Can diesels sound good?

[TazLondon]

With some diesel cars getting into performance leagues of very fast petrol cars - with acceleration times of 0-62mph in under 5 seconds, there's still the issue of a crap exhaust noise. So, can diesel cars ever sound as good or even close to the sound of a V8?

[The teacher]

Well, if you buy a new Skoda, you can add smartgate, a £100 extra that, according to the salesman, makes your car sound just like an "F1 car". It was very tempting...

[Welshbeef]

TazLondon said:

With some diesel cars getting into performance leagues of very fast petrol cars - with acceleration times of 0-62mph in under 5 seconds, there's still the issue of a crap exhaust noise. So, can diesel cars ever sound as good or even close to the sound of a V8?

No.

The I6 sound a million times better than the 4 bangers - though Suburus 4 pot boxer unit is pretty good. I've hardly heard any of the v8 diesels but it will never sound as lovely as say a C5 RS6 simply not possible.

[jamieduff1981]

Yes, but they need to be rather large, with lots of cylinders and fairly unsilenced.

You may find reasonable examples in a redneck's semi (lorry), an airport fire-engine (often 2 stroke V8s) or a tank.

https://youtu.be/lcREW_WRvak

Edited by jamieduff1981 on Saturday 6th February 08:02

[Bonefish Blues]

The D5 engine at 3k+ revs doen't sound as terrible as it does lower down the range.

[Welshbeef]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Depends on soundproofing.
Inside mine is silent at idle. Outside sure it sounds like a diesel.

[HustleRussell]

Some diesels can sound good from inside the car when being driven but at low speed / idle from outside- well, it's an engine which runs by pinking. They all have that horrible clatter which lets them down.

[ZX10R NIN]

V8 or V6 diesels can sound good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzU7HqhkyYs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN0Zc2CaYYU

[pfnsht]

Audi's 3.0 v6 tdi sounds quite nice for a diesel. The bi-turbo version with active exhaust sounds even better, but not as a good as audi's and others petrol performance offerings.

[PaulJC84]

That Audi v6 diesel has a similar noise to the old s4 biturbos

[VeeFource]

Generally by far the biggest problem with diesels in terms of sound is the fact they are essentially throttled by metering the fuel only (though the introduction of swirl flaps have changed this slightly), whereas a petrol's is metered by both fuel and air. This means in a petrol a whole load more sound is released when the butterfly valve in the throttle body is opened which is very satisfying. It also means they are inherently quieter when driven under part load and therefore don't need as much sound attenuation measures to be civilised when cruising. As a result petrols tend to have more of a bark when under full throttle which is again more satisfying.

So conversely the big issue with a diesel is the fact they barely sound any different going up through the revs under full throttle than they do at part throttle. So no matter how pleasant the sound, it's the way it's portrayed in terms of volume and pitch change with respect to the load change that's the issue.

That said, the fake sounds that are pumped into the cabin such as on a Golf GTD go a good way to address this. But whether you can live with knowing the sound's artificial is another matter.

Edited by VeeFource on Saturday 6th February 10:05

[anonymous-user]

The best sounding diesels are ones with monstrous turbos which obscure the obnoxious noises

[DS197]

This sounds so good I actually wouldn't mind buying it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z31PyfPyB8U

[J4CKO]

Tuned Mercedes OM606 engines sound pretty good, the smoke can be astounding though, when someone does a burnout in one you get black and white smoke.

[Krikkit]

5-cylinders sound pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJkjdJQLe3o

As said above though, it's idle and low speed where they sound dreadful, universally imo.

[Cfnteabag]

I would have to put in a vote for the CV8 warrior engine or the cv12 challenger 2 engine. Both sound great at full chat!

Also the land rover td5 engine with a modified pipe sounds good as well

[Brave Fart]

My previous car was a diesel Merc SLK (yeah, I know, but I wanted a convertible, the lease was cheap....) and I handed it back early, mainly because I couldn't stand the dag-dag noise at lower speeds. Because of the noise, I will never drive another 4 pot diesel; however I do think some of the 6 cyls (e.g. VW Touareg, Porsche Macan) are........OK. Just.
Mike.

[Monkeylegend]

My 4 pot Mercedes diesel sounded good everytime I drove it.

It was earning me money.

[A.J.M]

Tdv8 range rovers sound nice under load.

Scania v8 lorries likewise.

Most diesels sound crap, then again, plenty of petrol engines sound crap.

[MitchT]

I had the joy of being a passenger in an I-6 BMW diesel in Germany, including a 240km/h run on the Autobahn. I'm not going to claim that it sounded as good as a petrol I-6 but it did sound impressive, in a somewhat monstrous way.