of their cars and trade/sell/scrap 'em before they're shot.

I just read this: Do I Need To Warm Up My Car? I feel good. I won't warm up the car anymore. I'll just run it cold and dry as chapped lips in winter until metal scrapes against metal making sweet engine shavings of joy! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! I kid. I do feel good now that I know that everything that I have grown to believe about the world is now false. And I don't have to warm up for a minute anymore, just ten seconds? What about thirty seconds? That has to be good for the oil to run, right? Nevermind. I'll show myself out.

Why do I have a feeling this thread is going to turn into an infomercial?

Why stop at 500,000 miles?

1.7 Million Miles in a Dodge Ram… You Betcha!

Why on earth would you warm up an engine? If it's running, it's running. Why not translate that into forward motion?

Keep up on maintenance, cut down on abuse and the car will last.

You only need to warm up the motor oil from being a paste to a liqiluid.... So unless its -20 outside the oil will start to do its job almost imediately.

And if it isn't doing its job you're hurting the engine by running it even if you're "just warming it up." Might as well get some miles travelled out of that damage.