Seat Unit

How long do crankshafts last if they do alot of engines work?

Public Comments

1. If they are well looked after in a proper maintenance schedule, they will last a life time. Failing that they will last your lifetime.
2. crankshafts can last many miles or revolutions if the oil and filters are changer regularly and undo torque isn't applied to the stock shaft.
3. crankshafts will last till the journal's get out of round....different engines have their cranks hardened to varying thicknesses...oil changes ,air filter changes,oil filter changes all have an effect on how long a crank will last in any engine....so its very hard to answer this general question about cranks without more info
4. If you change your oil regularly, and drive normally, they should last a long time. It's usually not the crank that goes bad. What can happen is that the oil filter gets plugged from not changing it and the filter by-pass opens allowing non-filtered oil and trash to get into the galleries. That results in oil not getting to the bearings and then you have problems.
5. It depends on maintenance. Some cars are known for crankshaft failure. But most of these can be traced back to maintenance problems. The early Miata comes to mind. While the engines were used in a lot of Ford and Mazda products, the only ones that had major problems were in the Miata. So it was not the crankshaft itself it was something else. The problem was with the consumer who wanted to tinker with the engine. The Miata was easy for the person with better then average skill to work on. But there was/is a little detail called the key that while it can go in one of eight ways only one is right. It takes some extra care to watch what you are doing on these engines. So while I have rebuilt engines with 250000 miles on them and still not have had to replace the crankshaft, I have seen them fail at 50000 miles because someone else made a small error when doing scheduled maintenance.
6. the life of the vehicle, or until you rebuild the engine at which time measurement are taken to make sure that it still meets the requirements. in odd situations of extreme power or abuse it is possible to crack or severely damage a crank shaft. as others have mentioned, if you maintain the vehicle properly the entire assemble will last longer.