City driving

Hello guys

I bought my 08 535i with 34K miles on it and it has been 1 month and i have driven 99% on city and occasional highways.. I had to take city roads over highway for my office commutation.. Daily i drive around 20 miles..

My question is, i see a lot of folks saying highway driving is the best and city driving can shorten the car life..

Is this true, please clarify

Highway driving (beyond 10 minutes) warms the engine to operating temp; this helps to remove the moisture from internal parts. If the car is only driven few miles every day, not enough to warm the engine to full operating temp, moisture can cause problems in the long run.

Your car was designed to operate under a variety of conditions. In a previous life, I drove my car 2 miles each way to work in the morning. I put over 40k mi on that car with no issues. In the winter the car wouldn't reach operating temperature unless I was doing something out of the ordinary on the weekend. The car was fine. If you're paranoid, just take your car on a longer drive once a week to make sure the moisture is all cleared up. People also say highway driving is better because it's a low stress environment for the car. Fairly constant RPM's, much less braking, cooling system isn't working hard, etc.

I now drive 25mi to work every day. Don't worry about it.

Thank you Serpens..

Anyone agree with Pcy.. that still scares me..

Deep breath....Relax... Keep on top of the maintenance and your car will easily out last an E60 regularly driven on the highway with only the minimum upkeep.

Originally Posted by dwlink

Deep breath....Relax... Keep on top of the maintenance and your car will easily out last an E60 regularly driven on the highway with only the minimum upkeep.

Cool Dwlink, thanks..

Any more suggestions GUYS..

Originally Posted by Shahul_BMW

Hello guys

I bought my 08 535i with 34K miles on it and it has been 1 month and i have driven 99% on city and occasional highways.. I had to take city roads over highway for my office commutation.. Daily i drive around 20 miles..

My question is, i see a lot of folks saying highway driving is the best and city driving can shorten the car life..

Is this true, please clarify

The most significant effect of city driving is how long your engine oil will last.
As previous posters have indicated, not reaching full operating temperatures will allow water vapor and other gases to condense into the oil, diluting it and using up additives in the oil much faster than highway driving. A slow running engine also tends to experience more blow-by, further contaminating the oil with soot and unburned gas.

Once the condensation and contaminants have entered the oil in the sump, driving it on the highway will not remove it.

Simply use a high quality synthetic oil and change it much sooner than you normally would and you will be fine. I would suggest 3K-4K between oil changes to guarantee that your oil isn't worn out (dispersant and detergent additives exhausted) before you change it.

Oil is cheap compared to the problems that result from allowing oil to go bad.