Life expectancy for VW Golf - automatic, 2013 TSI

sevenhills

jimjames said:

My VW Golf diesel is 22 years old and still going strong. Keep it maintained and it should keep going

Do high mileage cars become smoky, my Zafira is on 115,000 I sometimes notice smoke, but what's it's like whilst driven i have no clue 

HillStreetBlues

sevenhills said:

jimjames said:

My VW Golf diesel is 22 years old and still going strong. Keep it maintained and it should keep going

Do high mileage cars become smoky, my Zafira is on 115,000 I sometimes notice smoke, but what's it's like whilst driven i have no clue 

I've had a few old "smoky" cars, also used a fair bit of oil.
I have always put it down to some oil getting into the fuel,  but a total guess.  Would be interested in the real reason.

400ixl

It is oil getting into the cylinders. There are various causes, but in the case of these engines there have been a number of revisions due to design issues with the piston rings allowing oil past them into the cylinders.

WellKnownSid

Most manufacturers have had trouble with low tension rings and other tweaks which are designed to improve efficiency.  Running in, general driving style and longer periods between oil changes can have a big impact on long term oil consumption.

Ditzy_Mitzy

HillStreetBlues said:

sevenhills said:

jimjames said:

My VW Golf diesel is 22 years old and still going strong. Keep it maintained and it should keep going

Do high mileage cars become smoky, my Zafira is on 115,000 I sometimes notice smoke, but what's it's like whilst driven i have no clue 

I've had a few old "smoky" cars, also used a fair bit of oil.
I have always put it down to some oil getting into the fuel,  but a total guess.  Would be interested in the real reason.

Depends if it's a diesel or a petrol.  Common rail diesels get smokier with age as a result of the injectors getting sticky; the internal valves stop closing as quickly as they should, which results in fuel leakage post injector firing.  The fuel droplets atomize and reappear as black smoke at the exhaust end.  It can be fixed fairly easily by having the injectors serviced, but most owners don't bother on the basis that some smoking isn't detrimental to performance.  Having said that, I used to have a Citroen with an old-fashioned mechanical pump and it was filthy!  Never found out why as it was soon changed for a petrol.  

Petrol cars smoke for two reasons: rich fuel mixtures (black) and oil contamination (blue).  The former is uncommon these days and the latter can have all sorts of causes.  As @w@WellKnownSid has said, some cars have poor piston rings.  Other cars, like the old OHC Escorts were a bit rough and ready and produced blue smoke as a matter of course.  Some high performance stuff can be a bit smoky too, by virtue of nobody caring that much about excess fuel and oil consumption.  

HillStreetBlues

Thanks both.
I've never had a DERV and it's always been bluely smoke.
Lack of oil changes could be a reason for me, I've never done it.

Scarum

Thanks for replies.  I think one of the main things I read is to make sure oil is changed regularly.  My plan is to do just that, every 8k or so (which is about 6 months) and to get it services according to schedule, I rather do this than use the variable oil service.

An expensive one coming up which includes cambelt, water pump and major service, rear discs and pads plus I think 2 new tyres.

Will keep my eye on oil level!

shinytop

I had exactly that year of automatic Golf and one of the two clutches failed after about 100,000 miles.  Not like a normal clutch; the car ran but I only had even numbered gears. It was fixed (it was a company car, main dealer maintained) and it did another 40,000 miles without a problem.  The engine itself was fine, as was the rest of the car.