Son has bought privately a 2009 Audi diesel auto with 40K+ miles.
Absolutely no concerns re its servicing etc. etc, from the one owner.
Son is getting it independently checked over etc.
Both of us have no experience re diesel cars.
We are obviously aware of the risk of mis - fueling.
Not sure re fitting a preventer or perhaps it is already fitted with one ?
Apart from continuing proper servicing is there anything else to look out for on a diesel?
He is not a high mileage user ( Yes I know , why buy a diesel? )
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Not really. Won't notice that much difference to be honest
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He ought to find out if the car has a DPF: I think 2009 was the year when the VW Group first fitted them.
If it has, he ought to make sure he does a journey of 20 miles or so once a week at least.
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I think a 2009 will always have DPF as my 2006 does. Yes there is a DPF, just see how much they are Eurocarparts website using your reg. no.
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>> I think a 2009 will always have DPF as my 2006 does.
Yes there is a DPF, just see how much they are Eurocarparts website using your reg. no.
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No luck with Eurocarparts but Cats 2 U shows it at £500+ for a 409 stainless steel one.
Thanks for the suggestion.
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They drive differently to petrols. Less revs needed - let the torque do the work. It will soon come naturally.
He won't be able to bump-start it down a hill (higher compression engine). (Edit: sorry, just realised it's an auto)
He won't be visiting the fuel pumps so often so fewer free tumblers (or whatever the offer is).
Last edited by: Boxsterboy on Sun 8 Jan 17 at 21:45
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BB
Thanks. That has triggered my thoughts re getting a Lithium powered jump starter.
Like his sister the both live several floors up in a flat so these are a real progression from the old type.
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The oil will be black within a few miles of an oil change - this is normal.
If you've been working the engine hard (eg. towing), let it idle for a minute before switching off.
Learn to drive differently - using the torque, changing up earlier.
Enjoy!
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I switched one car to diesel more than fifteen years ago. I haven't yet miss-fuelled - touch wood, (fingers crossed), [famous last words], {oh, you've done it now}, etc etc. It helps that the diesel filler is on the right and the petrol car filler is on the left. Before starting to fill, I stop and look at the pump and the nozzle and the filler cap (the diesel cap is red) and make sure everything is right. Sounds obvious, but it works for me.
I just missed the switch to DPFs, but I understand that they need a decent run say, once a week and if it starts to regenerate, let it finish.
I think your son will find, that in practice, the problem is more imaginary than real.
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Although they don't need revs in day to day use, modern diesels do like (and benefit from) the occasional bit of "exercise". Otherwise you get a build up of crud in places that can cause problems, like the variable vane system on the turbo.
My VW tech friend who looked after my old Golf suggested a good trick to use occasionally when leaving a roundabout onto a dual carriageway. Select 3rd at about 20 mph, and plant the throttle, letting it rev out all the way round towards the redline before changing up. As well as giving the whole gubbins a blast through, it exercises the vanes on the VNT mechanism by running them through their full operating range. I did this at least once every couple of weeks throughout ownership of the Golf, and had no VNT issues on the original turbo at 155k, and a fast pass every year on the smoke test.
One problem with modern diesels is that driving them constantly in the way that their power delivery encourages actually doesn't do them any good.
Last edited by: DP on Mon 9 Jan 17 at 08:01
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If you garage it , do NOT re-enter the garage after driving it out when cold.
Lots of very nasty pollutants do nasties to your lungs. And the effect is irreversible.
(Catalysts do not work when cold)
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>> Lots of very nasty pollutants do nasties to your lungs. And the effect is irreversible.
Can you expand on/provide a source for that?
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>> Can you expand on/provide a source for that?
Both unburnt diesel and especially diesel exhaust are recognised toxic substances.
The fumes will be concentrated in an enclosed space, and whilst one exposure might be OK, regular near-daily exposure doesn't sound like a good thing.
goo.gl/t8rJFE
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>> >> Lots of very nasty pollutants do nasties to your lungs. And the effect is
>> irreversible.
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>> Can you expand on/provide a source for that?
>>
"Diesel Fumes Now Classified as Carcinogenic
In June 2012, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) upgraded the classification of diesel engine exhaust from “probably carcinogenic to humans†to “carcinogenic to humans.†International experts have determined that there is sufficient evidence of a link between exposure to fumes from diesel engine exhausts and the incidence of lung cancer. Petrol engine exhaust fumes were also reviewed but the classification remains unchanged from “possibly carcinogenic to humans.â€
Studies found the risk of lung cancer for highly exposed workers increased by three times that of low exposure workers and very highly exposed workers had nearly 6 times the risk of associated cancer mortality.
Diesel exhaust is a combination of a number of chemicals and particles, however exhaust as a whole can be classed as exposure to particulate matter, diesel exhaust being primarily composed of very small particles. Whilst many people would associate the black smoke from exhausts as the harmful substance, in diesel exhausts, it is actually the invisible nano particles that are created by diesel engines which can be inspired deep into the lungs which present the most risk for lung cancer.
Workplaces where workers are in close proximity diesel fuelled equipment or in enclosed spaces with diesel fuelled equipment present the greatest risk to worker health.
tinyurl.com/zpdonwx
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Neither you nor your son should worry unduly about any issues with a 2009 Audi, there are plenty of them still on the road at 20+ years old.
To combat misfuelling worries I always read out the word "diesel" to myself from the pump housing, the nozzle, the filler flap label and the fuel cap to check they all say the same thing. I might look a bit strange to an observer, mumbling to myself before filling my car up, but it's worked 100% so far. Also be aware that diesel on the fingers smells horrible, so the free plastic gloves at the pump are a must.
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>> Neither you nor your son should worry unduly about any issues with a 2009 Audi,
>> there are plenty of them still on the road at 20+ years old.
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Depends what engine, the mid to late 2000s VAG 2.0 TDi has a tendency to destroy itself before reaching 100K due to oil pump drive failure, see following for example:-
preview.tinyurl.com/j5rsz5y
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I'm imagining that your son is unlikely either to:
1. misfuel; or
2. allow the battery to go flat, thus necessitating jump starting.
Let him worry about his own non-problems!
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Thanks again for all the pointers/ etc.
Both him and his wife are new to diesel cars but I suspect he will do the re refuel duties so be it on his head!
I had a quick look at lithium jump starters without much success.
A very few say for "up to 3L diesels" but I found none above this.
One said up to 6.3l petrol and I also noted - do not use it beyond the engine sizes it is rated for.
It would rather defeat the idea if the charger did not have enough power.
Seems there is no market for other than small diesels but petrols are reasonably OK.
( His Audi is 3L.)
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Remember to use the glow plugs when starting from cold. Over Christmas, a member of the family commented that his diesel Clio was a poor started from cold. Turns out he was cranking the engine straight away and not waiting for the yellow 'coil' light to go out first!
On a 2009 Audi, the whole cold start process could well be automated, with the car automatically introducing a delay in cold weather, so that the flow plugs can heat up. Suggest he reads the manual re cold starting.
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"Remember to use the glow plugs when starting from cold."
Great tip, my daughter has had her diesel a few years now and I've never had one. She told me before Xmas it wasn't starting well, hardly at all some days. So I RTFM and it worked fine for me, she wasn't doing the warm up thing. it is now fine.
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Fit a misfuel prevention device.
There are quite a few in the market.
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>> Fit a misfuel prevention device. There are quite a few in the market.
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I had a search and it looks like most have faded away except for Fuel Angel
It looks a good bit of kit at a reasonable price.
Son now has the car so time to explore if it already has a petrol preventer.
Will give it a poke around when he visits this weekend then go for a blast.
it seems to come top in reviews except there are even hotter versions
( SQS & Special editions.)
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I have used a Fuel Angel in the past and my daughter uses one after an expensive mistake. A good bit of kit, robust, effective, and well made.
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>>Will give it a poke around when he visits this weekend then go for a blast.
Achieved the poke around. Sussed out the passenger protecting cargo net fixing but only got part my way through what all the buttons functions do. Impressive.
We only had a quick trip around the block on the winter tyres to try them out on icy roads.
The main reason for the visit was to leave the spare set of wheels/tyres plus the roof bars for me to guard. ( Wheels will live in the garden ). He is a happy bunny with what looks a very good buy.
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Slight thread hijack.... discussion in pub along the lines of the accepted wisdom being that a diesel only becomes 'viable' if one covers higher annual mileage. They cost more, sometimes not always, cost more to maintain, and might 'possibly' be less reliable once they are a few years old... as a generalisation let's say a modern diesel once out of warranty.
With a high end marque, with good residuals, is that still true? If you only covered 10k pa would you get a petrol or diesel R Rover or something of that ilk. My pal got his new Disco Sport and as his family have grown up & left home his mileage is a fraction of what it was, yet he still bought a diesel.
I would appreciate your thoughts to settle the friendly pub argument
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Companies seem to all buy diesels so I would think they are cheap to run but then they do alot of miles i would think. For me I'd buy a petrol with that sort of mileage hopefully it would come with some sort of nice v8. But then I've always bought petrol cars since I've never done many miles, so maybe I'm baised.
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>>But then I've always bought petrol cars since I've never done many miles
Same here. As I have never driven more than 10,000 miles a year, and much less nowadays, buying a diesel has never even crossed my mind.
And they're noisy, aren't they...
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OK in a commercial vehicle or a dumper truck but generally no place in a car. The only car diesels I've found acceptable are the BMW 535d straight-six and the JLR 3.0 V6.
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A little sympathy for the turbo. Let it warm up before giving it a blast.
And a minute to cool if stopping after a spirited drive.
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>> And they're noisy, aren't they...
And because of this, newer, quieter diesel engines have been developed.
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"My pal got his new Disco Sport and as his family have grown up & left home his mileage is a fraction of what it was, yet he still bought a diesel."
I suspect that Land Rovers may be like Volvos - difficult to get a petrol, and the petrol engines that do exist are gas-guzzlers. There are some excellent new petrol engines coming on to the market, mainly from the VW Group (1.4 and 2.0 TFSI) and Peugeot/Citroen (1.2) but nothing of that ilk yet that would power something the size of a Disco Sport powerfully yet economically.
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>> I suspect that Land Rovers may be like Volvos - difficult to get a petrol,
Not difficult, impossible.
I am pondering getting a Volvo v90. There are two 2.0l diesels (fast and faster) and there will be a petrol/charge/hybrid later this tear, but there will be no pure petrol available in the UK market.
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>> Not difficult, impossible.
I've seen this mentioned a lot on Discovery Sport, and they do sell a petrol version in S Ireland.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Sat 21 Jan 17 at 23:31
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First time diesel owner. General advice reqd. - CGNorwich
