Is it bad for the engine if you don't turn your car on for a long time?

[YarisSedan]

It is certainly not good to drive the car that infrequently. This the main reason a lot of people shy away from buying a used car that has abnormally low low miles. That means it has sat a lot. When the vehicle sits for weeks at a time the oil drips down the cylinder walls and makes it way down to the bottom of the pan. Which causes a dry start which explains why your oil light is on for a few seconds. you have low oil pressure momentarily For a few seconds you are causing engine wear doing it consistently for a long time can eventually cause your engine to wear out faster than normal. Also when the car sits like that it causes moisture build up in the oil. If you dont take it out on the freeway and give it a chance to burn off it keeps building up. Which is why manufactures give not just a mileage interval but time so even though say for 5 months you dont even drive 2 thousand miles you still need a oil change. Also your car has a slight parasitic drain if its not driven over extended intervals your battery will get heavily discharged which is going to cause it to fail sooner. Try to take out out atleast once a week if possible.

[Altitude]

Originally Posted by YarisSedan

...This the main reason a lot of people shy away from buying a used car that has abnormally low low miles. That means it has sat a lot...

Not always. My Yaris has abnormally low miles and I drive it every day.

[jcboy]

Originally Posted by Altitude

Not always. My Yaris has abnormally low miles and I drive it every day.

I guess he forgot the word "generally".

but yeah, if you drive it everyday and you have unusually low miles it means you are doing really short trips. short trips are not as good for the engine as average length trips. the cyclic temperature shifts from cold>hot>cold isnt good for any material actually. it's called thermal fatigue. in engines it's thermo-mechanical (there's stress combined with temperature change)

[gollygirl1]

Originally Posted by jcboy

I guess he forgot the word "generally".

but yeah, if you drive it everyday and you have unusually low miles it means you are doing really short trips. short trips are not as good for the engine as average length trips. the cyclic temperature shifts from cold>hot>cold isnt good for any material actually. it's called thermal fatigue. in engines it's thermo-mechanical (there's stress combined with temperature change)

Yeah, I had the same thought too, but you put it better!

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by jcboy

the cyclic temperature shifts from cold>hot>cold isnt good for any material actually. it's called thermal fatigue. in engines it's thermo-mechanical (there's stress combined with temperature change)

Probably why cars that drive 4 or 5 hundred miles a day last so many miles. They only warm up once that whole time whereas cars like mine warm up ~100 times...

[Altitude]

Originally Posted by jcboy

I guess he forgot the word "generally".

but yeah, if you drive it everyday and you have unusually low miles it means you are doing really short trips. short trips are not as good for the engine as average length trips. the cyclic temperature shifts from cold>hot>cold isnt good for any material actually. it's called thermal fatigue. in engines it's thermo-mechanical (there's stress combined with temperature change)

I'm certainly no expert on the matter. But a car driven 100 miles per day for two trips would experience the same number of cold/hot/cold cycles as one driven 10 miles over two trips. I don't think the length of those cycles would matter.

I think YarisSedan's explanation is more accurate in that a car that doesn't get driven everyday will suffer more wear.

[jambo101]

In my sportscar days i'd park the car/s for 5 months during the winter with nothing more than filling the tank to prevent condensation and removing the battery for the winter, never had a problem starting the car/s in the spring.
IMO a couple of weeks isnt a long time, a year is a long time.