Short driving trips

[jmurph]

I too have the same problem. 10 minutes to 15 minutes on a work on a bad day. I just turned 3000 miles and had my oil changed to full synthetic. However I have been working from home for the last year and bought my truck during this period. So I don't even drive it some days. I do get to go to the office once a week to take care of stuff. My mileage is not doing very good. 18.5 or so. I did however get 20.1 on the last full tank due to some highway driving around the metro area. I still really need a long trip and burn a whole tank and see if it get's better. I am using 93 octane. after the first free tank from the dealer. I do have a couple of trips towing my tent trailer coming up late July and late August.

I've noticed the ranger doesn't get great city/ short trip mpg like my f150 but gets far better highway at almost 28 mpg on road trips

Sponsored

 

[Samsquanch]

You should change your oil more often. It’s cheap insurance. Short trips and direct injection engines don’t mix but there’s nothing you can do about it. I don’t let my truck sit an warm up an excessive amount of time either that’s an antiquated practice and will add to fuel dilution which is one of the concerns on short tripping. When the engine doesn’t get up to operating temperature the blow by doesn’t get a chance to evaporate and get sent back to the intake to burn off. Adding longer trips gives the engine a chance at operating temp to volatilize all the fuel, water, and other contaminants out of the oil and send it back through the intake.

think of it like this. If you put a put a cup of water into a pot it doesn’t flash out of the pan as soon as it hits boiling. Depending how much water is in the pot you can determine how long the pot needs to stay hot for the water to disappear. Short trips is like adding a few drops the the pot each time but not letting it get hot enough to boil it all off. Eventually you have a pot full of water. The only way to get the water out now is to drain the pot and start over.

if I was in your shoes I would use cheaper to-spec oil and change it no more than every 5k miles. These engines should do fine on 10k mile intervals when driven at highway speeds at full operating temp but your situation is much different.

 

[EJH]

Short trips just means your oil life is alot less but otherwise you will be fine with letting your engine warmup before driving, as with most turbo cars letting it idle for a few minutes before pulling out of your parking spot is ideal.

Most modern vehicles with a factory turbo will not allow boost until the engine reaches a certain warm up.

Both my 2016 Subaru Forester XT and the Ranger act like this. It is easier to notice on the Subaru as it has a boost gauge.

No need to idle in your driveway. That just wastes gas, IMHO.

 

[HenryMac]

Read your owners manual where it's clearly defined. Continuous short trips aren't good but the manual addresses that too.

Clearly defined may be an overstatement. I just looked and didn't see any information in the owners manual about short trips. Maybe I overlooked it?

 

[Tom_C]

Clearly defined may be an overstatement. I just looked and didn't see any information in the owners manual about short trips. Maybe I overlooked it?

It's easy to do in the ranger manual. It's horrible.

 

[Dr. Zaius]

Clearly defined may be an overstatement. I just looked and didn't see any information in the owners manual about short trips. Maybe I overlooked it?

It's not there unless they refer to it as something that doesn't contain the word "short"

 

[aeroshots]

They were fine. I just changed oil on the severe schedule. Take long drive on Sunday and figured it would be ok. Or at least seemed fine. My mechanic always said oil looked perfect anyway

You already have lots of opinions here. Here's one more. ? it is what it is unless you wanted an excuse to look for another job far away. I think you're just fine with your plans.

 

[viperwolf]

Im just a internet dude, with suggestions like other dudes , while giving opinions for another dude. ?

One thing that may suffer fast is your battery. Im not 100% sure how long it takes to recharge one with short driving. Maybe throw a battery tender on it every night to top it off. YOu could let it run a couple of mins to warm up before and after work. Truthfully Im not sure how much this will help, but maybe a little? Change the oil a little more often than normal. Well I mean manual normal, I change my oil every 3,000 miles. Thats just me bc its nothing but hot, humid, city and traffic driving 90% of the time here.

Maybe even ask a good tech you trust and what they suggest.

 

[Msfitoy]

Hello brand new 2021 ranger tremor xlt owner and I have no experience with this engine. I live 3 minutes from where I work so normally I’ll be doing very short trips everyday to work and back. On Sundays I will usually have about a 20 mile trip each way. How bad is this for this engine? And do I need to change oil a lot sooner? Also is this any issue for my break in period? Thanks all!

You'll ruin the truck in no time...take 30 mile lunch trips everyday...that's how I manage to have a 70,000 miles trouble free Ranger...your truck hates not being driven and will self destruct soon if neglected... ?

 

[viperwolf]

according to my service tech, the Ranger battery slow charges....not even an hour long drive will be enough.
bunch of bull in my opinion, they just dont want to change my battery under warranty
so i have a battery charger to use now.

Batteries here do good to last 3 years, sometimes only lasting 2 years. My last battery made it a little over 3 years. I bought a Cteck and use it every night to see if I can extend the battery life a little. Kind of an experiment I guess. Im only guessing, but the city/traffic no open highway drives that everyone does here, could be whats killing them so fast. Most vehicles are low mileage, bc its all short driving, which is bad IMO. Im new to Diesels which is what most SUVs and Trucks have here, so the Enigines may hold better for that type of driving, honestly I dont know enough about diesels.

 

[20scabstx]

Have you tried walking?

 

[GitRDone]

Batteries here do good to last 3 years, sometimes only lasting 2 years. My last battery made it a little over 3 years. I bought a Cteck and use it every night to see if I can extend the battery life a little. Kind of an experiment I guess. Im only guessing, but the city/traffic no open highway drives that everyone does here, could be whats killing them so fast.

In sunny Fla, it's brutal summer heat that kills em.

 

[JalanX]

Lol I forgot about this for a few days. Thanks for all the responses. On weekends it will go for a long drive and during the week I’ll have a couple longer drives here and there. Oil every 3000. May do the first one at 1000. Cheers!

 

[AzScorpion]

Most of my trips are short like yours so I bought a battery maintainer with my Ford Pass Points. You can get one exactly like it from Amazon cheaper.

https://accessories.ford.com/ford-performance-5-0-smart-battery-charger-maintainer.html#2019/Ranger

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CD44RQ...olid=1JZJN0W5WUIWA&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

[FoD]

You'll ruin the truck in no time...take 30 mile lunch trips everyday...that's how I manage to have a 70,000 miles trouble free Ranger...your truck hates not being driven and will self destruct soon if neglected... ?

Damn, I'd drive for a good burger, but not 30 miles...you must be going for the beer!!?

Sponsored