How do I ensure my car doesn't lose power over the years?
Discussion
You often hear of older cars which have lost significant power over the years/miles (2 specific examples both from Top Gear - one where they had 3 classic 30 year old Italian Supercars and 1 where they have a Renault Avantime(sp?) 3.0 V6 and in both cases there was a significant power loss). What's the best way to maintain power in older cars - is regular servicing enough - surely you'd still lose some power.
In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
The main place for losing power is down the sides of the pistons, where the piston rings wear against the bores. As the miles go up the wear means that you get some "blow-by" as the combustion gases get past the piston rings. This is what results in the power loss.
Those supercars are very tempramental, and were not designed to do big miles between rebuilds. Your Golf should be much better in that respect.
But the obvious things are to not use the car for very short journeys (wear is much worse on these), don't drive it hard in the first 15 minutes or so to let the oil come up to temperature, and make sure the service schedule is followed.
Those supercars are very tempramental, and were not designed to do big miles between rebuilds. Your Golf should be much better in that respect.
But the obvious things are to not use the car for very short journeys (wear is much worse on these), don't drive it hard in the first 15 minutes or so to let the oil come up to temperature, and make sure the service schedule is followed.
unpc said:
Tomatogti said:
What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
Don't drive it. I don't think there is anything. Do you honestly expect to keep the car all that time?There is no reason that all of the horses shouldn't still be there if the engine is still within tolerance for compression, and leak, and everything else is as it should be. A few miles and it will "loosen" up a bit too.
davepoth said:
The main place for losing power is down the sides of the pistons, where the piston rings wear against the bores. As the miles go up the wear means that you get some "blow-by" as the combustion gases get past the piston rings. This is what results in the power loss.
Those supercars are very tempramental, and were not designed to do big miles between rebuilds. Your Golf should be much better in that respect.
But the obvious things are to not use the car for very short journeys (wear is much worse on these), don't drive it hard in the first 15 minutes or so to let the oil come up to temperature, and make sure the service schedule is followed.
Thanks - just what I was after. I always wait for the oil to come up to proper temperature before harder driving too.Those supercars are very tempramental, and were not designed to do big miles between rebuilds. Your Golf should be much better in that respect.
But the obvious things are to not use the car for very short journeys (wear is much worse on these), don't drive it hard in the first 15 minutes or so to let the oil come up to temperature, and make sure the service schedule is followed.
Tomatogti said:
You often hear of older cars which have lost significant power over the years/miles (2 specific examples both from Top Gear - one where they had 3 classic 30 year old Italian Supercars and 1 where they have a Renault Avantime(sp?) 3.0 V6 and in both cases there was a significant power loss). What's the best way to maintain power in older cars - is regular servicing enough - surely you'd still lose some power.
In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
Your biggest problem here is believing the rubbish spouted by TG.In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
Older cars were often rated differently and a lot of car makers have been known to lie about power outputs.
Lastly there are many different types of HP, many different ways of calculating, zeroing and even measuring it. And a lot of variance in the equipment used and standards adhered too.
In short rolling road figures which do not tell you what type of dyno is used, if it is metric or imperial HP and to what standards are corrected too can no be directly compared to manufacturer claimed flywheel figures.
BTW - to get flywheel figures from a rolling road you have to guess. Sometimes an educated guess but not always. But none the less always a guess. So it makes the figures even more less comparable.
In terms of engines. Well keep them serviced and in good health and chances are they'll be fine. I know of cars that dyno as good or better numbers even 200,000 miles and 10 years on.
If it helps, my 2005, 160k mile (at the time) Diesel Laguna was remapped last year.
As new book figure = 150bhp,
Dec09 dyno figure 152.0bhp.
(if interested, the after figure was 189.2bhp).
Car has had full and frank servicing on the dot - unless power was significantly up on book when new, its lost nothing / minimal as a result of regular servicing / generally good housekeeping.
As new book figure = 150bhp,
Dec09 dyno figure 152.0bhp.
(if interested, the after figure was 189.2bhp).
Car has had full and frank servicing on the dot - unless power was significantly up on book when new, its lost nothing / minimal as a result of regular servicing / generally good housekeeping.
Tomatogti said:
You often hear of older cars which have lost significant power over the years/miles (2 specific examples both from Top Gear - one where they had 3 classic 30 year old Italian Supercars and 1 where they have a Renault Avantime(sp?) 3.0 V6 and in both cases there was a significant power loss). What's the best way to maintain power in older cars - is regular servicing enough - surely you'd still lose some power.
In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
Talking about Jeremy's Merak.....check this out:In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
http://www.eurospares.co.uk/breaking2.asp?page=19
Tomatogti said:
You often hear of older cars which have lost significant power over the years/miles (2 specific examples both from Top Gear - one where they had 3 classic 30 year old Italian Supercars and 1 where they have a Renault Avantime(sp?) 3.0 V6 and in both cases there was a significant power loss). What's the best way to maintain power in older cars - is regular servicing enough - surely you'd still lose some power.
In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
Service it regularly, don't thrash it from cold.In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
va1o said:
Heathwood said:
IIRC all the Avantime's horses were rounded up when James carried out a decent service.
Correct, which just goes to show if the car is looked after properly there is nothing to worry about!Edited by 300bhp/ton on Wednesday 20th October 20:38
PLamborghini said:
Tomatogti said:
You often hear of older cars which have lost significant power over the years/miles (2 specific examples both from Top Gear - one where they had 3 classic 30 year old Italian Supercars and 1 where they have a Renault Avantime(sp?) 3.0 V6 and in both cases there was a significant power loss). What's the best way to maintain power in older cars - is regular servicing enough - surely you'd still lose some power.
In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
Talking about Jeremy's Merak.....check this out:In my case I've got a 4 year old Golf GTI Mk V - which has been serviced as it's supposed to. It's got 65,000 miles on the clock. As new should have put out 197bhp - should I still expect this output? What about when it has 125,000m on the clock? What can I do do keep hold of the horses as long as poss.?
http://www.eurospares.co.uk/breaking2.asp?page=19
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