Hello to all.
I've noticed nowadays that most new diesel cars come with Dual ( oppps diesel ) Particulate Filters fitted. There great when they work but like most modern things these days there a complete headache when they go wrong. For the uniformed these lovely little devises are designed to catch all the nasty horrible black soot that bellows out of your exhaust and trap it in a filter. Eventually this filter will hit a point were it needs regenerating or it will become glogged up. In order for it to regenerate the car needs to be driven for around 30 miles at motorway speeds or by keeping the revs up higher than you would normally do. If the regeneration is not completed the car electronics will try again next time you use the car.The way the car regenerates the dpf is by increasing the engine running temperatures.This in turn burns the trapped soot and carbon off into a less toxic pollutant. The problem with this is that if these cars are used for short journeys or city driving the dpf will become blocked solid sending the car into limp mode. A garage can regenerate your dpf for you and take your hard earned cash in the process. They can only do this a very limited number of times and then its a new one which can cost literally hundreds of pounds. The other alternative is to just simply remove it but from earlier this year its now checked by Mr MOT inspector to see if its present.
Yesterday me and my brother did a forced regeneration session on his fiat diesel with the aid of some computer software. The dpf was only 2 months old and cost him 500 pounds only for the car to go into limp mode yesterday. It was not a pretty sight yesterday doing a forced regeneration. The car sits there for around 20 mins with the engine racing away at around 4000 rpm and plumes of black smoke and glowing cinders of carbon coming out the exhaust.
It really puts me off buying a modern diesel to be honest and i will more than likely go for a petrol. Each year the EU keep capping emissions on diesels to the point there a nightmare to run and own. Car manufactures nowadays cannot make diesels with legendary reliability anymore because of EURO legistration.
One good thing for us Eriba owners is that medium sized petrol cars are up to the job of towing you average puck etc but its a different story for Mr average wobbly box caravan owner.
I think we should count our blessings.
If your still awake after that i applaud you

John

fiat
Fix It Again Tomorrow
wonder if a journey out up Sutton bank, or Porlock hill, Telegraph hill would save the issue of ear ache of 4000rpm instead raw power (termed used loosely) up hill

hows your new to you car, have you bonded?

Cheers Roger.
I think i will stick with my Rover 75 diesel for as long as i can afford it.
Have a good night my freind

John

Totally agree with you Until about 3 years ago, both myself and my wife have run diesel cars for many years (and loved them). We have now both renewed with petrol cars - certainly not so good for towing- but we think better than having to put up with 'strangled diesel engines' - as you said 'the end is nigh for diesel engined passenger cars. What will the French car industry and French car drivers do ?

OK then, Devils Advocates hat on. Anything that remotely affects the motoring industry, especially when your economy is very dependent upon it i.e. Germany and France, will never see the light of day. Rules, regulations and laws will be talked about ad infinitum because what else have these office types to do in their Brussels offices every day, with BMW being a classic example of this. Certain new emission regulations that the EU have had in the planning for many years and were due to come into affect later this year, have been shelved until 2020 as BMW state they would cost too much to implement. No doubt that come that date another excuse will be found because major manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes and Porsche aren't all that keen on investing millions of Euros in research and development in order to produce cars with 300-500PS plus just so that some anonymous office walla sat in a Brussels office and throw it all down the pan.

Like others, I too have driven diesel motors of one description or other for donkey's years with the initial motivation being the longevity of the engine, the then relatively cheap service costs and of course the fact that diesel fuel was cheaper. No thought was given to mileage actually driven in any one period/year because it really didn't matter. At that time diesel motors held their price better than their petrol driven counterparts mainly for the same reasons.

Now of course things have changed considerably. Diesel engined cars are most definitely not cheap any more and in fact generally cost more than their petrol counterparts. Although service intervals can be extended (Long Life Service) the engines have evolved so much over the years that servicing costs are not that much cheaper when compared to petrol - if indeed at all. Living in the heart of the German motoring industry as I do, and with 99.9% of my friends working in the industry, I am reliably informed that longevity should no longer be considered a plus point when considering buying a diesel powered car - petrol engines when looked after will live just as long. Diesel powered cars of yesteryear had cast iron cams like trucks but these have long since been done away with in order to save weight at of course the expense of longevity.

All things being considered, I simply can't understand the reasoning behind the need to purchase a diesel powered car for towing a caravan which at best might cover a couple of thousand miles in a year whilst when outside of the towing season it gets used for the weekly shopping trip with said shops being a couple of miles down the road. Yes, the diesel will have slightly more torque when compared like for like but that in itself is not justification for the buying of a diesel powered car. Instead of the 1.6litre diesel go for the 1.9/2.0litre petrol - job done.

DPF are not perfect by any means but they do the job they were designed for, and do it very well. No doubt, as emission standards/requirements increase these DPF's will also evolve. It could be argued I suppose that the use of these filters increases the nano output but so what, in the absence of having a filtration system capable of absorbing just about everything ever created by mankind, the exhaust output is without doubt a lot cleaner for having them as opposed to not. As with most other technological advances in life consideration must be given on their correct use of devices bearing in mind the purpose for which they were initially designed and not simply paying scant attention on how to look after them.

In short - if you're not piling on the annual mileage and most journey's are short ones down to the shops, then you shouldn't really be driving a diesel. And if you really must have a diesel then learn to live with the DPF, respect it's limitations and allow it to do it's designed job properly by clocking up some miles occasionally.

I yam sitting here in comfortable splendour at Cae Mawr CC site having dragged Amber here 4 days ago using my late Autumn '09 reg. Kia Cee'd SW auto without DPF. Both Kia and Hyundai held off from fitting them to the very last moment and only early 2010 cars feature them.
Added to that my car was an Approved Used Kia when I purchased it which means its fabled 7 year warranty runs from when I purchased it with 10k miles and 14 months old. So at 8 and a bit years it will still be under warranty and its chain can diesel will still be working fine.

I know there are problems but I also remember early electronic igniton systems failing but all cars now rely heavily on electronics, it will be the same with diesel, the industry will resolve the issue, some of us will have to pay, so hope its not you

Like Pete, I use premium diesel most of the time especially as I do a low milage.
I always use it when towing, and get up to 60 and stay there.
Using this method the Co2 readings on my Focus actually came down year on year
at its MOT test.