Do all modern(ish) small diesels have inherent faults !

[rswift]

I am looking to replace my Wife's trusty Peugeot Diesel 306 Estate, I though this would be an easy task. Car up to about £3k, not too fussed about the miles, but would like 100k or less, but needs to be comfortable, tidy, similar tax bracket, insurance, size.

So 307 seems obvious choice, but put off by all the DPF filter issues, the DPF seems to affect almost all cars of this age !, then the Dual Mass Flywheel issue that is waiting to bite you on the arse. Looked at the small Mercs, both A & C class .. thinking older better built car, but have diesel injector problems, and rust on C class. BMW 320 D .. lot's of car for the money, until the turbo packs in. Ford DCi seems to be in the top list of cars 'awaiting repair' Toyota diesel, obviously good as the ones on our price range have been to the moon and back. We previously had a Volvo V40, but it was the most uncomfortable car she has ever owned. Does anyone make a reliable diesel.

Currently looking for a similar age 306 ... an oddly enough, I'm not the only one as they seem to hold their price.

Edited by rswift on Tuesday 9th August 13:34

[rev-erend]

Also engineered in faults include :

Centre push clutch slave cylinders (engine or gearbox removal needed to change)

EGR valve.

[V8s ONLY]

Yes they do. It's because they hava diesel engine instead of a proper petrol one.

[Truckosaurus]

I suspect there is also an element of numpties buying such vehicles to save money and then tubby-boohooing at any expenditure on routine maintenance.

That said, DPF and similar devices seem to not like pottering around town that lots of these cars end up doing.

[Kong]

The VAG 1.9 TDI must be amongst the most reliable turbo diesels you can buy.

[thinfourth2]

[dons electric car preaching hat]

Why the fk folk buy cars designed to do a 1000 miles a day to do 3 miles a day i will never know

An EV car would be perfect for this use

[/dons electric car preaching hat]

[lyonspride]

rswift said:

I am looking to replace my Wife's trusty Peugeot Diesel 306 Estate, I though this would be an easy task. Car up to about £3k, not too fussed about the miles, but would like 100k or less, but needs to be comfortable, tidy, similar tax bracket, insurance, size.

So 307 seems obvious choice, but put off by all the DPF filter issues, the DPF seems to affect almost all cars of this age !, then the Dual Mass Flywheel issue that is waiting to bite you on the arse. Looked at the small Mercs, both A & C class .. thinking older better built car, but have diesel injector problems, and rust on C class. BMW 320 D .. lot's of car for the money, until the turbo packs in. Ford DCi seems to be in the top list of cars 'awaiting repair' Toyota diesel, obviously good as the ones on our price range have been to the moon and back. We previously had a Volvo V40, but it was the most uncomfortable car she has ever owned. Does anyone make a reliable diesel.

Currently looking for a similar age 306 ... an oddly enough, I'm not the only one as they seem to hold their price.

By diesel, save money on fuel.
By petrol, save money on repairs.

[rhinochopig]

Buy a push bike and save on fuel, but spend a fortune on shiny anodised trinkets that make you go much much faster in your head and similar enough to the bits you want to replace so that your wife won't notice you've just spent a fortune on stuff to replace stuff that didn't really need replacing in the first place....and breathe

[excel monkey]

Kong said:

The VAG 1.9 TDI must be amongst the most reliable turbo diesels you can buy.

The non-turbo SDI is even more reliable, if you can live with the slowness.

[rswift]

lyonspride said:

By diesel, save money on fuel.
By petrol, save money on repairs.

This could be true !,

My Jag is on LPG so I have the best of both worlds. Last year my wife did 25k miles in the 306, hence something reasonably comfortable .. also looking at lpg estates, but rare as rocking horse st !

I have discovered a lot about DPF removal/remap .. which I like the sound of !

[Arthur Daley]

The Renault diesels aren't bad, the 1.5DCI is a strong engine and available in the Megane Sport Tourer which is similar in size to the 306 estate.
Occassionally get EGR troubles and glow plug issues but compared to DMF failure, injector issues or the day to day inconvience of DPF then they are great.

[rhinochopig]

Arthur Daley said:

The Renault diesels aren't bad, the 1.5DCI is a strong engine and available in the Megane Sport Tourer which is similar in size to the 306 estate.
Occassionally get EGR troubles and glow plug issues but compared to DMF failure, injector issues or the day to day inconvience of DPF then they are great.

The early 1.5dci was utter garbage.

OP here's a list of goodies and baddies - http://www.dieselbob.co.uk/goodbad.aspx

[rswift]

Thank you, I'd looked at the Megane & Laguna, both nice looking cars IMO, but afraid google doesn't agree on the reliability stakes.

'Diesel Bob' has some interesting observations though .. thanks for that.

[HellDiver]

I was quoted £300 to get all the DPF gubbins removed and the ECU remapped to suit, for a 207 1.6HDI.

Basically they knock the guts out of the filter, then map out the DPF functions from the ECU. They would also give the 90hp engine an extra 30hp if you wanted, too...

I didn't buy the 207 in the end, so no idea how well it worked, but I've heard a number of folks having had it done on both the native French HDI engines, and on the Ford version of the same engine.

[renrut]

rhinochopig said:

Buy a push bike and save on fuel, but spend a fortune on shiny anodised trinkets that make you go much much faster in your head and similar enough to the bits you want to replace so that your wife won't notice you've just spent a fortune on stuff to replace stuff that didn't really need replacing in the first place....and breathe

I'm currently considering this but a 25 mile round trip to work might be pushing it seeing as 6 miles has me wheezing like a fat asthmatic. Oh hang on I AM a fat asthmatic

But I'm fairly determined to do it. I've already gone the petrol engine instead of diesel to save on nasty repair bills and spend on fuel instead but now I realise if I cycle to work I save £150+ a month in petrol plus I save going to the gym. That way I can then buy a car that will use the same amount of fuel but only doing weekend blasts. Hmmm, that Diablo 8mpg starts to sound possible

[Diesel Fury]

In my experience, small modern diesels have loads of faults.

Then again, my small(ish) modern(ish) diesel was made by Fiat, so you can draw your own conclusions as to the cause of said faults

[Xavier259]

Just a few suggestions:


2002 Seat Leon 1.9 TDi


2004 Fiat Stilo 1.9 JTD


2005 Mazda 3 1.6D TS

[rswift]

HellDiver said:

I was quoted £300 to get all the DPF gubbins removed and the ECU remapped to suit, for a 207 1.6HDI.

Basically they knock the guts out of the filter, then map out the DPF functions from the ECU. They would also give the 90hp engine an extra 30hp if you wanted, too...

I didn't buy the 207 in the end, so no idea how well it worked, but I've heard a number of folks having had it done on both the native French HDI engines, and on the Ford version of the same engine.

on n

That seems to be the going rate, and as far as I can see is the sensible option on an older car. Apparently the Peugeot uses some sort of 'Snake-oil' which I can only imagine is bottled by naked nymphs & shipped in a gold casket as it is £50 a litre (main dealer), and a 307 uses 4 litres of it !!

It is pumped into the DPF, the measurement of when to do this apparently is measured from how many times the fuel cap has been on and off the car ! ..(Peugeot assuming everyone always fills to the brim).

So if the car has been used locally, chucking £30 worth of diesel every other week, it will have used all of this long before the recommended 60k change ... how complex can you make something !.

In contrast I am just about to change the oil (2 litres) on our ancient 2CV, which is so simple (old) it doesn't even have an oil filter

Edited by rswift on Tuesday 9th August 15:43

[rswift]

Xavier259 said:

Just a few suggestions:


2002 Seat Leon 1.9 TDi


2004 Fiat Stilo 1.9 JTD


2005 Mazda 3 1.6D TS

Thanks, but needs to be an estate ...

[chopper602]

rswift said:

In contrast I am just about to change the oil (2 litres) on our ancient 2CV, which is so simple (old) it doesn't even have an oil filter

Edited by rswift on Tuesday 9th August 15:43

That'll be the 435cc or very early 602cc engine then?