Mechanic says turning off one thing in your car can 'double the life of engine' (2024)

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Mechanic says turning off one thing in your car can 'double the life of engine'? ›

Scotty Kilmer, a mechanic with 50 years of experience, has suggested that a popular feature in modern cars might actually be harmful to their performance. In a video on his YouTube channel, he advised motorists to switch off the automatic start/stop function on their vehicles.

Myth: Shutting Off and Restarting My Car's Engine Is Harmful. Fact: It's a common misconception that shutting off your car's engine and then turning it on again will damage it. While this practice does add more strain to the battery, there's otherwise no additional negative impact on the car's engine.

For short stops, it makes sense to turn the vehicle off in order to minimize fuel use and CO2 emissions. At least for the conditions evaluated in this work, the penalty in terms of criteria pollutant emissions is very small compared to cold-start emissions.

A faulty ignition switch, a malfunctioning sensor, or even a loose wire connection can result in loss of power and cause your car's engine to shut off unexpectedly. Overheating is another potential cause of an abrupt shutdown.

One of the most common reasons for the issue of car turned off while driving is a faulty crankshaft position sensor. The crankshaft position sensor's role is monitoring the engine's many moving parts including the crankshaft, engine valves, and pistons.

Some noises that a faulty engine will cause are backfiring, hissing, popping, and knocking. These sounds could mean problems inside the combustion flow. Engine knocking, for instance, happens when there are pockets of burning air-fuel mixtures that burn on their own instead of being caused by a spark plug.

Most modern cars with a fairly healthy battery should last at least 2 weeks, without needing to be started up to re-charge the battery. If there's any doubt about the condition of the battery, start it once a week just to be safe.

Leaving Your Car Idle Can Damage Your Spark Plugs and Cylinders. The engine is running when you leave your car idling, but you're not going anywhere. Gasoline engines work best when operating at high speeds, so when you leave your car idling, the engine operates at a lower speed than it's designed for.

Your battery has a parasitic drain

It will likely shorten your battery's life if the car sits idle for a long time.

How Long Can You Let Your Car Idle? Idling your car for 30 seconds to a minute is acceptable, and it will not cause any harm to your vehicle. With advanced technology, even if you let your car idle for a slight longer duration, it will not damage it.

Can bad spark plugs cause a car to shut off? ›

The plugs produce electric sparks that ignite the fuel and air mixture in the engine cylinders. Malfunctioning spark plugs can make an engine stop for a while and resume its normal functioning. It can happen when you are driving. The engine can also sound rough when idle.

So your car will probably get slightly worse fuel economy and make slightly less power, but it shouldn't stall if that is the only issue. But if there are other active problems, then adding a bad knock sensor to the mix could be the final straw that could cause the engine to stall.

Leaving Your Car Idle Can Damage Your Spark Plugs and Cylinders. The engine is running when you leave your car idling, but you're not going anywhere. Gasoline engines work best when operating at high speeds, so when you leave your car idling, the engine operates at a lower speed than it's designed for.

Consumer Reports' chief mechanic, John Ibbotson, says that giving the engine a chance to run for a minute before driving on a cold day is smart but that there isn't a need to let it run longer beyond warming the cabin and defogging the windshield.

Keeping the battery from dying is everyone's first concern. Turning your engine on every week is about more than confirming it will still start. Running your engine by driving it will kick on the alternator, which allows the battery to recharge thus being able to turn on in the future.

If you crank for too short a duration, the engine will not come to life, and it's an effort wasted. If you crank for too long, you hear the unpleasant sound where the starter motor still tries to drive the engine even after the engine has started.