I've always heard that most engine wear happens when an engine is cycled through it's staring and stopping. Since Hybrids do this quite regularly it would seems to me that this is a recipe for premature engine wear quite early. Where is $ savings if you have to have the engine overhauled much earlier than a conventional engine?
Hybrids starting and stoping
- Thread starter Mattchou
- Start date
- Status
I believe that the reason that starting your car causes the most wear is because the engine components are not lubricated since the oil had time to drip into the pan. In an application like a hybrid where there is little time between start-ups I bet there is very little extra wear due to the start-ups since the parts will still be oil coated.
Make sense.
JHZR2
Staff member
I believe this occurs only when the engine is fully warmed up. This oughtto mean that the oil additive packages are all working as best as they can, and everything is well lubricated.
JMH
JMH
You would think the starter motor would wear out more quickly having to restart the car's engine so many times.
I am sure they tried to design in solutions to those problems. My daughters 02 Insight must have 100K or better and still going strong. Like anything new, I am sure there will be problems. The extended warranty may be a great idea on anything using a lot of new technology. I think the only real problem with it was a leaking shock, replaced free.
I suspect the starters in those cars are designed to withstand their duty cycle.
JHZR2
Staff member
I think theoutput shaft of of theengine is connected to the traction motor, so it can spin up the engine and move the car at once.
JMH
JMH
Nah, It would be like starting a Manual in gear, the car would be rollin so it would just fire right up and no starter would be needed. The only downfall I see is the following. You put in the key....You back out your driveway....You put the car in drive....The Gas Motor kicks in at lets say 20-25mph. I think that would be rough on the motor, rather than letting it slowly rev to that speed it gets hit to that quickly.
Eric
We've got 2 Toyota Hybrids at work. When first starting off in the morning, you turn the key and a conventional starter motor starts the engine. It will continue to run until warmed up. After warm up, the engine will shut down at stop lights. When you step on the gas, the main electric motor starts the car moving. Depending on the speed and how hard you step on the gas, the main electric motor will then start the gas engine.
The Prius has an insulated coolant tank that stores hot coolant and an electric pump and valve system to make sure that the engine is always at operating temperature for restarts. I am not aware of a pre-oiler.
I have about 23,000 miles on my 2004 Prius and hope to do a UOA before my next oil change to see how it's doing. I use Mobil 1 5w30 and the recommended 5000 mi OCI. The hot coolant storage system eliminates cold starts but I'm going to post on some of the Prius sites to see about the oiler system. It wouldn't surprise me if the oil pump was electric, just like the air conditioning compressor and the power steering, in which case there should be oil flowing before the engine actually fires up.
I found out that the Prius does have a pre-oiler system and the gas engine does not start until the oil pressure reaches a certain point. I'm hoping that all this makes for an engine that will go for 200,000 mi. In looking at the UOAs that have been posted on the Echo, which is the same basic 1.5l engine, it seems to be pretty well put together.
- Status
Similar threads
