Changing to a diesel

AdrianHi

In recent years there has been a switch to synthetic long life oils, diesel fuel is a bit cleaner than it used to be, end result diesel oil change intervals are as long if not longer than petrols now.
My diesel works on condition based servicing and can go anywhere from 18,000 to 23,000 miles between oil services depending on how it is used.
In the quest to control emissions on diesels there are all sorts of compromises and bits of kit added to achieve this along with leaps in performance which conspire to make the modern diesel less reliable than diesels of old and current petrol engines.
Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) the latest.
With all these measures regular open road driving is a must for long term health.
I heard recently that Skoda will no longer sell a diesel car fitted with a DPF to Taxi drivers who spend all their time in town, it kills the DPF quickly. On most cars the service life of a DPF is reconned to be 70-100K miles, so save up the £700-£1500 for it's replacement.

Dave101t

my diesel (6 speed) is almost as lazy as an automatic, hardly ever change gear in town!
lower revs too but apart from that, no real difference.

harveybobbles

AdrianHi wrote: »

On most cars the service life of a DPF is reconned to be 70-100K miles, so save up the £700-£1500 for it's replacement.

I've replaced/blasted/jet washed them with mileage circa 50,000. Such a !!!!!! idea really! Peugeots are THE worst ones going! nothing is cheap about running a deisel these days. the money you save in fuel will be put towards replacing the DPF and/or the DMF...!

The main thing to watch out for is getting the right fuel in..!

Gers

:eek:

Am not a taxi driver so shouldn't have to worry about that. Getting a brand new Vauxhall Meriva 1.7 CDTi and will concentrate on getting the black stuff in and not the green stuff!!

Thanks for all the techie stuff... but as long as I can change gears up and down without too much of a problem I hope to be OK!

MX5huggy

black stuff in and not the green stuff!!

Be extra carefull if you end up at a BP station they have some blue pumps !!

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Gers wrote: »

All most helpful - thanks!

Need a widget
Need to idle for 30 secs after a long run
Need to drive as normal
Don't need to move through the gears so much

Cheers!

:beer:

The widget is only useful if you're forgetful.

You don't need to idle, just drive smoothly without flooring the accelerator for a minute or two before you arrive at your destination.
Stick to whatever gear gives you the most power at whatever speed you're doing - the same as you would in any other car.

MJAllen88

As said before, there isnt really much difference apart from that they don't rev as high and the power is delivered on a set rev band, rather than gradual power increases all the way up the revs like on a petrol.

I think diesels have been given amazing attention in the last few years due to the economical and environmental issues we've had. Diesel engines are now slightly less likely to give lovely respectable cars the etiquette of a transit van like they used to .

Still noisey and the vibrations in your car can send shivers down your spine, but once you get used to the rev bandings, you can prevent this and you'll be surprised at the lovely, punchey drive they provide

thescouselander

LandyAndy wrote: »

You'll probably find yourself changing gear less often as diesels have more torque at the sort of engine speeds most people use in everyday driving

I would say its just the opposite. You have to change gear more often in a diesel because the power is delivered over a very narrow rev range. You'll really notice this when the red line quickly approaches in the middle of an overtaking manouvre.

If I way to buy a diesel it would have to be an automatic for this reason.

[Deleted User]

DPF is actually a big problem across a whole range of diesel engines. I only did my research on it today after lack of regeneration on our car caused warning lights to come on and hence a 5 hour visit to the garage

I actually ordered another car two days ago and was able to change the engine today away from a 1.6 dpf. Totally unsuitable for us as we do about 8k a year and mostly short runs. We were never initially told about DPF. I have read about people having lots of trouble with the new DPF engines, in spite of regular motorway driving

Do the google searches before going diesel

olly300

kittie wrote: »

DPF is actually a big problem across a whole range of diesel engines. I only did my research on it today after lack of regeneration on our car caused warning lights to come on and hence a 5 hour visit to the garage

I actually ordered another car two days ago and was able to change the engine today away from a 1.6 dpf. Totally unsuitable for us as we do about 8k a year and mostly short runs. We were never initially told about DPF. I have read about people having lots of trouble with the new DPF engines, in spite of regular motorway driving

Do the google searches before going diesel

You mean this: http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuels-and-environment/diesel-particulate-filters.html