What about a S/H turbo from a breakers ?
I used one of them online ones & found a door mirror for our old Corolla for £45. New one including all the bits was nearer £200.
At least you could flog it as a runner to get a bit back.
Just a thought, but I’d be getting the spanners out if it were me, not just chucking it away.

I dont really find a problem with the usable rev range on the TD – mine is useable from ~1400 to 4500, this doesnt equate to more changing gear than in the petrol as it still uses 5 gears for the same speed range as the gearing is made to match the engine. Due to the high torque of the D 1st still goes from 0-25mph, on the D it boosts at 1400 (32% max rpm) and surprisingly 32% of max rpm is the point where the turbo kicks in my petrol (2500rpm). Peak torque appears at 2000rpm (44%) in the D, 3500 (45%) in the petrol, and peak power at 3500 in the D (78%) and 6300 in the petrol (81%). Obviously overall speeds/accels are different as one has 3x the power of the other, but the D power delivery is very similar.

Me niether coffeking infact our last car had a rev range upto 6.5k and i very rearly went above 4k and in the diesel i tend to change at 2k as that is where the usfull torque is. The only time i tend to use full revs is when pulling out of a side road on to a busy fast road.

Just don’t spout rubbish about lag and throttle response

It’s not rubbish, it’s there, I’m not imagining it. They ALL have it!
🙂

the lag is only a factor if you drive like a complete tool..!

Well, yes (And I do sometimes) but also, no….
🙂
It’s there when you want a gentle, sedate drive too:
Tiny bit of gas = Nothing happens
Bit more…pause = Whoosh!
😉

Sorry, I know there’s some great heating oil diesel engines and all the rest of it. I just don’t like them.
I’ve tried to. Really I have. But I can’t. They just don’t light my fire. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Yawn.

Tell you what, too, stick a turbo and all the other gubbins on the same size petrol engine and watch it bugger off into the distance!

Anyway, I’m off home soon in my borrowed diesel sports car. I’m gonna thrash it silly and hate every minute of it.

(Will someone PLEASE lend me a new BMW to shut me up.)
😀

Suspect a BMW 330D would see you change your mind, it really does feel just like driving a large displacement petrol. Even better with a remap.

I had a brand new Astra SRI turbo diesel, the 150bhp one. When the turbo came on song it was blindlingly fast, but the powerband was so narrow you spent more time changing gear than breathing. I have never driven a car before or since which was such a heap of diesel crap. And that was a brand new type of diesel. I was so glad to get rid of it and the embarrasing clatter from the overweight piece of pig iron under the bonnet. I had just learnt how to heel and toe in my petrol car and that skill is totally wasted in a diesel. Diesels are for lazy untalented drivers who just want to from a to b as cheap as possible.

This is turning into a rant now!!

I cannot believe that any enthusiast driver who drives a diesel car does so for any reason other than it’s cheaper. Which it only is over 20k miles a year.

I’ll probably be the last petrol user in the world, lighting up my dream V8 while everyone else clatters off in their posh tractors. 😉

I would imagine a 330i would be even better.
he he! 😀

robdob – only 20hp different (245ish vs 265ish) (or -10 if you remap the 330D) and the D has gobs more torque, plus the 330D regularly returns 48mpg at 80mph cruise 🙂

*edit I’ve just found some variation in power figures, not sure if the D is as close as I made out but its not far off.

But the 330d is a diesel, so therefore it loses. Robdob rule no. 67b, automatic disqualification.

Here’s a question, why do diesel drivers always spend time quoting torque figures, in gear times, mpg, and petrol enthusiasts quote driving enjoyment? Petrol is for people who love to drive, diesels are for repressed accountants.

robdob – because D owners like to point out the that petrol drivers tend to make false assumptions and use notions to judge performance, rather than facts? As someone who owns both I feel quite confident in my position 😉 D’s can be just as fun to drive, just because they do not rev to 8K doesnt make them less fun unless you’re a 5 year old who likes the fun noises.

I don’t choose a car solely on facts. I drive it and if I enjoy driving it I could buy it. Simple fact is that diesels are not as good to drive as their direct petrol equivalent. Diesels have their advantages, especially if you spend long hours in them but they are simply inferior as a drivers car.

Ok I get it, you like diesels. Don’t liken me to a 5 year just because you disagree. If you had to choose between a 330i and a 330d, based solely on driving pleasure, what would you have?

Actually don’t bother responding, I know what your answer will be.

I’m not suggesting D’s are better in all respects, what I am saying is that if you buy the right D you’ll find it’s actually JUST as pleasurable as a petrol. My fun car is a 300hp 4WD petrol, my daily car is a 90hp D Estate, but I’d put my brothers 330D up against my petrol and I struggle to separate them in the “fun” category. “fun” is unquantifiable, which is why you cant base arguments on it as it is ultimately pointless.

Incidentally I didnt liken you to a 5 year old, you accepted that cap on your own 😉

Dawson- my mate is selling a 53reg, 62,000 mile Mondeo diesel estate in good nick, FSH, for £3000 or less.

I’m in the petrol camp, and yes I own and have owned both…

my GF summed it up pretty nicely when we bought our last car, test drive the diesel, she called it ‘jerky’ , nothing, then quick to accelerate, then nothing. Petrol was apparently ‘wooshy’.

I don’t have the same low down torque as I do in the Weasel but I much prefer having a wider usable range of revs.

Anyway, horse for courses and all that

It’s not rubbish, it’s there, I’m not imagining it. They ALL have it!

Mine didn’t. Unless you really went looking for it. It was still preferable to the gutless low end of petrols. With the petrol, the torque built up gradually so the more power you wanted the higher you had to put the revs via the gearbox. With the diesel, once the boost was on (which it always was for me) then you had all the power regardless. I reckon the torque curve was much flatter hence more versatile engine.

Tiny bit of gas = Nothing happens
Bit more…pause = Whoosh!

Mine was not like that unless you did it wrong. It was the easiset thing in the world to avoid the turbo lag, and to be honest I was expecting much more from my first forced induction car.

Tell you what, too, stick a turbo and all the other gubbins on the same size petrol engine and watch it bugger off into the distance!

And get half the MPG. Compare the 180bhp VW 1.8T petrol with the tuned up 160bhp 1.9TDi. Ok it’s a bit less power but the 1.8T Octavia doesnt get much change from 30mpg.

Anyway, this is daft. I LIKE DIESEL and not because I’m some kind of wierdo or fanatic about penny pinching but I actually prefer driving them. And yes I do like a nice quick drive and I know how to handle a car. I like the easy consistent torque at any revs, I find it much more classy to pull like a train without any fuss or bother. Doesn’t feel like it’s trying hard even when it’s shoving you in the back.

If you lot were to come on and say ‘each to his own’ then fine (climate change considerations aside) then fine, but you’re telling me I’m stupid, a freak and/or wrong, which gets my goat.

🙂 Its the anti-diesel snobbery molgrips, you cant be a drivers driver if you don’t prefer a petrol, donchaknow? 😉

Most stock TDs are jerky – no power when not boosting (but you shouldnt be using that bit of the rev range anyway if you’re trying to drive quick), then a kick, then dies off. This is just due to the manufacturers mapping of the fuel – a properly tuned D will be (possibly a little smokey and) deliver power right to the red line just as a petrol does.

I get abuse from some of my mates for enjoying how a D drives, I say rock-on with the developments of Ds into performance cars instead of the odd hatch getting a luke-warm 140bhp engine.

takisawa2 has it. s/h, quotes for labour then sell on after polished up.

My driveshaft was £900 quoted by a Subaru dealer, I had it done for £165 (£65 for a secondhand part from a breakers).

but you shouldnt be using that bit of the rev range anyway if you’re trying to drive quick

Zackly.

My Seat did cool off a bit towards the top end, but that was fine by me. However I’ve found out that on my all mechanical Passat there’s a series of springs on the governer assembly that actually gradually reduce fuelling as engine speed gets to within 1k of the red line. If you remove the springs you can get it up to 6krpm, apparently. It needs a few mods to be able to cope with that tho, and if you carry on modding you can approach 250bhp from the 1.9 TD.

I’ve never driven a performance diesel, I wonder what it’d be like…? I am tempted to go and test drive one of those Tuareg 5l V10s.

Fraid I’m with Peterpoddy (how do you get to test all these cars, do you work for a car mag?) I have a 1.9D Laguna, and it is the tossiest car I have ever had. Slow, expensive, rattly, and zero fun. I came from a 2.5 V6 Alfa, so I was spoiled, but I will be going back to an Alfa in a heartbeat. I bought the Renault 2 year ago for £6700, spent 2K on repairs so far, and now, if I’m lucky, it might be worth £2500? At least the Alfa will be cheap to start with!
The main annoying thing is the power starts at roughly 1800 revs, but runs out by 2800 mostly. Yes, it will rev higher, but you’d be better off changing up. In contrast the Alfa would pull, hard, from 1800 to 7500, sound fantastic, and be FUN! And before the greenies go mad, my renault might say its doing 44mpg around town, but if you measure what goes in, it’s actually doing approx 37mpg, whereas I could get 32mpg from the Alfa, (if I drove like my gran) Not a big enough difference in my book.
Fair enough when people say each to their own, but don’t tell me diesels are cheaper unless you are a rep, and drive to the moon and back every year?

Is the 1.9D in the Laguna the same as the one in the Xantia? Bro in Law had one of those and I drove it for about 15miles. Got back into mine and immeditately stamped the accelerator flat to the floor (the engine was that slow that I was flat out all the time!!)

Hora no is the simple answer to that. the xantia one is a PSA one that has been going for donkeys years where as the other is a renault own one.
Its a bit unfair to compair a 1.9td to a 2.5 v6 petrol car. Mine will happly pull from 1300rpm up to around 3.5k. What do you get if you drive the lag like your gran? The thing i like about mine is that to get good compsuption is that i don’t have to drive like a oap and can just drive normally. Ours has saved us well over £500 in the last year even with the current feul prices as it is the only car we have so does do a highr millage. diesels are also better if you every want to tow anything other wise you would see a lot of petrol trucks would you not?

had just learnt how to heel and toe in my petrol car and that skill is totally wasted in a diesel.

Why? I heal and toe all the time in my diesel.
If anything it’s more important to match revs when down changing as the engine is heavier (although I supposed you could down change to less than 2k revs I suppose and rely on the torque to get you going again, but you won’t get full power).

my renault might say its doing 44mpg around town, but if you measure what goes in, it’s actually doing approx 37mpg

AFAIK trip computers are more accurate than the petrol station pumps. Those things don’t measure accurately and the auto shut-off thing isn’t accurate either since the point they stop varies wildly.

As I’ve said many times before, Fiesta 1.4 petrol and Ibiza 1.9 TDi had the same 0-60 time and bhp, but the Ibiza felt way way faster (due to tons more torque) and was a lot more fun to drive. And did 50% more mpg. So that’s comparing like with like, and it’s a no brainer for me 🙂