Just had my Fiesta 1.6tdci (2007) MOT'd and for the first time in five years the smoke produced during testing was too low to register!
Is it normal for a diesel to generate less smoke as car gets older?
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>> Is it normal for a diesel to generate less smoke as car gets older?
How interesting.
Perhaps the engine is now fully run in and will produce the required revs on a lighter throttle? Carbon in cylinder head increasing compression ratio making tune more perfect? Something like that.
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I hadn't heard that it gets better with age - I imagine it generally doesn't - but it is common with BMW diesels, I hear.
As a matter of interest, what fuel do you use?
Shell V-Power for example is at least partly made from gas, which has less crud in it to start with than the simple distillation fraction which is ordinary fuel oil.
Intuitively, it should be cleaner at the exhaust although I don't remember seeing that claim made.
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"Is at least partly made from gas"
Ah that's what they add.
I thought the additive was 10% snake oil.
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Over the 30 years that I have run diesel cars I know that diesel engines improve their fuel consumption and emmisions with age. The only exception was my KIA Ceed which required an occasional dose of injector cleaner. They seem to be at their best from 10K miles on. Until the Ceed I ran my cars to 100K miles without any engine problems, now retired I change my cars on age rather than mileage. The trade seem to agree in various articles I have read.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 7 Jun 15 at 15:40
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>> now retired I change my cars on age rather than mileage.
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The Navy are taking the same line along with the rest of the armed forces. 30 ? You're wAAAAAAy over the hill.
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>> I hadn't heard that it gets better with age - I imagine it generally doesn't - but it is common with BMW diesels, I hear.
Cars do improve as they are run in - which takes a very long time whatever the manufacturers allege - and the performance of all engines improves with the increase in compression ratio caused by carbon deposits in the cylinder head. Of course makes vary but typically a car will run better and sweeter as it goes through its first few tens of thousands of miles, until decline sets in with wear, piston slap and so on.
Cars are better than they used to be but the same principles apply.
The damp conditions yesterday, thin rain falling, brought a very noticeable improvement to the performance of our 110,000 mile 2 litre petrol jalopy. Something to do with dense wet air having more oxygen in it. Wafted along beautifully on a tiny whisker of throttle.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 7 Jun 15 at 15:37
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The damp conditions yesterday, thin rain falling, brought a very noticeable improvement to the performance of our 110,000 mile 2 litre petrol jalopy. Something to do with dense wet air having more oxygen in it. Wafted along beautifully on a tiny whisker of throttle.
I'd always thought the improvement was more to do with the improved thermodynamic expandability of damp air.
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Petrol!!!! Wash your mouth out, vile carinogenic stuff, and that is before you burn it. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 7 Jun 15 at 15:49
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>> I'd always thought the improvement was more to do with the improved thermodynamic expandability of damp air.
Yer... summin like that Sp. In our world car thingy the effect is to make it run more sweetly and quietly on a smaller throttle opening.
Do you notice anything similar with yr Morgan, or is it too noisy and thrashy for a difference to be noticeable? You must be well attuned to its subtleties.
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I have owned the car from new and is used for my daily commute, I have always driven it fairly hard shall we say!
It's only done 58k miles! I had it sorned for 13months due to ill health (licence surrendered) otherwise it would have about 80k on the clock.
Only ever used supermarket fuel, maybe my lead footed driving style has reduced the build up of internal gunk.
I would have replaced it by now but the sorn period came about the time when I would normally have done so.
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Any engine should be used to its full potential, it keeps them clean. Italian tune up should be normal use. Mimsers engines end up like their drivers.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 7 Jun 15 at 17:09
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>> Mimsers engines end up like their drivers.
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You mean living a very long time and refusing to give up?
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No just slow and unable to keep up with traffic flow.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 7 Jun 15 at 17:47
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>>You mean living a very long time and refusing to give up?
That's what I was thinking, my Forester has mimsed for the last two years and is as sweet as a Knut.
Diesels need welly though.
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>> Diesels need welly though.
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Exactly, I have not used petrol since my 1988 1.6TD VW Jetta, bought in '89.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 7 Jun 15 at 18:20
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Neighb has recently acquired an almost-new diesel Note, I drove it last week and was mucho impressed by the engine which pulled strongly in all gears.
She bought it to replace her Megane Estate which, while being a mighty-fine automobile, gave nothing but ag ...
with the electrics.!
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The four wheeled Morgan has been sold and the three wheeler just never ceases to amaze. You would think a bonnetless motor with a magneto built out of bits that don't really match would hate the rain. Fat chance, the motor keeps running in absolute downpours that have the driver seeking shelter.
But yes, if you are sensitive mechanically, you can feel the improvement with most engines if the intake air is damp.
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>> Wafted along beautifully on a tiny whisker of throttle.
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Mimser alert ! If there was a black Crysler holding you up anymore than usual blame AC...
I thought diesels just had a smoke test. If they blew smoke then they were left running for an hour or so then retested.
My last EU III diesel was clean as a whistle on the MOT. When it snowed and I left it idling for a minute or two outside the garage the snow told a different story. EU IV and V has beautiful white snow under the exhaust after 5 minutes idling.
I still maintain petrol is for toys: lawn mowers, motorbikes, rally cars, F1 and hairdressers wagons. Any real work needs diesel poke. ;-)
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 7 Jun 15 at 18:15
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Inclined to agree, Gmac. I was half-convinced I needed petrol this time - and, to be fair, the modern 2.0 turbo engines I tried were far less weedy or frenetic than those I remember from 15 years before, when I was first blown away by the effortless oomph of a good TD - but I've just spent a weekend piloting the 325d on various personal and family errands around Oxfordshire and the Chilterns, and it's just so satisfying. It provides the same "Ooh, yes!" feeling I got when I first pointed the D5's third gear out of a roundabout on to a straight road. Yes, the torque runs out at 3,500 - but by then the left needle's past 70 and the job's about done.
Refuelled it for the first time yesterday: 39mpg, which includes being stuck in some nasties on the M4, as well as all that, erm, exploration. Doubt a Golf GTI would have matched that.
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>> Doubt a Golf GTI would have matched that.
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Unless they've seriously gone downhill I wouldn't expect them to be too far off.
I had a Mk2 GTi 8v which would average 38MPG from Sheffield to Plymouth every week in the mid-90's. I then got a 306 XRDt company car which was driven over the same route, same speeds, same times of day, 36MPG.
I still like the Golf and think it is a good all-rounder...but I want more. I'm looking for c.300PS to cover me for the next 5-8 years. I don't do too many miles/year 8-10k so fuel consumption is not a killer and the 3 pints/week road tax is worth it for something that can do the business on the German autobahns when I need it.
I've got my bike for the summer time when I really want to go fast.
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...average 38MPG from Sheffield to Plymouth every week in the mid-90's.
Yes, but probably with some cruising along the way. There's not been much cruising on the routes I've used this weekend.
};---)
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The 05 MY S60 D5 2.4 EU III and 11 MY S60 D3 EU IV both give me similar 40-41MPG local driving.
Both were/have been remapped to c.200PS. The 05 MY car was a nicer drive though. the 11 MY car is a rev hungry nipper that has you snapping at the gearchange every 1500rpm where the 05MY car would rev out to the red line.
The 11 MY car is faster by some 11 MPH but not the S60 you know.
Having said that, the MY11 S60 will go from 80 to 120 with a light flex of the right foot, 2000rpm to 3000rpm. Peak torque, no worries.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 7 Jun 15 at 19:23
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Ah, the remap! Researching the 325d that's all I found anyone wanting to write about. Apparently you can remove a bit of tape (or something) and turn it back into the 245PS 330d it always wanted to be. Or tinker some more and take it to 285, which is stock 335d territory. With no Autobahnen on which to fahren, fahren, fahren, and only the occasional A-road dawdler to overcome, I've not yet found the limits of the stock 204, and I have two more years of BMW mechanical warranty to preserve, so I'll probably leave it unmolested for now. Probably.
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I thought a x30d was the meister of diesel. About 285bhp. Audi ran at about 245bhp but ran a light model at 203PS c. 200bhp for UK company tax rules.
If I were a private motorist running an x30 or x35d I'd want the full BHP.
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If I were a private motorist running an x30 or x35d I'd want the full BHP.
When you did that with the Volvos were there consequences for insurance and warranty cover? I know Volvo has some approved remaps, but the specialists' sites are full of disclaimers about plug-in diagnostics that may find and erase a new map.
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>> If there was a black Crysler holding you up anymore than usual blame AC...
Yes, do. My Cruiser isn't black of course, but never mind.
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>> Yes, do. My Cruiser isn't black of course, but never mind.
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Mimsing should be rewarded with castration was you know well.
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Ford Fiesta - Euro IV Fiesta MOT test - Armel Coussine
