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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>why are we unable to make other parts of the car as long lasting
Engine design minimizes friction in order to increase efficiency and reduce wear on the components. Contrary, tyres and brakes are based on friction. Friction creates heat and shreds tiny pieces off material. So, engines promote motion and they need to eliminate friction to do that, but tyres and brakes have the opposite goal: provide stickiness by sacrificing materials.
For example, train wheels are made of metal and they can last for very long. But they don’t care about lateral grip because the tracks provide the turning forces. Car tyres are always a compromise between efficiency and grip. Make them softer, you get more performance. Make them harder, you get more efficiency (due to less friction losses) and they last longer.
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