I am planning on taking my mid-life vehicle (~100,000 miles) on a long distance drive (~1,200 miles) over the course of a couple of days.
I don't have much experience with car mechanics or long-distance driving. I rarely get on the highway or take my car above 70 mph.
What kind of stresses would such a drive press on a vehicle? Should I be concerned for anything, i.e. is long-distance driving harmful to a vehicle? If so, what contingencies could I prepare?
For the record, my vehicle is a 2011 Hyundai Elantra.
Take your car to a mechanic and get it looked at. Make sure that all belts and hoses are in good condition, and all fluids are topped up. Make sure you know the rate at which your engine burns oil, so you know how often to check it, and carry spare oil with you. Make sure your tires have plenty of tread and are properly inflated, and have no sidewall damage, and monitor the tire pressure regularly. Ideally, carry a spare tire and jack and wrench, but a lot of newer cars don't come with these anymore, which is lamentable.
Other than that, you don't have to do very much, as long as the vehicle is in good shape.
Drive safely - know your route in advance if possible. Be well rested, take adequate breaks for food, drink and bathroom relief (and resting your eyes and body), and enjoy the trip. Make sure you have a fully-charged phone with you in case you have trouble, and carry lots of water, especially in the summer, in case you get thirsty in an isolated area.
You might want to consider a membership to a roadside assistance plan, which will at least give you a number to call for 24/7 repair services or towing should you have a problem during your trip.
A lot of wear and tear happens when you drive while the engine is still cold. On a long distance drive, your engine will be at its optimal temperature most of the time.
A lot of wear and tear happens when you accelerate and slow down, use the brakes, the clutch, etc. On a long distance drive, you might be two hours on the motorway without ever braking or shifting gears.
So, the wear and tear, and the chances of breaking down, are less than if you did the same distance 5 miles at a time over many weeks.
This may sound strange, but have you considered renting a car for the trip? Rentals are usually well maintained and a mid size car with unlimited miles will cost less than the cost of a tuneup.
In addition to the other answers I'd suggest planning for the contingency that you need to split the drive over 3 days instead of 2, if you find you are getting tired or making slower progress than expected.
So, know where you'd head if you had to break for the night after 6 or 8 hours instead of 10 (or sitting in an unexpected traffic jam for several hours).
Then you can adjust your plans if necessary and stop in a town with food and rest available, rather than finding out halfway across a mountain pass that your eyes won't stay open any longer.
I've driven my Opel Corsa 1.3 CDTi (I don't remember the exact year it was manufactured but it would've been in the early 2000s) that at that point in time already had a mileage of more than 250,000 KM (250 thousand kilometers) across Europe twice (from Croatia to Netherlands and back) which is 1420 KM each way without a problem. The car has always been properly maintained, the roads were in perfect condition, and I was traveling in the summertime. Furthermore, those were trips where I only took small brakes to refuel, eat and stretch my legs.
Like others have said, it's all about the condition. Planes can be 30 years old and more, but if they're properly maintained there's no reason to decommission them.
To answer your question, I wouldn't worry about it.
Aside from all the other good advice, keep an eye on the car's engine temperature gauge and plan to stop as soon as you can safely do so if it exceeds the normal temperature. Failure to do so will quickly destroy your car, or at least total it in the sense that it's economically impractical to repair unless you know how to do all the work yourself.
If you absolutely need to keep going for a while in a vehicle that's overheating because you don't feel safe where you are, turn the AC off and the heater on full blast. Depending on the cause of the overheating, this might be able to dissipate enough heat that you don't destroy your engine immediately.
Another possible failure mode (which I once experienced) on long trips is loss of transmission fluid due to seal failure. The likely symptom is feeling like the car barely speeds up when you press the accelerator. If this happens you want to stop and get a tow. I kept driving (topping off the transmission fluid again and again) and ended up needing a transmission rebuild (likely over $2500 in 2018 dollars) rather than just a seal replacement.
If you maintain your vehicle well and it's mechanically sound, then there shouldn't be any issues. My car is 13 years old. We've had it for 12 of those 13 years. I live in the central U.S. My car went over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) during the middle of a 4,000 mile (6,400 km) round-trip to the west coast. It went over 125,000 miles (200,000 km) during a 1,300 mile (2,000 km) round-trip to the east coast. It went over 150,000 miles (240,000 km) during a 1,000 mile (1,600 km) round-trip to New Orleans.
I currently have 185,000 miles (almost 300,000 km) on this car. It needs some suspension work, a new power steering pump, and new tires. With that work, I would have complete confidence in driving it on a similar trip.
There are two parts to the additional stress. First, running at real speed, i.e. 70-80 mph. . Second, sustained high power operation. Doing both for the first time will expose existing flaws in the car. So do these things early and often, well before the trip, to shake the bugs out of the car.
Western rural speed limits are 75-85, however it is rare for traffic to exceed that. Traffic is mostly trucks, and their fuel cost goes up a lot with speed.
Once your car is happily cruising and stable, it should be relatively stable. Just as aircraft rarely have a problem in cruise, constant speed cruising for a car is easy service. The only things which wear worse are tires and suspension.
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