Fooking diesel engine faliures !
Discussion
andy43 said:
Interesting thread.
Note most of the 'my diesel has done x million troublefree miles' comments come from those with engine designs well over a decade old.
Landcruiser, old Berlingo, 306 diesels etc have been mentioned - they'll all last forever as there's no polar bear protection anti-emissions rubbish nailed to them. If it's basic enough to run on veg oil it'll live forever.
Same goes for the Z4 petrol fuel pump problems - that'll be the N53 engine with daft high pressure fuel injection - again, designed to improve economy and emissions 'cos EU says so, but by the time it's out of warranty it's a liability.
I think you've about nailed it with that.Note most of the 'my diesel has done x million troublefree miles' comments come from those with engine designs well over a decade old.
Landcruiser, old Berlingo, 306 diesels etc have been mentioned - they'll all last forever as there's no polar bear protection anti-emissions rubbish nailed to them. If it's basic enough to run on veg oil it'll live forever.
Same goes for the Z4 petrol fuel pump problems - that'll be the N53 engine with daft high pressure fuel injection - again, designed to improve economy and emissions 'cos EU says so, but by the time it's out of warranty it's a liability.
My 2nd hand engine has arrived at the garage, I hope to be able to update the thread in a day or so with what it has actually cost to get it back on the road.
xjay1337 said:
bodhi said:
I think I've been quite lucky, in that my 2 diesel E46's ran without a hitch (save a snapped alternator belt on the 330d, but it had done 146k at the time). However my sister was less lucky - she had a 136 bhp 320d that munched a turbo, which then took out 2 injectors and the clutch/flywheel resulting in a 3k bill (and the car being flogged for a 118d), then their 150bhp 320d ate a swirl flap and destroyed the engine - £1500 bill.
Only difference I can see is that I used to rev mine out quite frequently, and basically drive them like a petrol. My sister refused to change up above 2500 rpm, and never used full throttle.
I've gone back to petrol now, as they are just better and there is bugger all difference in cost for me. Sadly my sister has decided to get rid of the BMW as it was too unreliable. It's been replaced by a Peugeot. Bless.
Which by removing the swirl flaps would have avoided the issue???Only difference I can see is that I used to rev mine out quite frequently, and basically drive them like a petrol. My sister refused to change up above 2500 rpm, and never used full throttle.
I've gone back to petrol now, as they are just better and there is bugger all difference in cost for me. Sadly my sister has decided to get rid of the BMW as it was too unreliable. It's been replaced by a Peugeot. Bless.
Lol
andy43 said:
Interesting thread.
Note most of the 'my diesel has done x million troublefree miles' comments come from those with engine designs well over a decade old.
Landcruiser, old Berlingo, 306 diesels etc have been mentioned - they'll all last forever as there's no polar bear protection anti-emissions rubbish nailed to them. If it's basic enough to run on veg oil it'll live forever.
Same goes for the Z4 petrol fuel pump problems - that'll be the N53 engine with daft high pressure fuel injection - again, designed to improve economy and emissions 'cos EU says so, but by the time it's out of warranty it's a liability.
Totally agree.Note most of the 'my diesel has done x million troublefree miles' comments come from those with engine designs well over a decade old.
Landcruiser, old Berlingo, 306 diesels etc have been mentioned - they'll all last forever as there's no polar bear protection anti-emissions rubbish nailed to them. If it's basic enough to run on veg oil it'll live forever.
Same goes for the Z4 petrol fuel pump problems - that'll be the N53 engine with daft high pressure fuel injection - again, designed to improve economy and emissions 'cos EU says so, but by the time it's out of warranty it's a liability.
A mate of mine had a 2.0HDI Peugeot 406 with north of 350,000 miles and still going strong.
Newer diesels are a disaster area for reliabilty. Not helped by the fact that when theres a big bill looming they're sold on or traded in somewhere quietly.
hora said:
DrDoofenshmirtz said:
My Brother bought a diesel Mazda 6 to save fuel money.
He owned it for a couple of years...rust, gearbox failure and eventual terminal engine failure cost him £7500 in total (including the cost of the car which was £5k) for two years driving 'pleasure'.
I wouldn't touch a second hand diesel with a barge pole personally.
I was talking to our window cleaner (retired bloke, cleaning windows for a hobby). He runs a diesel Mazda6 2.2. He'd like to retire fully but things like his car keeps him climbing a ladder. Recently hes had to replace the entire engine as apparently theres a fault well known to Mazda that after a (main dealer) oil change the engine starved itself of oil? He owned it for a couple of years...rust, gearbox failure and eventual terminal engine failure cost him £7500 in total (including the cost of the car which was £5k) for two years driving 'pleasure'.
I wouldn't touch a second hand diesel with a barge pole personally.
Ref the cost of DPF replacement, I was stood next to a chap in TPS who had arrived in an A5 diesel to hand over his bank card for £1800 or thereabouts for a replacement DPF for his not terribly old 3 litre...
Lots of companies offer varying degrees of DPF cleaning ranging from the forced regeneration which is usually the first port of call at a dealer, through to removing the thing from the car in order to run solvent cleaners through that eradicate the stored particulate.
I know this is off topic from the OPs post, but where DPFs are the cause of issues it's usually down to very short journeys and no long runs with sufficient heat for regeneration to happen spontaneously, or regens involving injecting extra fuel into the exhaust to bring the DPF temperature up which aren't allowed to complete before the engine is shut off. Recognising when it's attempting to regen and keeping it running until it's finished are going to help DPF life.
Lots of companies offer varying degrees of DPF cleaning ranging from the forced regeneration which is usually the first port of call at a dealer, through to removing the thing from the car in order to run solvent cleaners through that eradicate the stored particulate.
I know this is off topic from the OPs post, but where DPFs are the cause of issues it's usually down to very short journeys and no long runs with sufficient heat for regeneration to happen spontaneously, or regens involving injecting extra fuel into the exhaust to bring the DPF temperature up which aren't allowed to complete before the engine is shut off. Recognising when it's attempting to regen and keeping it running until it's finished are going to help DPF life.
dave_s13 said:
Defaulting to the main dealer for repairs like that without speaking to a good independent first is a bit daft really.
If the dpf needs "cleaning" every year then there's something wrong with it surely? Or the dealer is taking the piss. I was under the impression that they should regenerate on the fly and should see you well past 100k miles?
Not necessarily anything wrong with it, just the way they are.If the dpf needs "cleaning" every year then there's something wrong with it surely? Or the dealer is taking the piss. I was under the impression that they should regenerate on the fly and should see you well past 100k miles?
On one particular manufacturer's diesel vehicles in order to do a forced regen whilst driving it you have to abide by a set of parameters, e.g. constant 3000rpm for 45mins, if you fail to do this you get 2 more chances, if you fail those as well then its a trip to the dealer where they do a forced regen via the diagnostic equipment. Note that a regen just runs the engine in a particular way to make the DPF very, very hot which is meant to burn the soot. If the soot cannot be burnt, game over.
It doesn't help when people working on the cars do not know what they are doing, a friend gave me the example of a car that needed a regen, I forgot the exact details but basically it wouldn't regen, although the soot percentage (not the proper term!) was fairly low. Turns out someone had been fiddling (maybe via VAGCOM etc) - it seems they reset the ECU to 0% when it was 80% full, it was now complaining it was 60% full and unable to regen, in reality it was in a proper mess.
In general (petrol or diesel) the problem is that manufacturers are throwing technology at cars that isn't reliable enough and charging us handsomely for it and then go adding pointless rubbish like lane detection, TPMS, electric handbrakes etc. All these gizmos just add unnecessary complication. They are also letting the accountants run the engineering - everything now is so marginal, its all "just about" good enough.
IMHO Manufacturers need to go back to solid, good quality engineering and strip off all the gizmos. Until then I'm very unlikely to buy a new car.
Adrian E said:
Ref the cost of DPF replacement, I was stood next to a chap in TPS who had arrived in an A5 diesel to hand over his bank card for £1800 or thereabouts for a replacement DPF for his not terribly old 3 litre...
I can't for the life in me understand why anybody would pay this, I'd have a pipe made up to replace the DPF for about £150 then mention it at the MOT station. I've had many MOT's done without cats, even at fully above board garages. I mention that it doesn't have a cat and they always say that it isn't a problem.Limpet said:
The 1.9PD was the last truly dependable diesel. You've got to be very unlucky to have serious trouble with one this side of 200k.
Our 130 is standard, and serviced annually (usually somewhere between 9000 and 12000 miles) with Longlife oil and a genuine VW filter element. Uses about 500ml of oil between services, and still capable of troubling the traction control in 2nd on damp or uneven surfaces.
The only issue we had was an intermittent overboost / limp mode condition. Driving it harder, and stopping use of supermarket diesel seems to have cured it.
Sorry to rain on your parade but try googling bxe and vag engine failures (there's a number of threads on here but Android is being an arse about linking today. Sort story- 1.9 vag tdi with engine code -> regularly puts piston through block at 60-90k miles, vag no interest. Our 130 is standard, and serviced annually (usually somewhere between 9000 and 12000 miles) with Longlife oil and a genuine VW filter element. Uses about 500ml of oil between services, and still capable of troubling the traction control in 2nd on damp or uneven surfaces.
The only issue we had was an intermittent overboost / limp mode condition. Driving it harder, and stopping use of supermarket diesel seems to have cured it.
I think that's the main issue- only Honda seem to stand by their product! Just wish they made a full sized estate with a reasonable boot.
Nigel Worc's said:
Fattyfat said:
Berlingo with the old NA XUD is what you need. Bullet proof and not much less gutless than a SDI Caddy
I agree with the sentiments towards older diesels, however, we are gradually being restricted as to where we can take them (London being the main restriction at the moment), and I can only see that getting worse.hora said:
DrDoofenshmirtz said:
My Brother bought a diesel Mazda 6 to save fuel money.
He owned it for a couple of years...rust, gearbox failure and eventual terminal engine failure cost him £7500 in total (including the cost of the car which was £5k) for two years driving 'pleasure'.
I wouldn't touch a second hand diesel with a barge pole personally.
I was talking to our window cleaner (retired bloke, cleaning windows for a hobby). He runs a diesel Mazda6 2.2. He'd like to retire fully but things like his car keeps him climbing a ladder. Recently hes had to replace the entire engine as apparently theres a fault well known to Mazda that after a (main dealer) oil change the engine starved itself of oil? He owned it for a couple of years...rust, gearbox failure and eventual terminal engine failure cost him £7500 in total (including the cost of the car which was £5k) for two years driving 'pleasure'.
I wouldn't touch a second hand diesel with a barge pole personally.
There are plenty of people on here running sub £1000 cars with no problems.
Taxi driver here,
current car is a 2l tdci 140 Mondeo on 182k just over 3 years old. cost me nothing other than servicing and discs/pads everything else is original.
previous was a Vectra 2l cdti 150 put 350k on that and only big bill was a clutch/flywheel and a inner cv.
both cars were mapped as soon as I got them to give outputs or approx. 200 hp and 325 lbs/ft torque both driven hard daily. only other thing the Mondeo got was a DPF and egr delete and removal. Vectra had an EGR delete.
modern diesels are great as long as you service them regularly use decent fuel and get rid of all the emissions crap that they come fitted with. oh and a good italian tuneup every so often seems to help
current car is a 2l tdci 140 Mondeo on 182k just over 3 years old. cost me nothing other than servicing and discs/pads everything else is original.
previous was a Vectra 2l cdti 150 put 350k on that and only big bill was a clutch/flywheel and a inner cv.
both cars were mapped as soon as I got them to give outputs or approx. 200 hp and 325 lbs/ft torque both driven hard daily. only other thing the Mondeo got was a DPF and egr delete and removal. Vectra had an EGR delete.
modern diesels are great as long as you service them regularly use decent fuel and get rid of all the emissions crap that they come fitted with. oh and a good italian tuneup every so often seems to help
Of the 15 or so cars I've owned only 1 has been diesel. I bought it because I was covering a higher mileage at the time. It cost me £1k in repairs within 6 months, instantly wiping out any cost savings it was likely to provide me. It still wasn't running correctly when I cut my losses and got rid. I replaced it with an utterly reliable 3.2 V6 petrol version of the same car.
I'd not rule out owning another diesel but only either under warranty or old enough to not have all the problems of modern models.
I'd not rule out owning another diesel but only either under warranty or old enough to not have all the problems of modern models.
mclwanB said:
Limpet said:
The 1.9PD was the last truly dependable diesel. You've got to be very unlucky to have serious trouble with one this side of 200k.
Our 130 is standard, and serviced annually (usually somewhere between 9000 and 12000 miles) with Longlife oil and a genuine VW filter element. Uses about 500ml of oil between services, and still capable of troubling the traction control in 2nd on damp or uneven surfaces.
The only issue we had was an intermittent overboost / limp mode condition. Driving it harder, and stopping use of supermarket diesel seems to have cured it.
Sorry to rain on your parade but try googling bxe and vag engine failures (there's a number of threads on here but Android is being an arse about linking today. Sort story- 1.9 vag tdi with engine code -> regularly puts piston through block at 60-90k miles, vag no interest. Our 130 is standard, and serviced annually (usually somewhere between 9000 and 12000 miles) with Longlife oil and a genuine VW filter element. Uses about 500ml of oil between services, and still capable of troubling the traction control in 2nd on damp or uneven surfaces.
The only issue we had was an intermittent overboost / limp mode condition. Driving it harder, and stopping use of supermarket diesel seems to have cured it.
I think that's the main issue- only Honda seem to stand by their product! Just wish they made a full sized estate with a reasonable boot.
mclwanB said:
Sorry to rain on your parade but try googling bxe and vag engine failures (there's a number of threads on here but Android is being an arse about linking today. Sort story- 1.9 vag tdi with engine code -> regularly puts piston through block at 60-90k miles, vag no interest. .
How regularly, got any really stats? Considering the number VAG must have built there should be thousands going each week.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff