As we all know from the absolute "literary classic" Minecraft: Story Mode, nothing built can last forever. This is true for your beater station wagon as well, which will, over time, develop special status effects indicated by the usual status effect prism with an X in the middle, telling you that it's time to replace em, as seen in the screenshot below. If you see this symbol as a status effect on any part on your car, that means its time for a replacement.



There are a few of these, and as these helpful comments pointed out (if you want this removed, go ahead and let me know), they all have different effects

Originally posted by garamoth:

Worn, fragile, unreliable don't all do the same thing I think. It would be nice to add some precisions.

I think fragile parts take more damage, unreliable accessories do less of what they're supposed to do, worn storage has a bigger chance of becoming full of holes?

Originally posted by Tantalus:

The "must repair" statuses definitely do different things. For example, when a seat battery goes bad, it starts zapping your whole car at random intervals, which really sucks and can do serious damage to other parts. Since it can't be fixed, your best option is to uninstall the worn out battery to spare the rest of your car further shock damage. I don't know if the worn out battery still shocks your car if it's in your trunk - I always treat mine like live grenades and chuck them out into the woods.

Thanks Garamoth and Tantalus! These are what appear to be the general effects each one has:

Fragile: Applies to car parts like panels and doors, causes said part to take more damage from most sources. Generally, this is where the majority of cosmetics are applied, so factor those in when considering replacements.

Bald: Applies to tires, causes them to lose grip on the road and pop extremely easily. Very high priority for replacements, losing grip is bad for speed and can also cause you to drift one direction, which can very easily send you into a telephone pole or careening off a cliff at 60 MPH while trying to go for the extraction. Carry an extra on hand when you have the space to do so.

Worn: Applies to storage objects, causing them to form holes as a status condition. Said holes will leak materials, so keep a close eye on your storage racks so that you don't find a trail of tools or resources behind you during the extract.

Worn Out: Applies to headlights, causes them to flicker and get status effects more easily. Pretty low priority, the flickering can be annoying, but especially early-game when light bulbs are harder to come by, annoying is better than actively harmful or requiring a rare resource.

Swollen: Applies to batteries, causes them to oxidize more easily, stop holding a charge as well, and sometimes even electrify other parts. This should be addressed ASAP, as the battery on the side (or worse, top) of your car will become an active detriment, electrocuting other nearby parts and dealing damage. If your build is especially energy-dependent, carry an extra with you.

Rusty: Applies to extra fuel tanks, causes them to take more damage and, vitally, spring leaks almost constantly, causing you to lose fuel. As with batteries, this should be replaced quickly, or atleast managed well. Losing fuel can be a death sentence, and especially in already stressful situations this can be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Weary: Applies strictly to engines. I don't really know what this one does, probably causes it to use more fuel and break often, although I've only seen it twice in 30 hours of gameplay, so I can't really say. It takes a lot to wear out an engine. Can't say how important it is, although it will probably affect your speed as well, so make sure to keep an eye on it. (or just ignore it, the check engine light doesnt exist, what are you talking about?)

Unreliable: Applies to various utilities, such as the LIMpulse device or the Resource Radar. Effects vary, although generally this causes the device to fail at whatever it's supposed to do (IE: the Radar misses a resource). This is really dependent on the object itself and how often you use it. Jump Jacks probably arent as high up on the priority list as a LIMpulse device.

None of these status effects are fixable by any means I know of. They are permanent on the part once they are applied, and the part itself usually needs replaced when they do. However, it is important to be able to predict when parts will finally go, and for that, I have one simple piece of advice.

50 Miles. (UPDATED 2/27/25, as a recent playthrough is showing me parts going fragile consistently at 50)

That number isn't really all that helpful from first glance, but let me explain.

From what I've gathered, the system for determining when a part fails is mostly determined via the amount of miles you've driven with that part on your car. In that respect, I've found that in most cases, the threshold required for a baseline part (steel doors/panels/bumpers, most resource generation/storage parts, and most utilities) to go fragile is, as previously stated, 50 miles driven on that part.

Keeping track of that stat is generally pretty easy, just grab the part off your car, go into your inventory, find that part, and mouse over it. As of Endless Expeditions, this is now the default info you see.


This little bar will show up, and right at the rightmost section of that bar is the amount of miles you've driven on it. If that number is over 50, its time to replace the part.

Of course, this isnt a hard and fast rule. There are a fair few exceptions some commenters found that ill go ahead and quote here:

Originally posted by Kenzi:

From my experience, a part that rarely takes damage will last farther beyond the 60 mile threshold than one that frequently need repairing. I have side rack parts that've lasted 15 runs without needing replacing since they never really took any hits, and at the same time the front fenders and bumper usually end up yellow after every trip and they always seem to go off at 60 on the dot. I'm not sure if just damage or also status problems (flats, burnt out bulbs, etc) accelerate it, but it does seem to play a factor as well as just mileage.

(My hypothesis on this one is that parts have to take damage to cause the effect to show up, although im not quite sure)

Originally posted by Anthropo:

There's a bit of exception though.While scavenging parts form those squire(Armored door/panel for free, sometimes more, yeah), all of these doors and panels would have accumulated about 1300~1600 miles already.And, after fixing it to max condition, it will still last dozens of miles before fragile.

(This applies to every part you find out in the zone. Since the game only really seems to start counting miles once they're on your car, you're just gonna have to keep a closer eye on these and keep track of the original mile count.)

Originally posted by khr1s:

I'm not sure if its somewhere in here or someone else has said it, but Peculiar car parts never get status effects from what I've gathered, I have a high capacity battery and it hasn't had a single status effect after 120 miles

(UPDATED 5/30/24: ive seen evidence on discord that atleast essential parts still go fragile, so this is an exception towards that rule. since peculiar parts arent repairable anyways, its not worth worrying about the extra material cost though)

Originally posted by FURRYHUSKY1000:

I've have not removed the original steel hood and front left door (still has the wood paneling/decal) and those still have not gone fragile compared to the parts I have crafted or found or 'liberated' out in the zone.

I was literally waiting for it to go fragile so I have an excuse of replacing it with something else but I'm already past the mid-zone and those are still holding out well interestingly enough.

(As it turns out, the original parts on your car also dont seem to go fragile for a good while longer than new parts you make. This is probably some sort of hidden status effect, although how much longer they last isnt something i nor this commenter know)

Ive also found a few exceptions of my own!

Crude parts, of course, will not last as long as well-built steel parts. Of course, unless you are VERY early game where it doesnt really matter yet, you wont be driving on crude parts for long.

Another important exception is in the form of a very late-game alternative to your standard steel parts. SPOILER: Olympium parts, being the late-game, extra-expensive parts, last a fair bit longer. I've personally found they only grow susceptible to fragile after around 85 miles rather than the usual 50, but even then it usually takes quite a beating to cause the effect (another quick little update: I don't have olympium parts on my current build since I'm not there yet, so this number MAY be inaccurate.

Finally, heres a little piece of advice from a particularly helpful comment:

Originally posted by Tombot:

Certain parts, like the ones attached to racks will not tell you if they are worn out on the dashboard parts display and will only show as much when you inspect them directly. So be sure to check the backseat rack items when you get back to the garage in case the rear fuel tank is rusted or the mini air turbine has become unreliable etc. That's my advice.

(Once again, if you want your comment removed, go ahead and let me know, i wanted to make sure yall were credited with these ideas)

...But it comes all the same. Part failures WILL happen to every part you have on your car eventually, its just a matter of time. Hence, plan for that failure.

With the knowledge that the part is going to become less useful at a certain time, you can accurately plan for it. In that case, there's 3 things that can really be done:

1: Leave it alone, drive till it breaks. As someone with a confirmed anxiety disorder, I doubt I would be able to do this myself, but there's a pretty large subset of parts (Engines, Wind Turbines, other parts) that aren't affected as much by fatigue. There's no definitive list of which parts are better or worse to leave fragile, so make your own judgement here based on what your build uses and which parts are more vital to you than others (although maybe don't let that battery stay swollen).

2: Let it go fragile, then scrap it. Fragile parts are, infact, still scrap-able, although at the detriment of reduced gains from scrapping it (as far as I can tell, status effects affect the amount of scrap you get from deconstructing a part, and the fragile set tends cause parts to only return about 75% of the materials used to build the part). This, for most parts, is the best choice. Most of the actual car's body (bumpers, doors, panels) fit neatly into this strategy, although do keep in mind that scrapping a part generally means losing the cosmetic on it. Once again, make your own judgement here based on the value of the cosmetic and part.

3: Replace the part at your earliest convenience. For things like batteries, fuel tanks, and tires, that fatigue effect can be run-ending, and losing a run to a fragile part is both crushing and preventable. In cases like these, it is very, very important to keep a close eye on that mile count, since a fuel leak or battery failure can cause an incredible amount of trouble pretty fast. Replace those the second you find they're approaching their expiration date, otherwise you might find yourself in the deepzone with two swollen batteries, 3 bald tires, no fuel, and the storm closing in. Unless you'd rather let Jesus take the wheel, it's better to spent a bit of time inspecting your vehicle for the early signs of fatigue.

In the end, the most important aspect of all of this is to BE FLEXIBLE. Some parts don't need replaced very often, some do. Put together your own strategy based on experience, and you'll be gold. Personally, I tend to lean towards keeping everything as new as possible, since I have a fun little thing called anxiety that makes me stress about this sort of thing. You can fully avoid dealing with it at all and just drive till it all breaks if ya want, make it feel like a real rust bucket. Its all up to you, so figure out something that works and stick with it.

A final (two) sets of tips: When you have the space, start carrying an extra tire and potentially a battery as well. This shouldn't be a hard task once you've upgraded the trunk storage a little bit, but you're probably just gonna have to live with a broken backseat fuel tank if that happens.

Secondly, the fuel can that comes with the car gunk in the trunk? Yeah, it can go rusty and spring leaks. Make sure to check every few runs so that if you do end up falling back on it, you've atleast got a fly's chance in hell of making it back to the autoshop in one piece.

All parts wear out eventually, there's nothing that can be done about that. Planning for it is the best way to prevent getting caught out and killed because you weren't ready for your Ion Shield or LIMpulse to fail in the middle of a deep zone mission.

I have heard rumors that a part going weary is not the end. Supposedly, there is a way to bring a part back from the grave and fix these status effects. Unfortunately, i've yet to confirm if there is a way and don't really have the parts on hand to check. I don't know if its possible. If it is, let me know in the comments, I'll try to keep this guide updated for as long as I can.

Overall, hopefully this has provided some information on a game mechanic I found to be important to understand, but that wasn't ever really explained. Thanks for spending your time reading my (pretty poor quality) guide, and hopefully you never lose a run to a worn part again!