Diesel Engine Maintenance

Malarky21

Having bought a diesel car this week which is 9 years old and has about 66k mileage i was wondering what people's thoughts are on looking after the engine, is it worth adding fuel cleaners occasionally when i fill up? Is Shell Diesel really better quality and better for the engine than supermarket diesel?

Ebe_Scrooge

To be honest, the single most important thing you can do with a diesel is to change the oil and oil filter religiously, in line with the service schedule.  Diesels are simple beasts, and are actually pretty forgiving - more so than a petrol engine.  But regular oil/filter changes are crucial.

Other than that, make sure it has a good run every week to forestall any DPF problems.  I personally wouldn't bother with any snake-oil additives, and my last diesel always drank supermarket fuel up until I sold it at 180,000 miles - and I still see it driving around now, so it ain't done bad.

Malarky21

Thanks for the reply, there's a lot of contradicting information out there on this subject. Dealers say don't use additives yet some garages i've been to say do lol

tommyedinburgh

I would double up on the oil change advice, other than that I also change the fuel filter every two years. Some folk say that is overkill but hey-ho!

Ebe_Scrooge

Malarky21 said:

Thanks for the reply, there's a lot of contradicting information out there on this subject. Dealers say don't use additives yet some garages i've been to say do lol

There's a lot of debate over additives.  It's a similar argument to branded vs supermarket fuel.  The fuels come out of the same tank at the refinery, the branded fuels often then have detergents/cleaners added to them.

Do the detergents do any good?  Well, it's a question that gets asked a lot, and threads about the subject usually run into several pages :-)  As I say, personally I always use supermarket fuel, no additives, and I've never had an issue in over 35 years of driving.  If you start to notice a lack of power, there's nothing wrong with adding an additive for a couple of tankfuls and see what happens.  It won't do any harm, but whether it'll actually do any good is open to debate.

I'd argue that there's no reason to be adding it routinely - once in a blue moon might just help to clear some rubbish out of the system ... possibly ... maybe.  But standard routine maintenance (changing oil, fluids, various filters as specified by the service schedule) is likely to have a far greater impact.

mcpitman

Supermarket fuel. 167k miles and counting.

Couldn't agree more with regular oil and filter changes and a fuel filter every couple of years.

I've had my cambelt done at 50k, 100k, and 150k miles too.

My problem now post lockdown is using the car regularly enough to keep things moving.

Malarky21

A local garage told me to always use Shell diesel, strange lol

scrappy_returns

Too many lols to be taken seriously. Discussions about fuel are not a laughing matter, and certainly not laugh out loud funny.

Ibrahim5

I have done 180k miles. I have used 2 bottles of Miller's diesel power ecomax. Maybe helped. Maybe not. I can't tell. Lol.

Malarky21

Thank you scrappy for your constructive post, i'll try to be more serious with every message i put in future

Bigwheels1111

I’ve had at least ten cars that have done 100,000 miles after I got them.
3 did over 250,000 miles in total.
First things first, has it had a timing belt and water pump ? Due to age and mileage.
Thats would be the first thing I got done.
As above regular oil and filter changes, fully synthetic oil would be my choice.
I use miller’s every second tank and have for years.
A 20 minute run at high rpm say 3000 will help keep the dpf clear, once a month.