Am I asking for DPF trouble?

Am I asking for DPF trouble?

Author
Discussion

Shirt587

Original Poster:

360 posts

134 months

Sunday 6th July 2014
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I'm contemplating a new car. I tried to find an XK8 a while back but got bored after looking at eight of them and having a choice of imminent gearbox failure, imminent tensioner failure, or more rust than a Soviet submarine. Since then life has moved on, and I need more of a boot...

My driving profile is motorways. I do about 10 miles a week, which is usually three trips about three miles down the road to Tesco's or similar. I then do an average of 200 miles each weekend to various bits of the UK for sport - some are close at only 70 mile round trip, some are up to 300 miles each way. This comes to about 13,000 miles a year, with lots of motorway in that. My main requirement is that I can do 80mph for up to four hours at a stretch with a large amount of kit, I won't feel exhausted and like I've tried to hold my own against a Tigers scrum, and it stands a chance of being over 50 mpg.

This leads me to an E91 3 series or an E61 5 series. For example, I can pick up this within budget of £8-9k and it looks OK. 330d or 530d would be nice, but the mpg difference between manual and automatic is not pleasant and I can't find a manual one of these in budget that isn't ex-Plod or highly probably clocked - oh, sorry, "subject to milage correction".

Question (finally!) - is my regular short trip going to destroy the DPF on one of these cars, despite the weekend stuff? How long does an engine need to be running at "operating" revs to trigger a regen? And is there anything I need to know about buying one of these cars - post facelift/LCI (i.e. 2008ish onwards) x20d estates?

(PH disclaimer: I've looked at a 545i E60, and the man-maths does not stack up given the potential for a coolant leak that is £1k plus to fix and the mpg number meaning I need a lower purchase price to hit budget and that means having to look seriously at a Barried one...)

converted lurker

304 posts

125 months

Sunday 6th July 2014
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182,000 miles out of my e 62 530d DPF and it was working just fine.

Don't sweat it.

Z.B

224 posts

177 months

Monday 7th July 2014
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I think you would be fine with one of the cars you mentioned. For the kind of traveling you describe though, I might be looking at a Passat or similar which would beat the bmw for comfort.

Lowtimer

4,286 posts

167 months

Monday 7th July 2014
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As long as it gets a good clogging on the 200 mile trips weekly the DPF ought to be ok.

Edited to say I should have used a different word. By "clogging" I mean a good dose of heavy right foot, not the filter clogging up!

Edited by Lowtimer on Monday 7th July 17:56

nickfrog

20,874 posts

216 months

Monday 7th July 2014
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I would revisit the diesel vs petrol choice. You won't get 50mpg obviously but other parameters may sway things closer than you may think...

037

1,315 posts

146 months

Monday 7th July 2014
quotequote all
My wife's X3 2.0 d ended up costing us a small fortune due the fact it was just doing short journeys! The Turbo went pop at 65k miles! Think the 3.0 is a more reliable engine but I may be wrong!

Shirt587

Original Poster:

360 posts

134 months

Tuesday 8th July 2014
quotequote all
Thanks all, I'll go and start browsing the classifieds properly... question of 5er vs 3er remains but think I'm leaning towards a 5.

The petrol/diesel debate is something I've thought about. Problem is I can get seconded to other bits of the company I work for at relatively short notice and that tends to rack up the miles. Some times it's fine, some times it's 18,000 miles in six months (Croydon is a hole). Diesel is preferable for those circumstances (and it's more a question of when than if!) unless there's a real reason to go petrol besides cheaper to buy and slightly lower bork factor?

stabilis

3,559 posts

116 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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DPF will be fine given the limited short journeys you do in between long trips. It takes a lot of consistent short trips to screw it up. It will also regenerate in that Doctor Who way when it needs it.

I bought a 525d 08 plate with v low miles from a London dealer knowing the car had led an urban existence. 10k miles later within 4 months, all quiet on the western front!


griffter

3,981 posts

254 months

Friday 18th July 2014
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The DPF (at least on my pre LCI E61) has a service life of 120,000 miles. At this mileage I put some DPF in the tank before a long motorway run, reset the service indicator and all was well. If you give it regular long runs and occasional DPF cleaner you should get more than 120k out of it.

Shirt587

Original Poster:

360 posts

134 months

Tuesday 18th November 2014
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nickfrog said:
I would revisit the diesel vs petrol choice. You won't get 50mpg obviously but other parameters may sway things closer than you may think...
In case anyone cares, I did revisit this issue.

Man-maths triumphs again, I now have a 5 series estate with a V8...

xxChrisxx

538 posts

120 months

Tuesday 18th November 2014
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Shirt587 said:
In case anyone cares, I did revisit this issue.
Man-maths triumphs again, I now have a 5 series estate with a V8...
Ahhh but what it a single leap, or the incremental step so you don't notice?

I levelled myself from a 118d -> 120d (same mpgs!)-> 320d (only £500 more for much more car) -> 320i (lots cheaper than a diesel to buy) -> 325i (still cheaper than the diesel, and why the hell not). Had I not found a 325i that was mentally under-priced because of a piss easy to fix VANOS solenoid issue, I have no idea what I would have ended up with.


Edit. Did the V8 come with a manual, or auto only?

Edited by xxChrisxx on Tuesday 18th November 14:09


Edited by xxChrisxx on Tuesday 18th November 14:10

Shirt587

Original Poster:

360 posts

134 months

Tuesday 18th November 2014
quotequote all
Auto only, it's a 545 not a 550.

The mental process went:
- look at 58 plate 520d, hear rattly as hell timing chain, mentally earmark £1k to fix that on top of cost of car (£9k)
- look at 59 plate 520d, similar but slightly more pricey "cos it's newer, mate".
- consider range of 530d options at that price range (and much more leggy).
- go and see 545i (05 plate, auto-only) for £6k because it's 10 miles away. £600 fixes the two big problems likely to happen with this car.

£3400 buys a lot of petrol and you're a long time dead. Considered the other petrol options for all of 30 seconds before thinking "520 is pointless, 530 does 30 mpg if you're lucky, may as well go big or go home."

groundcontrol

1,539 posts

190 months

Tuesday 18th November 2014
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An auto and a manual will get the same MPG once on the motorway, which if that is the majority of your journeys, you shouldn't really see any difference.

50mpg is ambitious for a 330D or 530D also.

Technomad

753 posts

162 months

Tuesday 18th November 2014
quotequote all
Shirt587 said:
Auto only, it's a 545 not a 550.

The mental process went:
- look at 58 plate 520d, hear rattly as hell timing chain, mentally earmark £1k to fix that on top of cost of car (£9k)
- look at 59 plate 520d, similar but slightly more pricey "cos it's newer, mate".
- consider range of 530d options at that price range (and much more leggy).
- go and see 545i (05 plate, auto-only) for £6k because it's 10 miles away. £600 fixes the two big problems likely to happen with this car.

£3400 buys a lot of petrol and you're a long time dead. Considered the other petrol options for all of 30 seconds before thinking "520 is pointless, 530 does 30 mpg if you're lucky, may as well go big or go home."
A splendid piece of man math, if I may so so. OT, but reminds me of what I went through a couple of years ago when my OH's elderly Mk IV Golf expired…

Our remaining car, my 3-door 123D was a little small and inconvenient for getting Aged Ps into the back. And was hopeless in snow.
So let's get something a little bigger but still with enough overtaking poke to dispose of dawdling tourist traffic on our local roads
Considered a 330D Touring. However, two wheel drive only (at the time). And not enough ground clearance.
So tried an X3. Not great to drive and interior build quality iffy.
Bought an X5.
At which point we have two practical cars, one of which is still hopeless in snow. We decide to get something smaller and lighter to use when the X5 was overkill, with better traction than the 1-series.
So look for a small car with more weight over the driven wheels to replace the 123D.
Looked at Mk 6 Golf. Fell asleep.
Happened to spot a 997 Gen 1 and noted that they're becoming good value.
But then there's the worry of exploding Gen 1 engines, and peace of mind is sooo important…
Bought a 997 Gen 2 C2S.

Blu3R

2,362 posts

198 months

Thursday 20th November 2014
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Not that you care now but others might...

My 129k mile E61 pre-LCI 525d got slower and slower recently to the point where it just wouldn't accelerate past 60 no matter how long I tried. No lights on the dash but various DPF related fault codes stored. After panicking over the cost of a new DPF my mechanic removed the whole exhaust, jet washed the DPF and cleared the codes. 133k miles now and no issues yet...