eli5: How do car engines last so long?

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A car engine basically has thousands of mini explosions happening inside of it, is has parts moving very fast and generating tons of heat, and experiences extreme temperature fluctuations on a daily basis. Yet it is the part that usually dies last in a car.

How do they make them last so long and why are we unable to make other parts of the car as long lasting, such as tires and brakes?

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21 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Automotive engines are pretty good, but they don’t actually accumulate that many HOURS of use. If you drive 13,000 miles/year at, let’s say, 35 mph, that’s 371 hours of engine time. In ten years, you accumulate 3700 hours. Your engine spends most of its life parked.

Large diesel engines work much harder. For example many locomotive engines run basically 24×7. (The Union Pacific railroad is the 2nd largest consumer of fuel oil in the U.S., behind the U.S. Navy)

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