Hey all!
It's been few weeks since this question stated taking laps in my mind. I was wondering how much wear would one you inflict on an engine if one only used his/her car for short drives? Take me, for example. I live about 6 km away from work. And 200 m on vertical scale. Anyway, a bicycle ride there takes my breath away for the rest for the day. So i'm using my car. The problem is the engine runs cold for the duration of the trip, and same goes for the return trip. So basically, for 5 days a week, my engine runs cold in 2 X 10 mins trips. What do you think? If I drove a bit more and let the engine warm up to the normal temp, would that reduce the engine wear? Or is it all the same? Considering that in long drives the engine goes through this warm-up phase, anyway... And eventually, should I worry much about this kind of short rides? I'd like to get some opinions on that.
Thanks.
Matei