Buying high mileage diesels

forgotmyname

Richard53 wrote: »

Maybe, but my Dad's bigger than your Dad.

Did he driver a Capri? Maybe it was the piles?

bigjl

Lets not forget that taxi or private hire work may very well include very few cold starts which is good, however they also include significant periods of idling and then a tendancy to labour the engine in too high a gear to try and maximise fuel economy which can wear out dmfs.

I think the internet forums have a tendancy to show the negatives of a vehicle as few post up when their car is running perfectly any even fewer admit user abuse such as starting and stopping the engine without the clutch depressed to reduce wesr snd tear on the dmf. Few people would consider adding injector cleaner unless there was a problem they wanted a cheap fix to.

And how many diesel owners have out a few litres of petrol in then just brimmed with diesel instesd of getting the tank and fuel rail drained?

Many would rather just carry on then sell the car on a few weeks or months later before any problems start to surface with the fuel pump they have damaged by running on the contaminated fuel.

I personally think you are much more likely to get oil pump issues on a 2.0 diesel VAG lump than serious problems on a mk3 or mk4 Mondeo diesel. The 1.9tdi VAG lump was reliable pre PD. But was not as economical or as nice to drive as the mk3 Mondeo.

I had a 99 Toldeo saloon (bought brand new)which was a lovely car to look at in a nice metallic blue but would never do more than 45mpg and smoked like a dog when you accelerated hard, bad enough to get a tug from a copper who thought there was a problem i was unaware of!

If you can find a one or two owner well cared for high spec mk3 Mondeo estate it is a keeper. Just avoid the abused ones that spoil the vehicles reputation.