I have a 2010 Yaris. Mileage to drive to work is only 1.5 miles, 5 days a week. I’ve heard that these short trips are really bad for your car because of moisture build up. Is there anything I can do, maintence or anything else, that will help to protect my engine better?
Thanks, Leandra
PS Yes, I can bike or walk sometimes but the trip home at 5:00 is like the grand prix…so I don’t often go by foot or bike.
Do you drive it much on the weekends? Once a week it would be good to get it out on the freeway for about a half hour. And maintain it according to the ‘severe service’ recommendations in your owners manual, including more frequent oil changes (3000 miles or so).
I essentially agree with texases, but instead of using an odometer mileage figure, I would suggest that the OP change her oil every 3 months, regardless of how few miles have been accumulated in that time. Additionally, getting the car out on the highway every weekend, for at least 45 minutes, is a good idea. In addition to helping to evaporate the moisture that is diluting the motor oil, it helps to dry out the exhaust system and to keep the battery charged.
Cars that are driven as the OP’s is driven definitely fall into the “severe service” category, and that is the maintenance schedule that he/she should follow, but doing some weekend driving is still essential if the OP wants to avoid a prematurely dead battery and a prematurely rotted-out exhaust system.
This would be a good application for a Nissan Leaf.
Thanks for these tips. I will follow your advice and get the car serviced more often. I drive quite a bit on the weekends, so that should help.
If you drive a lot on the weekend, I am not sure you need the most severe maintenance. Still, it won’t hurt if you do it. Compared to the cost of a car or motor or transmission, extra oil changes dwindle into insignificant.
A car is there to be driven. It’s your car. If you need to drive 1.5 miles, that’s how far you should drive. But it will cause some damage over time, compared to if you had a 15 mile commute say. If you can figure out a way to arrange you errands so you drive long enough to bring the engine up to full temperature as many trips as possible, that would be worthwhile. Doing that even once a week on the weekend would help too as others here say. And as mentioned above, definitely follow the severe operations chart in your owner’s manual for routine maintenance, rather than the “normal” chart.
I would recommend a long drive from time to time. Find an excuse to go somewhere distant. It only needs to be 10 miles or slightly more. Long enough to get the car completely warmed up and stay that way for 10 minutes or so.