Idle hours and mileage--P71

Hi everyone,

I'm in the market for a P71 at the moment. I'm going to start looking at some cars and given their reputation for reliability, I'm not too worried about some of the mileage that I'm seeing. However, on the model years I am looking at they come equipped with an idle hour meter. Apparently Ford recommended treating one idle hour as 33 miles for the purpose of maintenance and service and I've noticed some owners/buyers factoring this along with the mileage when determining the car's wear and tear. I think an idle meter is pretty cool, but what should I be afraid of?

One car I am looking at soon, a 2009, has 114k miles. The cop-car guy at the dealer selling estimates it might have around 4000 idle hours but wasn't at the dealership today to get an exact number from the dash. When I do the math, 4000 idle hours is "equivalent" to 132k additional "miles" based on Ford's number. However, when I do some simple math, a 2009 car with 4000 idle hours means it has idled an average of 1.4 hours per day which does not seem that bad...does it? I imagine plenty of civilian commuter vehicles without idle meters can accumulate plenty of hours in daily rush hour traffic.

Long story short, or for those who skipped to the end, how much should idle hours influence my decision to purchase an otherwise acceptable P71? It will become my daily driver so dependability is important. Any other advice is welcome!

Well I knew the number from looking at Ambo's but you already did the math....

That being said its pretty damn low load/strain on the motor. I would think it would be less wear that 132k. But maybe someone else knows better.

Do the idle hours include the time it is also driving?

Also, idling puts zero stress on the drive line. Not sure how it would impact the trans as it is not being "used" but the torque converter is still spinning and pumping the fluid around.

Is that idle hours? I thought it was running hours period.

If it's running hours period, it's 18k extra miles or 545 hours.

But that math is still considering an average speed of 60mph to make it easier.

My daily driver is an 05 with 230k on it, and mechanically it's been fine, just control arms and brakes, and tires.

They didn't start the hour merry until 06, but i have an 08 with I'll have to go look for specifics, but it worked out. The numbers made sense, considering warm up in the winter, drive throughs, etc.

Edit: the 08 has 4722 hours and 175261 miles. 4722 hours times 33 is 155826.

That's about 20k more miles on the odometer than the hours, but an average speed over 60 would make it work. I'm not going to sit here and math it out by hand, but maybe someone knows a calculator online that could figure it out.

I do know the car was a sheriff's car. All the sheriff's do around here is transport prisoners and serve warrants, so it wouldn't make sense to me if it was only counting idle hours

dean1484 wrote: Do the idle hours include the time it is also driving?

I'm really not 100% sure how the 2006+ factory mechanism works. I believe it only measures time when the car is in neutral or park. Some earlier cars without the factory meter had aftermarket ones installed that measured the hours in any variety of ways.

In reply to RevRico:

If you're right, that would make me happy.

Currently I have two P71 and I never looked at Idle hours. As long as the engine is not making any odd noises and the oil is clean, The car should be Ok.

RevRico wrote: Is that idle hours? I thought it was running hours period. If it's running hours period, it's 18k extra miles or 545 hours. But that math is still considering an average speed of 60mph to make it easier. My daily driver is an 05 with 230k on it, and mechanically it's been fine, just control arms and brakes, and tires. They didn't start the hour merry until 06, but i have an 08 with I'll have to go look for specifics, but it worked out. The numbers made sense, considering warm up in the winter, drive throughs, etc. Edit: the 08 has 4722 hours and 175261 miles. 4722 hours times 33 is 155826. That's about 20k more miles on the odometer than the hours, but an average speed over 60 would make it work. I'm not going to sit here and math it out by hand, but maybe someone knows a calculator online that could figure it out. I do know the car was a sheriff's car. All the sheriff's do around here is transport prisoners and serve warrants, so it wouldn't make sense to me if it was only counting idle hours

Average speed of 37.1 mph.