Is 10yrs of short trips a problem?

[Qwerty911]

I’ve just bought a 10yr old Merc CLS250d with 22k miles, FMBSH and in immaculate condition. I’ve traced the previous owner and he tells me the car lived it’s entire life garaged in central London and rarely left the city. Nearly all it’s mileage is from short city journeys. The car drives perfect and it will now start doing a high miles, mostly long distance motorway commutes. My question is whether I should expect any reliability consequences from the earlier short trips e.g. DPF or will the car’s new life quickly override that?

[GreenV8S]

Short journies will tend to be harder on transmission and braking components. It might also be harder on suspension, depending on the environment. (Motorways tend to be pretty smooth - side streets, not so much.)

[Tony1963]

My guess is that if there are no issues at the moment, the engine should be fine. It’s difficult to know the exact profile of journeys undertaken: a five mile journey in heavy traffic that takes an hour might well have the oil and exhaust properly up to temperature. On the other hand, five miles in ten minutes, in winter, might not.

Take it for a 30 mile+ drive, on dual carriageways as well if possible, see what you think.

[Qwerty911]

The car appears and drives faultless. Despite low mileage it was fully serviced at MB, even the trans fluid changed etc. I was just wondering about any consequences from the low city mileage.

[E-bmw]

Nobody in their right mind would buy a diesel for that sort of duty, but if it hasn't got a problem, just use it.

[steveo3002]

we would all prefer if the mileage was gained 500 miles at a time , as said already if its fine now then im sure it will continue to be so , im sure the car makers take it into consideration when making the cars

[stevieturbo]

If it's a nice warm garage, that will help massively.

But give it a good service, check all filters etc. And give it a good run.


A few years back I bought a very low mileage van, on appearance it had been very well looked after and stored. However, clearly this low mileage, along with incompetence caused harm to the fuel system.
It was a little noisy when I bought it, so knew something wasn't quite right, but I wanted it anyway.

Within about 1000 miles it just kept getting worse, to the point it cut out due to low fuel pressure.

There was a receipt and claim the pump had been rebuilt, and some other work on the fuel system. Clearly some fool had been in there trying to do something, the only item that had been replaced was the fuel rail pressure bypass...which had been rammed in so tight, the top had mushroomed and seized the plunger.
However they had done or changed that in vein as they did not know what was wrong.

But by time I got it and drove it, entire fuel system was not scrap with debris running through it. I had to replace it all, pump injectors, filters, rail, lines, and thoroughly clean the tank out.

So low mileage with age can be good......it can also cause problems. The van would only have been around 12 years old when I got it.

[aka_kerrly]

Tony1963 said:

My guess is that if there are no issues at the moment, the engine should be fine.


It’s difficult to know the exact profile of journeys undertaken: a five mile journey in heavy traffic that takes an hour might well have the oil and exhaust properly up to temperature. On the other hand, five miles in ten minutes, in winter, might not.
.

I believe Mercedes have an option within the Engine Menu that allows you to find out how many hours the engine has been running which could help determine which of the above scenarios is more likely .