Which Season is Harder on Oil : Winter vs. Summer ?

I just think winter is hard in a car. Period. The whole car. Start your car up in ten degrees bellow zero temperatures and drive to work. You’re going to experience some stuff, some weird stuff (sometimes). I’ve had my blower motor start squeaking. I’ve had my dash board start blinking (alternator maybe??). Windshield wipers frozen to the windshield. The suspension, I swear, feels like a bag of rocks until it too warms up a bit.

And winter is hard on oil. It doesn’t reach operating temps quick enough (or at all). There’s too many temperature fluctuations...too many cool downs, too many cold starts, too many trips where it never even reaches a point where you’ll burn off condensation. You’re getting maybe some more fuel dilution. Never mind the road SALT. All over that car...bypassing your air filter. I hate winters.
I think extreme cold is worse for most materials and chemicals that cars are made with and use. I had a car sitting for about a week and a half in a hard freeze (high temps of low teens and overnight lows around -5F) and man did those tires have a flat spot for about 10 miles until they warmed up enough. I've had brakes not work right for a few applications after sitting in freezing rain too.
 
Everything is hard on oil the way I drive. In the winter it gets fuel dilution, in the summer it gets cooked by heat from a heavy foot in stop and go traffic.
 
There's no substitute if you let you idle your car (warm up) for a minute or two before driving off.
Mpfi, no problem. But some DI engines will have a ton of fuel dilution ( especially in cold weather and short trips) doing that. I would not with a DI unless it's 20 below and you need heat to tolerate driving.
 
Winter for sure, i can repeat all the reasons but i see they are all already mentioned by others.

On modern cars summer time is not a problem whatsoever. The cooling systems and oils coolers/heat exchangers are all over engineered so the oil never sees any extreme temps.
 
Mpfi, no problem. But some DI engines will have a ton of fuel dilution ( especially in cold weather and short trips) doing that. I would not with a DI unless it's 20 below and you need heat to tolerate driving.
Some is key...my MDX does almost nothing but short trips and warm up idles all winter and doesn't seem to have a concerning level of dilution (J35). I can smell a little gas pulling the dipstick but oil level doesn't noticably change.
 
Some is key...my MDX does almost nothing but short trips and warm up idles all winter and doesn't seem to have a concerning level of dilution (J35). I can smell a little gas pulling the dipstick but oil level doesn't noticably change.
Yes not all. My mazda will show higher and higher on the dipstick with winter short trips.
 
There was a thread here a few months ago which proposed that oil life was inversely proportional to the amount of fuel consumed. It made a lot of sense to me.

The formula for oil life was:

Oil capacity x 200 = maximum volume of fuel burned before oil is changed.

E.g. 5 l sump x 200 = 1000 l
Oil should be changed after engine has used 1000 l of fuel.

At 20 l/100 km, the engine will use 1000 l of fuel in 5000 km.

At 10 l/100 km, the engine will use 1000 l of fuel in 10,000 km.

Given that engines use significantly more fuel in the winter, I would say winter is way harder on the oil.
 
I vote for winter as well. Living here in NE Wisconsin where we have a legit winter with frequent negative temps, I believe it's a much more harsh environment for everything mechanical...and living for that matter.
 
I'd say winter just because it can take a long time for temps to rise high enough on short trips. I e taught all 3 of my kids to take the long way home on cold days just to get some added heat I to the fluids rather than just letting the thing idle for 20 minutes before driving.
 
I’d say cold cold winters. It’s -13 degrees real temp where I am, there is no shot my oil is getting up to operating temp ever. No amount of driving will get it up to operating temp, and if it somehow does, it’s dropping right back down the second your done redlining the motor to get the oil up to temp in the first place hahahaha
 
As of this minute these are the conditions in Edmonton,
Edmonton conditions.jpg

I can tell you without any exaggeration, my cars muuuuch prefer 90˚F (32˚C) over -25˚F (-32˚C) !

IMG_1225.jpg
 
Winters; particularly if the vehicle is short-tripped such that the oil does not achieve operating temperature or for a long enough time to burn off moisture and fuel.
 
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