Jamz3k

Diesel is the FUTURE!

As my car is in for repair, the gave me a diesel rental car and this is my 3rd day with it. Stuck £20 in it, got a whopping 154miles out of it and thats with me giving the car death everywhere! Now this is a 7 seater 2litre diesel Toyota, I drive a 1.6 petrol 3dr 147 and £20 gets me around 75/80miles so this is effectively giving me twice the range and it is great for overtaking. I don't want my car back anymore this thing is great!

first time i've had a chance to really put a diesel thru its paces and I'm really pleased although the power band is tiny and its not very exciting to drive.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

My diesel only gets about 26mpg but then I don't try and drive ecconomical.

fatherpierre

What are you driving? Must be a V8 oil burner to get that, or an old Merc!

David Lock

My man in the business says there is a question mark over diesels as Euro legislation on emissions gets tighter.

I've been a diesel fan for quite a while since learning that you didn't now have to wait for minutes to start the engine!

dl

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Haha, my old Merc is doing about 26-30mpg since buying it last week

fastboyslim

iTrader: (2)

I was told this too.

fatherpierre

What is it?

My old W123 300D gave 28mpg. The 0-60 was about the same in seconds!

zip106

My modern, 2 year old derv only does 28 mpg.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

'92 W124 E230 auto. Lovely barge of a motor and on the motorway gave around 30+ at a steady 70ish. Needs a 5th gear though for crusing as I have the 4 speed auto box.

I actually bought it after considering what you have written about reliable old Mercs on here... the W124 caught my attention from memory.

fatherpierre

Chelsea Tractor?

zip106

Not quite

2.5TD pick-up.
(used for WORK)

fatherpierre

My 1977 450SE does about 9mpg, so count yourself lucky. It costs me a quid just to start the **** up these days

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I've been doing some work on a Audi A8 3.0 TDi of recent.

After a 30minute run it was showing 5mpg on the trip computer

(BTW - NEVER let the DPF clog on these; as soon as the light starts flashing, take it for a run ASAP...otherwise you'll be getting big bills)

bigsinky

Jesus FP!! My 4.0L Lexus gives me about 23 - 25 mpg. It's now 16 years old. Do you have a petrol tank leak?

cster

And there was I hoping to read an obituary.
Perhaps even leave my own thoughts at such a sad loss, gone tragically young etc etc.
The title is a bit of an "Eats, roots and leaves" jobby.

paulr

My 2005 A3 did 56.3 mpg, on a real world test.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Modern diesels are great,until they go wrong..


Were currently writting off 5-6 yr old cars as uneconomical to repair just on engine managememnt and DPF problems alone..

Mainly Vectra's and most of the GM range. The odd Alfa and Fiat is getting binned too,as are some Renaults

I wouldnt have a modern diesel,or one thats done over 50k as they are far to unreliable.

I do however have a 1997 Astra estate that we bought for the dogs to go in years ago. I run it on veg oil at 0.90p a litre and it does 42mpg.... Happy days.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Isn't there a tax issue in doing that ?

dpb

Okay if you want to smell like a chip shop ?

- Next door has same car which runs on petrol or lpg

stilover

I read that somewhere too.

Probably why Manufactureres are down sizing Petrol motors, and Turbo charging, or doing Multi-air systems etc.

corradoboy

My oil burner easily gets 50+mpg, the wifes over 60. Mine has 180bhp, and a whopping 312 lb/ft (420Nm) meaning the essential overtaking dash of 30-70 is done in 6 seconds (tested). Even Prodrive only quote the STi PPP at 5.4s for that, and that's with a test driver ruining the car. It is fun having so-called quick cars hugging your back end waiting for a dual carriageway to start, and then leaving them in a cloud of soot as they think about overtaking you Mullered an old M3 and a Cooper S yesterday

corradoboy

However, both our cars are riddled with little, annoying faults. I've also been reading recently about the VAG common rail diesel units with DPF suffering with not only the dreaded DFP failure (very common), but a rising number of failures of injector number two. This tends to happen under load and leads to the ECU shutting the engine down instantly, which could be very dodgy in the fast lane or during a chanced overtake. When it goes, the sudden pressure drop has killed a few turbos, and the fix includes a new injector loom which have been found to be corroding as they are routed through the oil sump. The bills are £1000 upwards (£1000+ more if turbo too), and soon after no.2 fails, the other injectors have a habit of going one by one at £1k a time also.

Good old VAG

Jamescsti

I was not aware of the DPF issues when I bought my Leon, thankfully I bought a pre-common rail engine and I bought the 140 version which does not have the DPF, it's on the 170 engines where that comes in.
It seems the DPF is an issue with people who don't drive any real distances with the engine, seems to need regular motorway runs to keep it sweet

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

The problem with the BKD 16valve 140 PD engine is its not that brilliant on fuel IMO- for a diesel. And it does have a bad reputation for leaks, turbos and porous cylinder heads (its a very complex casting). But we have the same engine in our Seat Altea and its fine (barring the MPG) and no DPF to worry about either.

Anyway, £350 is the usual fee to program the ECU to allow you to remove the DPF and get extra power to boot. The only concern is if VOSA start messing with teh MOT regs and stipulate checks or make the particulate limits even stricter for EURO4/5 cars.

tony de wonderful

Engine torque does not determine acceleration, the car accelerates hardest at peak engine power for a given gear.

You sound like pslewis bragging about his 'massive torque' but having no clue how it effects performance.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Using the veg oil ?? Yes,but it works on litreage..

We are well under that,as we only use 20-25 litres a week.. Its a 3rd car,and the 2 other german petrol cars use enough "tax"....

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Oh...

The VW/Audi PD engines are suffering injector problems,as well as DPF,EGR and throttle body problems..They also suffer engine bay wiring problems and wiring under the cam cover snapping,where it meets the injectors.

Get hit all at the same time and you can be into thousands of pounds.. The last time i fitted a full set of PD injectors on an 2006 A4 the bill was around £2k. Although i think Cawood are now doing injectors at a cheaper rate.

tony de wonderful

That's a lot of money. Do modern diesels run extreme fuel pressures or something?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Carw00ds? Had to resort to using them a few times, their recon parts are ok, but I don't trust their diagnosis skills as a garage. They seem intent on swapping parts in assumption that it will fix whatever problem there is at the cost to the bill payer, then to add insult not properly testing the vehicle afterwards to ensure its actually been fixed.

Last time they diagnosed a faulty injector pump. They replaced it (not cheap), and let us have the vehicle back saying it was all fixed and ok. I took it round the block and found it to be no better than before. The fault turned out to be a wiring loom problem (which was found by us, not them, after much time spent going through VW TDS reports on erWin). They stonewalled us with regards to the wasted costs incurred by their incorrect diagonisis and unnecessary replacement of the pump.

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

I had a 1.7 td vectra that had the isuzu engine and that ran forever It's just a shame the rest of the car was a vauxhall as it slowly started to rot away.
On the other hand i bought a 2004 2.2 dti vectra and that was a pile of shiiiiit! I paid £1500 for it off a work mate which i thought was a bargain at the time. in 12 months it cost me nearly that again in servicing and repairs before the fuel pump went. I ended up selling it as spares or repairs to some bloke who reckoned his mate could fix it for next to nothing, he ended up paying the stealership £2k