Better to drive short journey's, or not drive at all?

[CaliGem]

Crazy question, but we have a dilemma that the T5.1 cali is used daily, but only to do 5 miles each way. What is better for the engine, to run daily even on short distances (with some spirited driving), or to leave it sitting and use only for long journey's? Waying up whether to buy a run around!

 

[chockswahay]

A fair question. The Cali is an expensive vehicle to run and on short journeys will return very poor MPG. The oil will never get really warm, the DPF may well clog. If you can afford a run around I would say yes, get one. Save the Cali for the adventures!

 

[andyinluton]

It will be fine as long as it gets a decent run every couple of weeks. Far better than not using it.

If you buy another vehicle to do the short trips in that would have exactly the same problem.

 

[andyb1089]

I have a 2015 5.1. I have an old Mazda 3 petrol that I use for short journeys. I use my cali for work twice a week if not going away. My journey is 25miles each day to work. My mechanic said that don’t drive the cali like an old man. For example when it is warm use the gears to accelerate to 3000 rpm when joining duel carriageways etc that should keep the engine clean. I also put decent diesel in.

 

[WelshGas]

It will be fine as long as it gets a decent run every couple of weeks. Far better than not using it.

If you buy another vehicle to do the short trips in that would have exactly the same problem.

Not if it is Petrol.

 

[PurpleLizC789]

I was having a conversation about this last week when we took our van in for servicing at Breeze in Poole (I was questioning why anyone would want a petrol T7, given the poor fuel economy). They told me that there had been issues with the T6 and T6.1 with clogging and this was caused by short journeys where people used the van as a daily drive (assuming a short journey to work) but a petrol vehicle wouldn't have this issue.

They reassured me that what we do was ideal (we don't use the van as a daily drive and it sits on the drive for several weeks and then does a reasonably long journey when we go away, generally every 4 weeks or so).

To be honest though, I'm still a bit confused - they told me that you can't do what you used to do prior to the EURO 6 NCAP engines and just make sure that you accelerate hard to blow everything through (technical term there for me)! However, when the van does have a period in the winter where we might go 2 months without going somewhere and so we feel the need to take it for a drive, I'm not really sure just how far we need to go! We have been just taking it for a 20 minute spin down some country roads where we can get up to 50 miles per hour but I'm no longer sure if this fits the bill.

Is it engine temperature that matters? I took the van out for my 20 minute spin yesterday (as we have a gap of 6-7 weeks between trips) and made sure the engine temperature came up to around 90 degrees, which I think is normal operating temperature - is that the critical measure, I'm not sure?!

 

[lohr500]

I had no end of problems with a brand new Euro 6 Jeep Wrangler diesel a few years back caused by short journeys and the DPF clogging up. Numerous trips to two franchised dealers, including two tow truck recoveries. In part I think it was due to a poorly executed installation of the Fiat/Alfa 2.2 diesel for low volume European sales into a US vehicle. I vowed I would never buy another modern diesel unless I had no choice.

If a petrol engine had been available when we got our Cali 204 4Motion Ocean at the start of last year, I would definitely have gone for it.

I am still doing short journeys most of the time and worry about problems with the Cali. I do try to give it a longish motorway run every now and then. Covered 8000 miles in 17 months.

I am using Millers Eco Max fuel additive with each fill up and on every fourth fill I am using Shell V-Power Premium diesel. No idea if these measures are helping to prevent any future DPF/EGR issues or if I am wasting my time/money. But it doesn't seem to be doing any harm and given the relatively low cost, I'm happy to continue.

I also changed the oil a couple of months ago, ahead of the 2 year max/variable mileage service regime just in case of any oil dilution caused by the frequent short journeys and DPF regen cycles.