are one-mile trips draining our battery?

2014 NISSAN VERSA
99,000 MILES • 1.6L • 4 CYL • 2WD • AUTOMATIC
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NISSANENGINE
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Hi, we drive 1 mile a day and one day a week we drive 50 miles. We drive in 80s and 90s temperatures in North Central Florida in the hot afternoons, is the generator given enough of a chance to charge up or recharge the battery?
Mar 18, 2024 at 12:06 AM
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STEVE W.
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Those short trips are not helping any of the vehicle's systems really. Not only is it not charging the battery properly, but the engine never reaches operating temperature and as such any condensation that forms is not boiled off. Over time that can cause rust and internal damage to the engine. My suggestion would be to take the car for a longer drive at least once a week, at least 100 miles, which should be enough to circulate everything and get the engine up to full temperature to enable it to a minimum remove some of the contaminants that build up from the short drives. To go with that I would look at the severe service table for your maintenance because the short trips and hot weather both put you in that category.
Here they are from the service information -

Follow the Severe Service Schedule if your driving habits frequently include one or more of the following driving conditions:
- Repeated short trips of less than 5 miles (8 km).
- Repeated short trips of less than 10 miles (16 km) with outside temperatures remaining below freezing.
- Operating in hot weather in stop-and-go "rush hour" traffic.
- Extensive idling and/or low speed driving for long distances, such as police, taxi or door-to-door delivery use.
- Driving in dusty conditions.
- Driving on rough, muddy, or salt spread roads.

Those should be listed in the owner's manual as well. As for the battery itself, the short trips will shorten its life in two ways. First the vehicle starting draws more current than the 1-mile trip will replace so it will constantly be lower, until you take the longer drive which should recharge it. However while it does that the alternator also looks at the discharged battery and tries to charge it back up as fast as possible as part of the fuel saving strategy, basically it raises the voltage higher and generates more current in an effort to recharge it quickly, then it drops back to a level that equals the drain the vehicle places on it the rest of the time. The constant cycling of high output, then high input with no idle time will actually wear the battery and alternator more.
Mar 18, 2024 at 10:39 AM
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NISSANENGINE
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thank you, Steve, it was very informative and from your answer I knew that we were right to do our bulk synthetic oil changes at Walmart every 3 months or 3,000 miles as the months always come before the miles, and the 3-month synthetic oil changes alleviate or relieve rust and built-in condensation. I am disclosing to you the 3 month synthetic oil changes we have been doing because other mechanics in this website earlier had told me that 3 months is way too soon and we should do our synthetic oil changes every year, and now I know we will also need a new or rebuilt generator with new bearings, internal fan, electromagnetic poles, stator core, stator windings, rectifier, three positive and three negative diodes (one way valves to change alternating electricity to direct electricity), and an internal voltage regulator, and we will also need new battery with electrolyte cells, you are a very good and experienced mechanic as evidenced by your almost 13,000 posts, thank you very much.
Mar 18, 2024 at 11:38 AM
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STEVE W.
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With a synthetic you could go to the 5,000 miles change for severe service without a problem. If you are using bulk "conventional" oil 3,000 would be okay, but if it is bulk oil at Walmart, it may be sold as "conventional" oil, however it is actually a synthetic blend. It's hard to get a real conventional oil these days in bulk unless it's a specific application lubricant. And paradoxically the conventional oils are more expensive than the blends or full synthetics to boot! I picked up a case of conventional for my garden tractor a while back and for a synthetic 10W-30 it was about $4.00 a quart and the conventional was $8.45 a quart!
Personally, I have always thought that changing the oil and filter more often than "required" was still cheaper than replacing the engine. For instance, the oil change light in my wife's car turns on at 10,000 miles!!! Now for Chrysler that works fine, it gets the car out of warranty, and they can claim a lower cost of ownership. However, the engine in it is known for having issues directly related to lubrication problems. As such It gets new oil and filter every 5,000 if not sooner. A replacement engine would run me about $4,500.00 at my costs or I can try to keep it alive longer with better oil.
Mar 18, 2024 at 1:32 PM
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NISSANENGINE
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thank you Steve, you told me that for synthetic oil changing it at 5,000 miles is okay, but you never told me the month limit if we put too few miles on it as we are never going to reach 5,000 miles and if we attempt to wait 5,000 miles without a month limit then our engine will seize up with the crankshaft journals, bearings, oil pump chain, oil pump, timing chain, variable valve timing sprockets, camshaft bearings and journals, camshaft lobes, valve tappets fusing with each other and jamming long before reaching 5,000 miles even if we keep the oil level full or over full, so I please need to know the month limit if we put way too few miles and you also said in your reply that a replacement engine on your Chrysler is about $4,500 dollars but I heard about $5,000 dollar transmissions and $10,000 dollar engines so since you are a mechanic is the $4,500 estimate without the labor charges and you being a do-it-yourselfer or does the $4,500 estimate refer to a used engine that probably wasn't maintained?
Mar 19, 2024 at 4:35 AM
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STEVE W.
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They don't specify a time limit in the service info other than the oil should be changed at least once a year. $4,500 is my cost on a remanufactured engine. No mark up or labor, my wife doesn't like it when I try to charge her anything over my costs. LOL
I can get an unknown used engine for under $200.00 but I'd rather not use them.
Mar 19, 2024 at 6:10 PM