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Idling vs start and stop.


Dirtman

Former Middleweight Moss Fighting Champion
Joined
May 28, 2018
Messages
19,304
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41N 75W
Vehicle Year
2009
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2.3 (4 Cylinder)
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Automatic
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It's up there.
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It's down there.
Tire Size
Round.
My credo
I poop in the furnace.
My work involves me driving to multiple places a day, short trips, and then waiting. Normally I just leave my truck idling inbetween. I average idling about 10 hours per week.

Do you think its better (not fuel efficiency or hippy wise) but on the engine to do what I'm doing and just keep the engine running, or starting and stopping it every time I stop (20 or more times a day?)
 
That's a tough one. Obviously start and stop is going to be harder on the starter and battery, and if you are letting it get cool in between it will hit the oil too. Ford says that 1 hour of idle time is roughly the equivalent of 30 miles of driving in terms of engine wear though. And clearly shutting it down will help with fuel use, Georgia actually recommends in their driver's ed hand book to shut the engine down if you know you will be idling for more than 10 seconds.

The idea of letting the engine idle being better for it comes from big trucks. The theory behind it was that the crankshaft in those engines is so heavy it will push the oil out from between it and the bearings, and so you end up with a dry start. Frankly, I don't buy it, and here is why. A lot of those engines are just over-tuned versions of what is in the 3/4 and 1-ton pickups. We had a 7.3 for use in lab tear downs in tech school. It didn't run, it just got taken apart and put together for practice, and sat on a stand for all but a few weeks out of the year, in it's normal orientation. Every year when it was taken apart (per the instructor) there was still oil between the crank and bearings.

So I'd say if you are going to be more than a minute or two, shut it down. Otherwise the added wear of idling will probably outweigh the added wear of the start/stop routine.
 
Diesels, especially big ones take a lot of commotion to start. You don’t shut them off on a whim especially if it is cold out. Things like diesel locomotives can’t even start themselves... so they constantly run.

I don’t let mine idle, theft is also a concern.
 
When its 5 degrees or 90 all give a crap about my engine goes out the window in exchange for having heat/AC. But during normal weather I always wondered. My last oil report from blackstone said my engine with a 3,000 mile change showed wear of an engine with 6,000 miles. not bad or overdue but "excessive" for 3k. Which is what brought up this query. It takes me about 6-8 months to reach 3k, but as I said... 10 hours idle per week. Unless im drunk, which is a great possibility... That adds up to a minimum 7,200 miles of "idle" based on your 30 miles per hour estimate. So im not sure if thats good or bad since that means my real mileage per oci would be 10,200 miles. but i guess ill start stopping... See what i did there?
 
Should have mentioned, this is a 2.3 duratec. And I would love someone to try stealing my truck. If i could find the smiley faces on this new forum I'd add the laughing one. My truck has GPS tracking, a remote cut off, and the emergency lights kinda keep riff raff away lol.
 
Upper right corner of your editing toolbox.
:):oops::giggle::ROFLMAO:o_O(y)
 
People steal rangers?? lol when I look at my truck while I'm walking away from it idling I normally see another newer (2015+) car idling with no one inside. So I take my chances. IF someone did steal my truck they wouldn't get far with how slow they are and how bad the gas mileage is lol. Oh, I forgot the loud exhaust.... I know what my truck sounds like so I would know if someone got in it lol. My last ranger had a bad tumbler so I could pull the ignition key out while it was running. Someone could steal it but would have a hell of a time when they shut it off. Back to the OP.... if you are idling for more than a few minutes I would shut if off. What if your t-stat fails and your temp gets hot while your sitting inside waiting for whoever to do whatever so you can leave? Wouldn't be good to walk out to a puddle of coolant and a steaming hood lol. I agree that if you know you have it idling for around 10 hours a week then shut it off. You wont hurt the 2.3 with starting it often.
 
Other then a failure of the cooling system, oiling system, or theft that would go unnoticed in an unattended, running vehicle, i really, REALLY doubt idleing (espicially with EFI) is going to harm the engine enough over an average vehicles lifespan to make a difference.

Look at 4.6Ls in vics in police service, granted, they were designed with idleing in mind but still run 300k+ with no issues, even after being shuffled into taxi service or whatever.

That being said, i dont generally leave mine idle just for fuel consumption reasons.
 
delivery trucks are shut down and started dozens, if not hundreds, of times per day. the brown ones tend to last forever so I doubt its an issue.
utility trucks are routinely left idling for hours at a time, but they have special low compression engines. at least they used to, not sure about newer ones.
so,,,it doesn't matter???


hey lookie, I found my smilies

:thefinger:

oops, that one belongs to Bobby.
 
delivery trucks are shut down and started dozens, if not hundreds, of times per day. the brown ones tend to last forever so I doubt its an issue.
utility trucks are routinely left idling for hours at a time, but they have special low compression engines. at least they used to, not sure about newer ones.
so,,,it doesn't matter???


hey lookie, I found my smilies

:thefinger:

oops, that one belongs to Bobby.


:worthless:
 
People steal rangers?? lol when I look at my truck while I'm walking away from it idling I normally see another newer (2015+) car idling with no one inside. So I take my chances. IF someone did steal my truck they wouldn't get far with how slow they are and how bad the gas mileage is lol. Oh, I forgot the loud exhaust.... I know what my truck sounds like so I would know if someone got in it lol. My last ranger had a bad tumbler so I could pull the ignition key out while it was running. Someone could steal it but would have a hell of a time when they shut it off.

Depends, one of my customers forgot the keys in his super duty at a gas station and went in after getting gas to get a donut. Came back out and his truck was gone. Omaha police found it 6mo later being parted out on Craigslist. It was a mess but he put it back together.

Pretty sure if someone steals one of mine it is going to be found upside down and torched in a ditch after a joyride. I just as soon not see either like that.
 
If everything is in good condition, restarting a warm engine shouldn't be much strain on the starter.

A heavily modified performance engine with high compression and a poorly maintained electrical system would be a whole different affair.

I recommend shutting it off.
 
Sounds like a good application for one of those Accusump systems, though probably not worth the cost.

I've been wondering what they do with those new cars that have the automatic engine shutoff system. Do they do some sort of oil accumulator? Not that I'd ever consider a car that had such a system, just curious what they do.
 
My sister has a car with that auto start/stop feature. It's the most annoying garbage ever created. From my poking around I never found any oil accumulator or special devices of any kind besides the starter being quite substantially larger and it having twin batteries.

and look I'm not an idiot! :giggle::yahoo::bye:;missingteeth;
 
I wouldn't be concerned with adverse engine wear its prob best to do what you find is most convenient for you I highly doubt the engine will be affected any if at all.
 

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