Why diesels are dangerous...

[Freddie]

You do not need anything more than a few hundred cc's to get you around at great speed and economy the rest is just for lugging all the extra wieght of your not needed car.

this is what the weight in my reply was referring to.

Oh i see, i was referring to one or two people driving in a 5 +6 seater car

 

[kendor]

apologies for the misinterpretation

 

[empip]

We have a renault Scenic 1.5 turbo diesel.
Surprisingly the thing carries 5 adults very comfy. The glove box is air-conned too, nice for the water bottles in summer.
Even more surprising it accelerates rather well - well enough to keep up with legal traffic.
Converts to a 'van' quite easily.
It has the 5 stars worth of safety features ...
Measured by 'gun to gun' fill up's at generally the same filling station, does 50 mpg on a mixture of town and country use (note the trip computer shows 53'ish mpg and an av speed around 28 mph, we reset \ zero out per fuel up .. av spd is a reality check!) Both drivers drive at the posted limits when safe to do so... It is not treated with kid-gloves.

I must admit I am not too concerned with what comes out of the exhaust, if well maintained and legal, then we already do more than many with regard pollution... How many never have a service til something breaks or falls apart ?

 

[AdamW]

We hired a diesel Scenic in which to do the "Three Peaks". As there was about 1200 miles of driving overall no-one was keen to take their own car, plus this had more room for kit than a hatchback.

It saved about £60 in fuel costs compared to my Astra, so I grant they are considerably cheaper to fuel than petrol cars.

I have often thought about the "reliability" argument of diesels. Surely with a higher compression ratio you are more likely to have gasket failures and tighter tolerances on clearances to avoid stuff getting squeezed out of the cylinders? And surely "modern diesels" have just as much complexity than a petrol engine if not more? And the combination of rough cold-start and super-duper torque must take it out on the engine mounts? My mates diesel Clio shakes the gear lever violently on start-up (as have the few other diesel cars I've been in), but my car just purrs into life with barely a murmur through the lever.

 

[Freddie]

We hired a diesel Scenic in which to do the "Three Peaks". As there was about 1200 miles of driving overall no-one was keen to take their own car, plus this had more room for kit than a hatchback.

It saved about £60 in fuel costs compared to my Astra, so I grant they are considerably cheaper to fuel than petrol cars.

I have often thought about the "reliability" argument of diesels. Surely with a higher compression ratio you are more likely to have gasket failures and tighter tolerances on clearances to avoid stuff getting squeezed out of the cylinders? And surely "modern diesels" have just as much complexity than a petrol engine if not more? And the combination of rough cold-start and super-duper torque must take it out on the engine mounts? My mates diesel Clio shakes the gear lever violently on start-up (as have the few other diesel cars I've been in), but my car just purrs into life with barely a murmur through the lever.

Adam you can think to much just buy the ruddy thing--if you applied the same logic to the would be wife you would certainly not get married---may be a good thing afterall

 

[Big_Spark]

Adam...do you prevaricate so much on everything in life...I', surprised you made the decision to be born if you do..

As Freddie said..Just Buy the Ruddy thing and be done with it..and as for the G/F..marry her and do what nature intended...

 

[AdamW]

If I married her I wouldn't need to prevaricate anymore, now would I

I'm not considering buying a diesel, I still don't like 'em... Unless VW put the EcoRacer into production.

 

[salem2000]

So there you go. If you drive diesels, not only is the airbourne benzene giving children cancer but you are also making the roads more dangerous, thus reducing the speed limits and increasing the number of speed cameras they will put up.

From the D of E Website:

Benzene is a volatile organic compound. In the UK the main atmospheric source is the combustion and distribution of petrol. Diesel fuel is a relatively small source of benzene. The amount of benzene in petrol was, until the beginning of 2000, regulated to an upper limit of 5% by volume by EU legislation. In recent years it comprised on average 2% by volume in the UK. Since 1 January 2000, EU legislation has required that the amount of benzene in petrol be below 1% and is presently about 0.6% by volume on average for fuel sold in the UK. The main outdoor sources of benzene remaining beyond 2005 are expected to be petrol-engined vehicle exhausts and petrol refining and distribution.

 

[masona]

I have often thought about the "reliability" argument of diesels.

I won't go back to petrol because the last 2 car I've owned had a management system failure costing £££££. I feel diesel engine are more reliable & which have less electric components problem for it to go wrong. This is interesting here which does sum it up.

 

[AdamW]

Diesel fuel is a relatively small source of benzene.

Fer chrissakes, I've already admitted error for that, about 3 pages back.

Turned out I was thinking of "phlegmzene", so called because the sound of a diesel engine is as unpleasant as the sound of coughing up phlegm...

 

[AdamW]

last 2 car I've owned had a management system failure costing £££££.

But this is my point: the rugged old diesels of old had a big lump of iron for a block, basalt columns for pistons and an old Lancastrian mill as a fuel pump.

However, "New Diesel" has fancy gizmos just like any petrol engine.

What is it that you have in a petrol engine that you don't have in a diesel engine that decreases the reliability?

Spark plugs? Nope, they're reliable, and you have glow plugs to start a diesel which can fail too.

Valves? Just checked and the BMW 320d has 16 valves, the BMW 320i also has 16 valves (they sell more than Mondeos now so thought that would be a good one to check!)

Pistons/cylinder design? Well the 320d and 320i have the exact same stroke and bore, therefore it won't be some "force distributed across greater area of piston" or the converse "force concentrated at kingpin" argument.

So, I would not be surprised to find out that a modern diesel offers no reliability advantage over a modern petrol. A diesel myth, if you will!

The best way to increase availability of an engine? Increase the number of cylinders. Reliability decreases, but availability is improved as you can drive an 8-cylinder engine on 7 or 6-cylinders more easily than a 4 cylinder on 3 or 2.

 

[masona]

Well, I've done a few search regarding diesel and they all coming out that diesel is more reliable than petrol

Diesel engines are more reliable than petrol engines. They cost more initially but are cheaper to run

Diesel engines are generally more reliable than petrol engines and given correct servicing should last about twice as long as petrol engines. Despite diesel engines being simpler than petrol, (as they do not rely on a complicated ignition system) when it comes to rebuilding diesels the parts are more expensive

My last car was a Vauxhall Omega and the management system failed when the engine kept cutting out at over 50 mph This was an auto and you loses all the power of the power steering and servo brake. The management system cost over £1200 My previous car also had a management failed but lucky that was covered by the warranty, again cost £1100 My next door neighbour got a Rover and his management system had also failed. Since I been driving diesel for the last 9 years I not has any problem so far. unless I was unlucky. My feeling is wether is a myth or not, the petrol engine have far more electrical problems compare to diesel engine. Just ask any AA man what the most common breakdown

 

[empip]

Three of the AA's top ten 'breakdowns' are directly involved with ignition problems.
Non of the other seven can be attributed to diesel alone.
One very important point.. at a given allowance per mile business mileage one simply gets more miles per gallon eg. at 14p mile diesel 50 mpg = £7 per ( £4.27pump ) gallon. At 35 mpgPetrol = £4.90 ( £4.18 ) per gallon .... If you see what I mean...