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.

My 1937 Ford with the original flathead would produce 60 PSI oil pressure after cranking for 5 seconds. It usually sat in the garage for at least a week between being driven, sometimes much longer. Thats about 10 revolutions of the engine to get that pressure.

It had a start button that would crank the engine with the ignition off, so I used that to prelube the engine.

No oil filter. 80 year old technology. 6 volt system with starter cranking at 100 RPM. less that half the cranking speed of a modern engine.

I never wait after the engine is running, not even a second, just enough time to put it in gear and go. I might change that if it was 20 below, but that will never happen here.

In fact in the .3 mile from my garage to the main road, through the neighborhood, I will pulse up to 35 and glide to the stop sign, and my mileage reading will INCREASE during that glide even though the engine has been running for about 30 seconds from a cold start.

It's also 10 feet vertical rise from my garage to the road in 80 feet distance.

regards
Mech

I think the logic about warming up (not that I agree with it) is that you don't want to put the engine under load until the oil has warmed up enough to get everywhere it needs to be. Of course, if you don't put the engine under load, it's not going to warm up as fast...

I personally, start off before I start my engine--that's the nice part about my house being higher than the road...and using 2 oil pan heaters--just put it in neutral and coast off until the first stop sign where I bump start.

Around here most cars rust out before they reach 500,000 miles, but if rust is not an issue and you replace stuff as it wears out then it should last forever, right? but I see a lot of people who keep driving cars that are broken and who just ignore issues, I had my neighbor almost scrap her car because it needed new spark plugs! a car gets an issue and it gets traded in or sold.
If you can read, read your owners manual! it often tells you how often to check stuff over on your car, oil changes at 7,500 or 10,000 miles unless you are letting it idle a lot, increase tire pressure for highway driving, change your brake fluid so you don't get water rusting out the brake system, fix stuff that is causing excessive wear.

The lesson I'm getting from this is, play it safe and perform preventative, pre-emptive maintenance, even if the car isn't having issues! Better safe than sorry right? Maybe this fluid could've gone another couple dozen thousand miles, but what's $30? Cheap insurance right? I bet the vast majority of car issues and failures result from just not keeping regular simple maintenance! I mean the thing you said about brake fluid - who knew?

I guess when I go to the auto parts store, I see shelf and shelf of additives and special formulas and products designed to get more life out of your car and to protect it.

I guess my question is, other than regular maintenance, are there any other secrets to a 500,000 mile car?

Does anyone recommend any of those products they sell on shelf after shelf at the auto parts store?

The secret is to have the perfect environment- not too hot, not too cold, trips not too short or too long, nice smooth paved roads, clean air, no road salt. Easy on the gas pedal, easy on the brakes.

You seem so eager to dump chemicals in everything; I doubt they hurt, I doubt even more that they help. Just time and money down the drain most of the time.

There are some specific situations where a parts store chemical can help. I've used SeaFoam to free up a sticky lifter. The auto manufacturers, oil refiners, and myself ALL SAY that if there's no specific problem, there's no need for additives.

You're having a hard time letting go of the idling thing too. Try just getting in the car, getting all situated, turning the key, then going. You might like it.

Re: rusty brake lines: living in the rust belt, I have had to replace hard brake lines on numerous occasions; they all rusted out from the outside in. Changing the fluid every x years wouldn't have made a lick of difference; 10-12 years in the road salt is about all a person can expect to get. Perhaps changing brake fluid would have merit in a different environment that is more susceptible to condensation BUT again, as on the engine (even moreso) the brake system is SUPPOSED to be sealed i.e. it is NOT vented to the atmosphere so unless the little hands are always in there messing around it should be OK.

People who read their owners manual know, but like frank I've also had brake lines and many other parts rust from the outside, but I've also changed out brake parts that had rusted from the inside, putting grit in to the system and wearing out seals on the slave cylinders, so while I agree that every 3 years for brake fluid might be a bit often, but it does take on moisture, it does get dirty and there is no filter to pull that grit out that the system creates.

I'm not sure what other parts are wearing out that need some secret attention.

I use products like Sea Foam as well to keep things moving freely and to keep water from building up in my fuel system, an issue that is more common with motorcycles and less common with E10 gasoline as the alcohol sucks up moisture.

I also like keeping my car pretty close to stock, stock ride height, stock exhaust, stuff like that, because stuff like lowering a car makes it ride rough and you bottom out more on stuff like pot holes, over time that can be really rough on a car, over sized exhaust doesn't seem to help the engine run smoother.

Not an expert, but with Frank, don't mess with what's working, Malibu with 247000 tranny doesn't call for ever changing tranny fluild unless extreme duty, I'm not going to mess with it. Oil I've gone 15,000+ between changes, no issues. I've taken 5 cars to 200,000 sold 3 other 2 are going till they die or in Stratus it sags in the middle to the ground cause of rust.

Listen to your car, track you MPG cause it tells you if something changing, and if you want 500,000 miles, drive alot. Age and infrequent use kills, drive them once a week or 2. Leave them outside for a month or 2 without moving is just asking for problems. Scangauge is a great tool to give more information than what the factory gauges do regardless of FE uses.

Only mess with brake fluid when I have to replace a caliper or wheel cylinder.

Just sayin'- my stuff sits for months, sometimes years at a time between being run (especially now that I ride my electric bicycle all over the place); seems the worst that has come of it is when the mice move in. :mad:

A book just came in the mail that I forgot I ordered. How to Make Your Car Last Forever. I've only gone through a few pages, but it recommended sticking with the severe service regimen for me and I've learned so many new things that I never knew needed maintenance. Things like inspecting your spark plugs every 20,000 miles, changing your transmission filter! Didn't even know cars had a transmission filter! A fuel filter! Serpentine/timing belts, PCV valves? He talks about all those additives they sell at the auto parts store too and literally pleads the fifth on most of those questions. Then there are things he mentions like more expensive car washes that wash the underbelly in salty regions and rust protection. Picture by picture instructions on how to do maintenance. He says things like the steering and suspension and even the parking brake cable needs lubricating! I would have never even thought about doing that. I think he has a show on Sirius XM radio. Fantastic easy read. I guess I have a lot more maintenance to do on my car!

And the infomercial starts in 3...2...1...

Good quality filters, decent lubricants, don't beat on it ridiculously hard, but do drive hard enough for the thermostat to open up, highway miles are easier, watch for intake air leaks, uoa's help keep tabs better than anything.

My '88 Escort with 518K+ miles has probably averaged an oil change about every 5K miles over it's lifetime, I've used whatever oil/oil filters I can find the cheapest. The fuel filter has been changed 1 time since new and the only reason I changed it then was because the car was running poor and I thought possibly it was clogged, should have left the original filter on it, ended up being water in the fuel. I drove it until it was nearly empty for a couple tanks got all the water out and the problem solved itself. Air filter has probably been changed 7-10 times. Lots of stuff that parts manufacturers and even owners manuals recommend are not necessary. I usually run a set of platinum plugs anywhere from 100-150K miles and usually they're still good and delivering good fuel efficiency when I change them, I just feel guilty that they've been in the car for so long. I think a valve adjustment is recommended about every 30K miles, it's never been done on the Escort. I do recommend fluid and filter changes on a regular basis, checking fluid levels every 500-1K miles, changing timing belts/tensioners/water pump on schedule or even earlier if an interference engine if it's a non interference engine I'll push it to 100K knowing it won't damage anything if the belt breaks, a tensioner gets weak or seizes, or a water pump bearing wears out or seizes. I've never changed the tensioner on the Escort since it's non interference and it's still good. Also repair known problems as soon as possible to prevent the problem from growing into a larger problem. I've never really beat on the car, but it has had some fast driving. When I was working construction and sometimes driving 150 miles a day it wasn't uncommon to run it for 30-40 miles at a time at 85-90 MPH on 4 lane and interstate highways, I did that until I got hurt and became disabled even though the car had about 350K miles. It also helps the pocketbook if you buy parts with lifetime warranty when replacing parts then when it wears out just take it off and go get another one free. Nearly all the normal wear parts I've ever replaced on the Escort have a lifetime warranty. Auto Zone will be glad when/if this car ever wears out!!

I think Ford Man's example is just about perfect, know your car, learn it's weaknesses, understand the importance of disaster averting preventative maintenance, and never neglect what you KNOW should never be neglected. E10 fuel helps rid engines of water in the gas and that is probably why he got such long service from his fuel filters.

regards
Mech

Consumer reports publishes auto reviews that list problem areas in vehicles, there are a lot of vehicles that have very minor issues and of course there are cars that have endless problems no matter how good the care of them is, so getting to 500,000 miles is somewhat dependent on the vehicle you start out with, but auto makers don't like to have to recall vehicles even for small issues, but when there is a common issue it does tend to get documented in the better auto review books.

It also seems more common for someone to get 500,000 miles on a vehicle that they bought new or when it was almost new, I think that the reason for this is that they know the history, whenever I buy a used car I check everything over on it, due a full tune up and make sure that there aren't any hidden problems or parts held on with duct tape that could leave me stranded.

ive never had a problem with any of the cars i drive daily or close to it ( i own 5 cars currently) my van was a daily driver for around a year and i did 20k+ km on it without a service at all, ive now had it for 3 years and changed the oil, filter and spark plug once because i felt bad, it still starts first crank every time (after putting a good battery in, i take the batt out if leaving it for more than a week or 2) even after leaving it sitting for 6 months once the battery goes in it starts straight away, the joys of a carby 4 pot on LPG...

one of my other cars though is a 1998 commodore (aka pontiac GTO) wagon, it has the 3.8L ecotec V6 and it runs perfectly when im driving it daily but has no end of problems if i leave it for too long, ive had it for 4 years now and left it sitting for 6 months twice, its been serviced every 7500km on average and not drive too hard but every time i leave it sitting for too long it has trouble starting and lacks power until i give it a service and drive it for 500km or so

my current daily is a 1977 F100 that has done 690k km and is still going strong, i bought it at 680k so im not sure on its service history but it starts first click every time for me and im not gonna touch much until it doesn't anymore

One caveat: Some "lifetime warranty" parts aren't worth getting. Especially some of the cheaper electrical ones; it is not unheard of for several of these to be bad out of the box, or to go bad within a few months of use. The loss of use and hassle of actually replacing the parts can sometimes outweigh having to purchase new better-quality parts.

...Of course, it is still possible for "high quality" parts to be bad right out of the box. But it seems rather less common.

-soD

Yep, agree 100% with soD! When I was younger & less wise, I had a Chevette where the starter died; the thing was a real bugger to get out. Bought a 'lifetime warranty' starter and it died within 6 months. Repeated 3 more times (I'm a slow learner) before buying a more expensive (and better!) starter.

It wasn't just replacing the starter that was a hassle... it was also coming out after a long day's work and finding out that the starter died again. Jumper cables wouldn't do squat, so the only other option was to bump start the car. And then park strategically everywhere I went until I had time to trade in the replacement starter and get it replaced. Wasn't long before coworkers called the Chevette the 'Shove it'. :)

Another thing that seems to kill cars is automatic transmissions and depending on the auto maker they are often a high wear part that goes out and can cost as much as the value of the car to replace, it's a big part of why I wouldn't bother owning a car with an automatic.

4.6 Million Kilometers Mercentes Taxi
 

Look at this ungly mercentes, i know the mechanic that used to do maintenance.
4,600,000Km / 2,858,307 miles !!!
Allthough this model fills nightmares to everyone with goodtaste here (i must have seen thousands of those ungly taxis) i must admit that these were pretty trusty cars.
The secret he said, every minor thing taken care and carefull driving.

google 4.6 Million Kilometers mercentes taxi...

sorry but i cannot post links yet.

Agreed, I have seen corrosion in wheel cylinders; in the rears you can see the pits on the bottom between the pistons; for some reason I've not noticed similar pitting in front calipers. It's not hard to imagine a little puddle of water there in those back ones, that must have been pulled in past the piston seals when they cool and got condensation because how would it migrate down there from the master cylinder with that nice "bladder seal"? I wonder if that moisture has caused any wheel cylinder issues, and how effective bleeding would be to get it outta there.

It should be a good thing to get down there and bleed them a bit every x number of years even if it's only to break those bleeder screws loose once in a while so that when you really need to open them, you don't round or break 'em off. If you're going to do all that work it might be even better to pull the drums too, and pop the pistons out to see if a light hone is warranted.

I have a friend that is a know-it-all, even though she almost never leaves the house and lives in a small town. She likes to tell me how to do things that she has not done, but I have. Anyway, she was ranting and raving about what terrible cars Fords are, repeating the same clichés that I heard in junior high. I asked if this was based on her vast driving experience.

I knew that she has never had a license, but I had not realized that she had not even had a permit. She claimed "test anxiety" and insisted that she had driven "a lot." Apparently, all of her driving experience was on the simulators in Driver's Ed, which she insisted were real cars. At some point she mentioned her nephew's Power Wheels and I told her the kid had more driving experience than she did.

I also told her that my dad has put one million miles on four Fords.

"Then what happened?"

"He sold three, two to me, but one wore out."

What happened to the two you bought?"

"Someone drove into them."

"See?"

No, no I did not.

One was a 1989 Escort. He put 350,000 miles on it, the engine wore out, and he sold it to a shop. Both of us have seen it since with my "I'm proud of my Eagle Scout" sticker still on the bumper. He says that he would keep his Foci longer, but he drives in isolated areas without cell phone reception.

Yes, I know that I rant and rave, too. I just use longer words. :D

Oh, and on my famous Prelude, I needed to replace the clutch right away. A mechanic told me to purchase Autozone's cheapest because it had a lifetime warranty, but the third time that I replaced it I bought OEM. Then the transmission went out.

2001 Hyundia Tiburon... 2L "betaII" engine, all stock, 4-speed Auto.... Worst ever. $3,500 in repairs=1yr. Both front wheel bearings(Bearing in Hub assembly), Driver side half axle, 2 motor mounts, 1 Trans mount, Break pads/Rotors, Header(Cracked OEM), Alternator, Radiator, Belt, installed Ground Loop Isolator(still had Electrical short somewhere) Headlights would blow above 3000rpms?! Then Head Gasket blew... all around 100k mi

Some cars are just NOT ment to be...

The clutch in my '88 Escort is an Auto Zone lifetime warranty and currently has about 210K miles on it. I've only replaced one clutch in any car I've ever owned because it wore out, it had 260K miles on it when it was replaced. I did replace the clutch in a Mazda pickup many years ago that only had abut 80K miles on it. The transmission was having to come out to have new needle bearing put in it so I told them to replace the clutch/pressure plate/release bearing. When I went to pick up the truck from a friend who did the work he said he did as I ask, but said the original clutch still looked new.

BTW, the 2001 Tiburon has the "beta" engine (not the revised beta that is often called beta2).

But any car can be a lemon, one of my friend bought a 2003 Civic a few years ago, after 2 months she returned it to the dealer, the thing was riddled with electrical gremlins and small mechanical problems. Civics are good cars, but if you happen to get your hands on a lemon you might, like her, think that all Honda are crap!

As for a car that last 300k miles or more, I would put my money on a manual Toyota and stick with severe conditions maintenance!

The secret to driving a car 500,000 miles is to drive it 499,999 and then be very careful.

seafoam for stuck lifters....how is it done?
 

How do u use seafoam on a stuck lifter?

Thanks, tom

After an elk hit my Accord I got a ride from a friend that had one about the same age, but you could hardly tell. It looked like it had been through a string of owners that had gone out of their way to ruin it. I also talked to a girl that owned an Altima like the one that I owned. I loved mine, she hated hers.

I think that a lot of it is attitude. She is probably just a jerk! :D

Dump it in the crankcase.