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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Do not specifically to the question of why the engine lasts so long, but why tires and brakes specifically DONT last long. It’s because they MUST wear.
So in order to stop your car, your brake pads rub against your brake rotors. This rub creates friction. More friction results in material lost.
So imagine you have a spinning wood disk. You can either stop the wheel using a piece of wood, that’s smooth, or a piece of wood with sand paper. Which one will stop the wooden wheel faster? The sandpaper. But it wears the wood wheel faster. In essence that’s how brakes work.
Tires are the same principle. Need more grip? Need more friction. More friction = more wear
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