Hey Guys,

I live about 1.0 kilometer from where I work and currently Im driving my vehicle to and from work Monday through Friday. I know that driving short distances can be hard on the car especially the exhaust system. And it doesn't help that I live in Toronto where the car will be exposed to salt and snow. (Well...I haven't decided if Im going to drive my G coupe through the winter, but that's a different story altogether) Anyways, I want to preserve my G coupe as best as I can because I'll probably keep this car for awhile. Does anyone know if certain components of the car can fail prematurely as a result of short distance driving? If so, then perhaps I should really consider buying a bicycle for work. At least I'll get some excercise everyday. But then I'll be screwed when winter comes. Oh well...something for me to think about. Let me know your thoughts on this.

G35evolution

 

If a 6MT, MAYBE the clutch. But if driven normally, nothing can go wrong.

 

when you do short trip (never really warms up) stop and go, etc....

- You should do Oil changes more often (full synthetic every 3750 would be the max)
- If this is really the majority of driving you do, you may want one step hotter plugs
- at a minimum, take the baby out on the weekend and run it for at least 15 - 20 minutes nonstop, and even hard.

 

O good all that weekend beating is for the best....phew

 

That's pretty hard on the G bro. You might want to consider biking, walking, or public transit.
Short distance driving will kill the G early if you keep that up for long.
Ideally your motor should be driven for at least 10-15 kilometers after starting it to fully warm it and burn off any harmful deposits in the engine. This also dries out the exhaust system properly too.
The battery needs a few miles to properly recharge after starting the engine.
The spark plugs need some heat and a warmed engine to clean themselves too.

It's up to you bro, but I wouldn't do that to it.

Colin

 

Thanks for the input,

Yeah, changing the oil more frequently does make sense. In addition, I'll start warming up the vehicle a little longer before driving away. As for the weekends, I'm definitely taking it out for a rip on the highways. Crappy gas mileage, but hey...I didn't buy this car for its economical features.

 

you might also consider 'taking the long way to work' I do this a lot if I am running to the store (it's 1 mile away - yet I always got about 10 - 15 miles on my baby when I get home)

 

Well, my G is my daily driver, I (hardly) never drive hard when the engine isn't at its normal temp. But I really need wait miles to drive it somewher near hard?
Just seems to me that cars would be fine for 5-10 minute trips...

 

really depends....

If you live in reasonable climate (not fricken freeezing all the time) the oils and engine are up to temp pretty quick (5 mins sorta thing).

But if you don't get some long runs, you tend to build up crap in the exhaust, the cats, on the plugs, etc.


FYI mine is my daily driver also... I go in to the office at least once a week, and that is 90 miles each way so I figure I get good freeway runs on a regular basis.

My average trip in town is maybe 10 - 15 mins each way.

When I am doing a run to the local store I tend to driver a bit out of my way just because I love driving it _

 

i think one of the reasons that starting and stopping your car is not good is because when you shut the car off all the oil slides down off all the parts so they are not fully lubricated. So for one split second when you start up there is relatively more friciton than normal causing more wear than normal on your components.

 

1 KM in Toronto isnt that bad...really nice city, why not walk it? plus, it will even save the mileage on the car [although your mileage will add up extremely slow at that rate]. but Toronto is nice, and if the summer isnt as horrible as last yr, just save the G for "after work stress relief" and weekends or something. i would not drive the car short distances like that for all the reasons mentioned above. If the car is not up to operating temp, then i would wait until it is before i stop driving and shutting it off.

 

All of you guys have a very valid point. I should leave the G for weekend or off-work hour use only. This will not only reduce kilometers and preserve the vehicle, it will also reduce my insurance premiums by 200 bucks if it is not used for commuting to work. Otherwise, I'll really warm up the car and drive it to work using a longer route. But still, I have to really think about an alternate means of transportation