Piston Slap: Helping the Tundra Fight Cold Engine Oil

TTAC Commentator ScarecrowRepair writes:

I live on a private road that’s 3/4-mile paved and 1/2-mile dirt. Myself and a couple of others on this road park our cars at a wide spot in the paved section and use a high-stepping 4×4 pickup for the short ride between the parking spot and our homes, primarily because the steep dirt road alternates between an inch of dust in the summer and a couple of feet of snow in the winter, with slippery clay mud in between.

My pickup, a 2001 Toyota Tundra, sometimes goes an entire tank just driving back and forth, 3/4 mile at a time, good for a staggering 9 mpg. The trip expands to a seven mile round trip to the post office on weekends, and more rarely 60+ mile round trips to pick up lumber, paint, etc. The last three months showed 500 miles on the odometer, and it has just over 100,000 miles now.

I read somewhere that short trips cause the engine and oil to not warm up enough to drive out the water on short trips. I also read that engine components cause more wear and tear when cold because they’re designed to best fit when warm. And that’s before you realize that cold oil doesn’t lubricate well in the first place.

Should I put more longer trips on the Tundra? I’ve also sometimes driven the pickup to work if it hasn’t made any long trips recently. Is there any benefit to that? Is there a minimum long distance for any such benefit?

Sajeev answers:

We’ve covered this topic in several variations before ( here and here for starters) and everyone’s opinions point to a general consensus: throw in a longer trip, long enough to stay at operating temperature for several minutes, and your Tundra will be fine with the otherwise short trips up/down the hill on cold engine oil. Cold oil is bad for the engine, but it only takes a few longer trips with warm oil to help things out.

While it’d be happier with a different commute, that’s not happening. I consider the extra wear going up and down on cold oil as a “convenience fee” a la ATM machines. It’s worth the extra wear, provided you continue to include longer trips to get the oil up to temperature. And, most importantly, you should use an oil filter with an anti-drainback valve.

Lastly, consider switching to synthetic oil for maximum engine wear protection, but the Tundra’s gaskets might weep with joy in pain with that good stuff at this age.

[Image: Toyota]

Send your queries to sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you’re in a hurry…but be realistic, and use your make/model specific forums instead of TTAC for more timely advice.