which is greater engine wear from turning on or left idleing?

[Chris-1997]

I'm a online entrepreneur I sell on eBay and I get my inventory by going to thrift stores. I go to about 20 stores a day and have multiple other stops would it be better to leave my vehicle running for 5-15 minutes wasting gas or turn it off and increase engine wear and starter wear? If turning it off is the way to go what can I add to my oil to reduce wear on startup?

 

[koda2000]

Personally, I'd say you should turn it off for a variety of reasons.

Wastes fuel
Pollution
Invites vehicle theft
Not good for an engine to run off-load

 

[poker4me007]

What Koda2000 said, plus with the engine sitting for a short 5 to 15 min's the internal's of the engine will still have a lot of oil on them , wouldn't think it would cause much if any extra wear to turn the engine off and restarting...

 

[fast_dave]

Police Cars and Ambulances all have Idle Hour Meters - just saying...

 

[Terkins]

Personally, I'd say you should turn it off for a variety of reasons.
Wastes fuel
Pollution
Invites vehicle theft
Not good for an engine to run off-load

Ditto on these four.

I read some oil manufacturer's article telling that the majority of engine wear occurs in the first minutes after starting.

Seems you're in a "glass-half-empty/glass-half-full" situation.

"Take your pick..."

 

[koda2000]

Police Cars and Ambulances all have Idle Hour Meters - just saying...

Police cars and ambulances have a lot of equipment sucking up power (lights, radios, computers, pumps etc). Ambulances typically run two alternators and dual batteries. Perhaps that's why they leave them running when not apparently necessary. Police cars also probably sit still a lot (at crime scenes and while waiting for speeders), so number of miles traveled is not a good representation for maintenance intervals.

 

[fast_dave]

Police cars and ambulances have a lot of equipment sucking up power (lights, radios, computers, pumps etc). Ambulances typically run two alternators and dual batteries. Perhaps that's why they leave them running when not apparently necessary. Police cars also probably sit still a lot (at crime scenes and while waiting for speeders), so number of miles traveled is not a good representation for maintenance intervals.

Yep & 'zactly; hence my 'round about answer/example that Idling is harder on the engine.

 

[shucker1]

Police cars and ambulances have a lot of equipment sucking up power (lights, radios, computers, pumps etc). Ambulances typically run two alternators and dual batteries. Perhaps that's why they leave them running when not apparently necessary. Police cars also probably sit still a lot (at crime scenes and while waiting for speeders), so number of miles traveled is not a good representation for maintenance intervals.

Plus if I am a car thief I would have to be a real idiot to try and steal a running cop car.

Now if I'm the same thief and I find your car running in the 7-11 parking lot while you are inside the choice seems easy...

 

[J_C]

Check your state laws, in some it is illegal to leave an unattended vehicle idling for some period of time. I wouldn't be very concerned about engine wear either way in those two scenarios, but would expect that you'll wear out the starter faster... though not 20X faster since starting a recently ran vehicle is easier, and while the quantity of fuel used just idling is low, if you were to do it all day, every day then it's going to add up, and you'll sooner need new belt/plugs/oil changes/etc. based on hours running rather than mileage.

 

[imp]

Personally, I would say the engine wear issue is a non-issue, if compared to circumstances where the started engine is not run long enough to replace the energy withdrawn from the battery by starting. Do this awhile and return eventually to a battery no longer able to crank the engine.

 

[koda2000]

Personally, I would say the engine wear issue is a non-issue, if compared to circumstances where the started engine is not run long enough to replace the energy withdrawn from the battery by starting. Do this awhile and return eventually to a battery no longer able to crank the engine.

My wife does this about once a week with the lawn tractor she uses go back and forth from our house to her horse barn 3 times a day. I got sick of listening to her complain about the battery being dead (even though I explained to her why is it was dead). This year I installed a 420 CC battery and bought a Deltran battery tender, which she's been instructed to plug in every evening. So far, no more dead batteries and the tender should help the battery last more than 6 months.

 

[imp]

My wife does this about once a week with the lawn tractor she uses go back and forth from our house to her horse barn 3 times a day. I got sick of listening to her complain about the battery being dead (even though I explained to her why is it was dead). This year I installed a 420 CC battery and bought a Deltran battery tender, which she's been instructed to plug in every evening. So far, no more dead batteries and the tender should help the battery last more than 6 months.

@koda2000
"Deep draining" a battery frequently surely contributes to shorter life.

 

[J_C]

There are a couple other things you can do with many lawn tractors to charge the battery faster for shorter run usage.

One, they typically have two alternator coil sets, one for battery charging with a single diode for rectificaton, and one coil set for AC to lights. This is the typical setup for a homeowner grade mower or barely tractor, more expensive models often have a more elaborate 2nd DC circuit.

You can replace the single diode with a bridge rectifier ($1 part) and put a second BR on the light circuit and run that to the battery, and add a switch to select charging or running lights (being able to, whether lights are on still depends on the stock light switch)... you wouldn't want both circuits overcharging the battery during longer running periods.