Older Diesel Saloons - DPF advice
Discussion
Hi all,
I'm debating buying an oldish Saloon of some description, not entirely sure what yet, maybe something like a 10-15 year BMW/Merc/Alfa/Honda/Lexus....something of that ilk, large(ish) and comfortable.
I don't do a lot of miles during the week for work/domestic duties (I work from home), but I do do a fair bit of 'round the doors' driving when I do. Maybe 10-20 short 1-5 mile trips Monday to Friday. My cars gets a longer run out at a weekend, at motorway speeds, bit of an 'Italian tune up' so to speak.
Searching locally, a lot of the cars for sale are Diesels, some of which are new enough to have a DPF. What are the realities of living with one of these things? Will my weekdays of short journeys kill the thing, or will this be balanced out by the weekend driving? Are DPF problems mostly scare stories? Am I massively overthinking it?
Could be that I end up just buying a petrol anyway (I've never actually owned a Diesel in 26 years of driving), but I'd like to keep my options open if a nice car comes up that just so happens to be Diesel.
Any advice/opinions gratefully received.
I'm debating buying an oldish Saloon of some description, not entirely sure what yet, maybe something like a 10-15 year BMW/Merc/Alfa/Honda/Lexus....something of that ilk, large(ish) and comfortable.
I don't do a lot of miles during the week for work/domestic duties (I work from home), but I do do a fair bit of 'round the doors' driving when I do. Maybe 10-20 short 1-5 mile trips Monday to Friday. My cars gets a longer run out at a weekend, at motorway speeds, bit of an 'Italian tune up' so to speak.
Searching locally, a lot of the cars for sale are Diesels, some of which are new enough to have a DPF. What are the realities of living with one of these things? Will my weekdays of short journeys kill the thing, or will this be balanced out by the weekend driving? Are DPF problems mostly scare stories? Am I massively overthinking it?
Could be that I end up just buying a petrol anyway (I've never actually owned a Diesel in 26 years of driving), but I'd like to keep my options open if a nice car comes up that just so happens to be Diesel.
Any advice/opinions gratefully received.
It isn't just the DPF which is the problem. My wife had a 2005 Golf Tdi which she just pottered about in. No DPF, but the EGR get bunging up and putting the car into limp mode.Variable vane turbos can start sticking too.
Any car at 10/15 years old is going to have problems from time to time, but buying a (non-turbo) petrol will help minimise them. Most car selling websites have a filter so you can direct your search to petrol only. You will find something I am sure.
Any car at 10/15 years old is going to have problems from time to time, but buying a (non-turbo) petrol will help minimise them. Most car selling websites have a filter so you can direct your search to petrol only. You will find something I am sure.
Sad Ken said:
Maybe 10-20 short 1-5 mile trips Monday to Friday.
Apart from the dpf, egr etc issues, one thing with diesels is they take ages - like into the teens of miles - to properly warm up. It's masked on most cars as they have a very hefty electric booster heater, but it usually only works when the car is moving - and they often fail as the car gets older.Sheepshanks said:
Sad Ken said:
Maybe 10-20 short 1-5 mile trips Monday to Friday.
Apart from the dpf, egr etc issues, one thing with diesels is they take ages - like into the teens of miles - to properly warm up. It's masked on most cars as they have a very hefty electric booster heater, but it usually only works when the car is moving - and they often fail as the car gets older.None of my vehicles has had a DPF, but we have three diseasels in the drive at the mo - a Golf 1.9 tdi, a Toyota 4x4, and a Mitsubishi 4x4. They all warm up just as quickly as my BMW 130i and I have not seen any hefty heaters on any of them.
Are the 'hefty electric heaters' only fitted to DPF equipped vehicles? (I'm not being dismissive or facetious - I have not heard about this and have, so far, avoided DPF equipped vehicles)
Toed64 said:
Are the 'hefty electric heaters' only fitted to DPF equipped vehicles? (I'm not being dismissive or facetious - I have not heard about this and have, so far, avoided DPF equipped vehicles)
All diesels have had them for a long time - on cold days in normal driving they'd almost never warm up without them. You only realise they've failed when that happens.In wife's VW Tiguan it'll start blowing warm air in a few hundred yards - in 3 miles the water temp gauge is at 90. But it's lying - it's driven by the ECU and all it's basically saying is "OK". The cluster display shows the oil temp. At 3 miles it's stil blank. As said earlier, you're into the teens of miles before it's getting into the mid-80s.
On my older Merc, I know the heater is 1.7kW and is built into the engine block. The temp gauge in that is a proper one, and again on cold days it's teens of miles before it's up to temp.
In the Merc the heater works if it's less than 8C and it can be turned off. There's no user control over the VW one at all - it just does its own thing.
Older Fords used to have a heater in one of the hoses - no idea what they do these days.
Some diesels use the a/c compressor as a heat pump. Some also have additional heaters in the car heater air channels.
Just an example but these have no dpf, are bulletproof and are comfortable.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Sad Ken said:
Hi all,
I'm debating buying an oldish Saloon of some description, not entirely sure what yet, maybe something like a 10-15 year BMW/Merc/Alfa/Honda/Lexus....something of that ilk, large(ish) and comfortable.
At that age quite a few won't have a DPF - I currently have a 2008 Audi A4 3.0 diesel (B7 shape) that doesn't have one. If you take it for a good run and Italian tune up from time to time I'm sure it will be fine I'm debating buying an oldish Saloon of some description, not entirely sure what yet, maybe something like a 10-15 year BMW/Merc/Alfa/Honda/Lexus....something of that ilk, large(ish) and comfortable.
I'd just look for a petrol.
Friends and family have had problems with DPFs from short journeys, even with some longer journeys thrown in.
My 09 Mondeo hasn't had any DPF issues, but is mostly used for longer journeys and rarely driven less than 12 motorway miles. We generally use my wife's petrol Fiesta for shorter journeys unless we need the boot space.
Friends and family have had problems with DPFs from short journeys, even with some longer journeys thrown in.
My 09 Mondeo hasn't had any DPF issues, but is mostly used for longer journeys and rarely driven less than 12 motorway miles. We generally use my wife's petrol Fiesta for shorter journeys unless we need the boot space.
SD_1 said:
At that age quite a few won't have a DPF - I currently have a 2008 Audi A4 3.0 diesel (B7 shape) that doesn't have one. If you take it for a good run and Italian tune up from time to time I'm sure it will be fine
I would double check that via the options codes on the manual or sticker in the boot - i was under the impression that at that age / year, they would have dpf's - I know my 2007 Skoda Octavia vRS had one and thought that VW and Audi had them before Skoda's.Tomo1971 said:
I would double check that via the options codes on the manual or sticker in the boot - i was under the impression that at that age / year, they would have dpf's - I know my 2007 Skoda Octavia vRS had one and thought that VW and Audi had them before Skoda's.
I did just that a few years ago as I thought similar to yourself, but it 100% doesn't have one. The plume of soot out the back when you boot it after bumbling around town for a while is a tell too! My theory is that the 3 litre engines got them a few years later than the 2 litre ones.
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