Five things that shorten engine life

Modern engines are made in order to achieve maximum efficiency and environmental friendliness, while not taking into account consumer characteristics. As a result, the reliability and service life of the engine is reduced. It is important to keep this trend in mind when choosing a car. Here is a short list of things that will shorten engine life.

Volume reduction

First of all, it should be noted the recent decrease in the volume of combustion chambers. The goal is to reduce the amount of harmful substances released into the atmosphere. To maintain and even increase power, the compression ratio must be increased. But a higher compression ratio means more stress on the materials from which the piston group is made.

Reducing the working volume by one third doubles the load on the pistons and walls. Engineers have long calculated that in this regard, the optimal balance is achieved with 4-cylinder engines with a volume of 1,6 liters. However, they cannot meet the increasingly stringent EU emission standards, so today they are being replaced by units of 1,2, 1,0 or even smaller.

Short pistons

The second point is the use of short pistons. The automaker's logic is very clear. The smaller the piston, the lighter it is. Accordingly, the decision to reduce the height of the piston provides greater performance and efficiency.

However, by reducing the piston edge and connecting rod arm, the manufacturer additionally increases the load on the cylinder walls. At high revs, such a piston often breaks through the oil film and collides with the metal of the cylinders. Naturally, this leads to wear and tear.

Turbo on small engines

In third place is the use of small displacement turbocharged engines (and their placement in relatively large and heavy models such as this Hyundai Venue). The most commonly used turbocharger is powered by exhaust gases. Since they are quite hot, the temperature in the turbine reaches 1000 degrees.

The larger the liter volume of the engine, the greater the wear. Most often, a turbine unit becomes unusable for about 100000 km. If the piston ring is damaged or deformed, the turbocharger will absorb the entire supply of engine oil.

No engine warming up

Further, it is worth noting the neglect of engine warming up at low temperatures. In fact, modern engines can start without warming up thanks to the latest injection systems.

But at low temperatures, the load on the parts increases greatly: the engine must pump oil and warm up for at least five minutes. However, due to environmental concerns, car manufacturers overlook this recommendation. And the service life of the piston group is reduced.

Start-stop system

The fifth thing that shortens the life of the engine is the start/stop system. It was introduced by car manufacturers to “reduce” traffic downtime (for example, while waiting at a red light), when a lot of harmful substances enter the atmosphere. As soon as the vehicle speed drops to zero, the system switches off the engine.

The problem, however, is that each engine is designed for a certain number of starts. Without this system, it will start an average of 100 times over a 000-year period, and with it - about 20 million. The more often the engine is started, the faster the friction parts wear out.