Timeline for For how long after an apocalypse would modern cars remain usable?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
38 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 30 at 5:15 | comment | added | jwenting | @vsz question was about modern cars. | |
| Nov 20 at 12:45 | comment | added | vsz | @HotLicks Especially for very old cars or tractors, you can run them with cooking oil, or melted butter, or almost anything which is fluid and can burn. And there are enthusiasts around who maintain and even occasionally drive 100+ year old cars. | |
| Nov 20 at 9:13 | comment | added | JeffUK | Personally, I'd forgo cars entirely and go for a Honda C90: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Super_Cub Those things run on a wish and a prayer and are made of about 12 parts :) | |
| Nov 20 at 9:07 | answer | added | JeffUK | timeline score: 1 | |
| Nov 20 at 5:44 | history | edited | JBH |
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| Oct 25, 2017 at 22:13 | answer | added | Jack Judge | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 30, 2017 at 13:55 | comment | added | k102 | @John that's interesting! There are quite lots of propane cars here | |
| May 30, 2017 at 13:41 | comment | added | John | Propane fuels have no shelf life, propane vehicles are rare but if you can find one... | |
| May 26, 2017 at 19:25 | comment | added | Stilez | What about cambelts, hoses etc. Those fail regularly from new within a few years. | |
| May 26, 2017 at 6:01 | comment | added | jamesqf | @Hyfnae: Fuel "turning" does not make it completely unusable. Back during the '70 oil embargo, I would drain the gas from vehicles that had been sitting in the farm junkyard for years, and cars ran on it. I also resurrected several old cars that had changed from "junk" to "classic" :-) Also, rust is not a major problem if you live where the state doesn't dump tons of corrosive salt on the roads. | |
| May 26, 2017 at 5:50 | comment | added | Sebastiaan van den Broek | Seems that often these types of questions underestimate the amount of people that need to disappear for technology to collapse. If only 90% of humans disappeared, that still leaves 700M people planetwide. After some initial shock, I am pretty sure that's enough to restart fuel production together with most other semi-modern stuff like electricity. | |
| May 26, 2017 at 0:35 | comment | added | Hot Licks | There is a major misconception about gasoline. While it goes "out of spec" in terms of the assorted properties that modern additives assure, it does not cease doing what it's mostly supposed to do, which is explode when mixed with air and provided with an ignition source. Careful filtering or other "creative" techniques might be needed to deal with the side-effects of aging (mainly "crud"), but there is no reason that the gasoline would not remain usable for years. | |
| May 25, 2017 at 16:29 | comment | added | spender | In a nuclear apocalypse, the EMP pulse generated by the nuclear detonation would take out the engine management circuitry on most modern vehicles within a certain range, rendering the vehicle useless. | |
| May 25, 2017 at 14:26 | answer | added | Gargravarr | timeline score: 0 | |
| May 24, 2017 at 23:11 | answer | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | timeline score: 12 | |
| May 24, 2017 at 18:29 | answer | added | Ali Baba | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 24, 2017 at 17:55 | comment | added | Hot Licks | @Hyfnae - You're forgetting booze. | |
| May 24, 2017 at 17:38 | answer | added | nigel222 | timeline score: 3 | |
| May 24, 2017 at 14:29 | answer | added | CaM | timeline score: 13 | |
| May 24, 2017 at 14:13 | comment | added | Hyfnae | @peterG All I know is that some articles independently from one another argue that fuel turns bad within a few months or a year because gum-like substances form and could clog up your fuel lines or even ruin the inside of cylinders. If your car still functions after winter the cold temperatures might have slowed the chemical process as reactions slow with lower temperatures. | |
| May 24, 2017 at 14:07 | comment | added | peterG | @Hyfnae 'expires' / 'turned' in what way? I have an infrequently used 'weekend car' and it fires up straight away after winter. I understand that some additives can evaporate, but petrol/gasoline is far from unusable after a year. | |
| May 24, 2017 at 14:04 | answer | added | Michael Lorton | timeline score: 7 | |
| May 24, 2017 at 13:35 | comment | added | Graham | @Ruslan Providing they get regular attention from an expert welder, yes. If not, they rust out ridiculously fast, the same as any other pre-2000 car's bodywork will. | |
| May 24, 2017 at 11:38 | comment | added | Hyfnae | @PlasmaHH I was not aware of that. My search was more focused on gasoline rather than diesel, so that might explain the oversight in my comment. | |
| May 24, 2017 at 11:27 | comment | added | PlasmaHH | @Hyfnae: not true for a lot of (older) diesels, which even run on old sunflower seed oil | |
| May 24, 2017 at 6:45 | vote | accept | k102 | ||
| May 23, 2017 at 15:36 | comment | added | Ruslan | Old-school VW Beetle will probably last longer than the universe | |
| May 23, 2017 at 15:27 | answer | added | motosubatsu | timeline score: 5 | |
| May 23, 2017 at 14:31 | answer | added | Willk | timeline score: 51 | |
| May 23, 2017 at 14:24 | history | edited | user | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 23, 2017 at 14:12 | comment | added | James | Related: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/44995/189 | |
| May 23, 2017 at 13:59 | answer | added | Separatrix | timeline score: 46 | |
| May 23, 2017 at 13:50 | history | edited | k102 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 23, 2017 at 13:45 | comment | added | Secespitus | Welcome to WorldBuilding k102! Interesting question. Which scenario are you interested in exactly? I think you should remove that last sentence. You already mention "for how long?". If you have a moment please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. Have fun! | |
| May 23, 2017 at 13:45 | answer | added | Sasha | timeline score: 9 | |
| May 23, 2017 at 13:44 | comment | added | Hyfnae | Fuel expires within months, a year or so after your event most fuel will have turned, that's the biggest issue. Other parts might last longer, especially cars stored in a place where the elements don't touch them. | |
| May 23, 2017 at 13:40 | review | First posts | |||
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| May 23, 2017 at 13:37 | history | asked | k102 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |