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Petrol emissions are worse for the planet and diesel for people, tasty NOx. Mine smokes like a trooper if I've got my foot down, foot down off-boost and a I can produce a James Bondesque smokescreen which is great for deterring tailgaters.
TAILPIPE? It's called an exhaust pipe over here you know
Odly, I'd say the tailpipe is the bit after any equipment on a plant so its a prefectly good decription for the last few feet of the pipe form the silencer?
Top tip immediately pre MOT, give it a good thrashing (eg red-line it up a big hill in second) to get everything out of the exhaust system before.
We had an old fiat JTD that got through about 3 MOT's like that, so it definately works (and before TJ says theres no proof it wouldnt have passed anyway, it didn't, the garage tested it and told us to take it for a run after it failed the first time :P)
molgrips - Member
I'll look up BG44 and Forte, thanks. Definitely interested in keeping my diesel running nice and cleanly.EDIT just looked at BG244, the first thing it says it helps with is 'hesitation and flat spots'. Well I'm seeing hesistation a couple of times every time I drive off, so I'll give it a whirl. Do you have to order it online?
Make sure you buy the correct version BG244 for Diesel and [url= http://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/product.php/3/bg-244-diesel-fuel-cleaner ]Powerenhancer[/url] are the importers for it.
Products like Redex are useless on diesel fuel systemsI do use the diesel specific Redex
You're wasting your money try something like Millers diesel power sport 4 which will work out cheaper per tank and do a better job but putting a can of BG244 in your tank once a year will clean the system better and work out a lot cheaper over the same time period.
You're wasting your money
Although it does seem to work on the smokiness issue....
Will try to find some of that BG244, so cheers for the tip
My diesel doesn't smoke. It totally rocks. It is cool. People stop me in the street to tell me how cool and attractive I look and ask me about my obvious length and girth.
Honestly.
(He says, trying to convince himself that 'dad-car' is better than the TT that is now history).
🙁
My beemer does it on heavy acceleration when I change gear. It does have a sick thermostat at the mo though
Nothing wrong with the right type of Dad car m_f .. I have fully come round to the plus points of ours 🙂
molgrips - Member
Another factor that makes diesels more efficient is direct injection. You only need to inject the fuel you need to burn, whereas in a petrol you have to fill the cylinder with air/fuel mix so that it ignites - then if this is too much power you have to throttle it back which wastes energy.
Not necessarily. A modern petrol that uses stratified direct injection uses a wide open throttle and a weak mixture through most of the cylinder apart from near the spark plug.
Nothing wrong with the right type of Dad car m_f .. I have fully come round to the plus points of ours
Not feeling that love yet.
My wife did say 'it's very posh inside'.
So what, I don't want posh. I want a fun car.
🙁
Modern disels and particle filter and some (like some mercs) have urea injection to reduce NO2 - even to the point that they are suitable for strict US nox laws.
Not necessarily. A modern petrol that uses stratified direct injection uses a wide open throttle and a weak mixture through most of the cylinder apart from near the spark plug.
That was the second part of my post that I forgot to add 🙂 VW's FSI and TSI engines are fine examples 🙂
MF - you have to choices - either learn to love the plus points of your new car aka look on the bright side, or save up more money and buy another TT.
Modern disels and particle filter and some (like some mercs) have urea injection to reduce NO2 - even to the point that they are suitable for strict US nox laws.
Only the US versions have the NOx catalyst I think.
Once stricter NOx legislation comes to Europe (Euro 6), the NOx will fall dramatically from current levels and if an SCR (urea) system is used for this then there should be a corresponding drop in soot (and increase in fuel efficiency) as you can greatly reduce the amount of EGR required. Pop a DPF on (current diesels with DPFs are generally well below legislated soot limits) and you have a very, very clean engine.
Nice.. so I should hold off buying a new diesel til.. when? 🙂
owenfackrell - Memberfap filters
I don't say this very often, but on this occasion I will- LOL.
You can get the NOX catalyst mercs in the UK (Ad-blue), but not many are fitted since there is no tax incentive.
Euro 6 comes into force in 2014, so you will probably start to see Euro 6 compliant vehicles at the very back end of 2012 and into 2013. NOx emissions are almost a third of Euro 5 and although particulate mass doesn't change, there is new legislation for the number of soot particles over a certain size (the harmful, smoke making ones) so visible smoke will be reduced again.
Particulate filters have to regenerate every so often that chucks out loads of soot.
Only problem with DPF's and whatever they bring out to comply with Euro 6 is that they are trapping rather than eliminating the problems which just causes more problem as anyone with a DPF fitted will know that clog up causing running problems.
Probably easier to just buy a small petrol car then?....seems like diesels are getting ever more complicated and are likely to be ludicrously expensive to fix when they go wrong.
I was in Alderley Edge today and there was so much smoke i thought there was a fire but it was some guy revving his Ferrari 430 ( may be it had a ford desiel engine in it),
Only problem with DPF's and whatever they bring out to comply with Euro 6 is that they are trapping rather than eliminating the problems
Where do you think it goes after being trapped? The burn-off cycle actually burns it into CO2.
I know a few people with Skoda and VW's who would disagree due to the amount of DPF problems they have had.
It does. Whether or not it works properly in any given car is another issue.
Seems to me like most people who have DPF problems are ignoring the advice about how to look after them.
I have a 100k 04 reg Mondeo and the amount of soot it produces varies wildly during the period between services (much less sooty with clean oil in and new filters) My money is on that being due to it being well maintained and driven mainly on the motorway for decent distances.
It's nowhere near as bad as some (newer) cars we've had in the house (both VAG diesels in lighter cars).
I suspect the worst "smokers" and some of the DPF failures are those used mostly round town and which never get taken over 2000rpm and that never get a good hot exhaust system to stop them getting all sooty OR those that don't get good quality clean oil and filters on a regular basis.
As for the cleanliness / tax issue there's good and bad in both fuels environmentally. At the moment it's politically expedient (and administratively more cost effective) to focus on CO2 so guess what that's how your VED is calculated. Diesel drivers pay more at the pump in tax (but my money's on that being demand driven rather than truly environmental).
Given a choice I prefer petrol to drive but diesel has certain economic advantages when you do bigger miles for work!
As an exhaust system designer of more than 20 years I want to point out that Molgrips has it right. A DPF does not allow particles through - no matter what the operating conditions are. The re-generation (increasing exhaust gas temperature to oxidise the soot into CO2) is triggered by the engine control module and is a result of the diferential pressure between DPF inlet and outlet reaching a set threshold level - The duty cycle of the vehicle is completely irrelevant.
In short if you don't maintain a diesel correctly it pollutes just as badly as a poorly maintained petrol - Black smoke = poor maintenance
MF - you have to choices - either learn to love the plus points of your new car aka look on the bright side, or save up more money and buy another TT.
Saving up to buy a house with a garage to store the Elise I want in... 🙂
The duty cycle of the vehicle is completely irrelevant
Really? I was under the impression that if you did enough short trips even the regen cycle wouldn't work and you'd have to take it to a garage..?
The regen cycle cannot occur if the vehicle never enters a driving mode that support the regen cycle (e.g 10 minutes steady state at normal engine operating temps) - So you are right. The fix is to spend a few minutes on a dual carriageway - much cheaper than a trip to the garage where some unscrupulous person may convince you part with some of your hard earned
I know that some site vehicles like fork lifts and dumpers have a DPF that has cartridges that are removed each night and cleaned off. A DPF on a car that could be removed and cleaned out this way would be pretty handy for people who do short trips obliviously and then have to limp to a garage. £30 instead of £800.
On the honda accord forum there are a couple of threads about taking off DPFs and cleaning them with a high pressure washer. It seems to work. I just made sure my diesel didn't have one when I bought it and keep it well maintained so it doesn't smoke.
Problems DPF's, EGR's, turbo's etc... the savings on fuel petrol vs diesel can soon disappear.
On the Accord forum the "common faults" for petrol has 169 replies at the moment and diesel has 3360 replies!!
Remember diesels generally do more miles and there are more of them around.
The guy who said buy a small petrol basically has it right, by euro6 I should any small to mid cars will generally be petrol. The diesels will be hugely expensive, not good on a light duty cycle and plenty complicated.
Problems DPF's, EGR's, turbo's etc... the savings on fuel petrol vs diesel can soon disappear.
Only if you get the problems. I've just done almost 40k trouble free miles. Oh, tell a lie, I had a fault with the airbag wiring the other day.
40k miles cost maybe £4,100 if you assume an average of £1.20/l over the last two ish years. A petrol would have cost maybe £5,300 at 38mpg (a guess for a petrol Passat) and £1.15/l
You are absolutely right - with no problems you are going to save a lot of money on fuel petrol vs diesel. I ran a citroen ZX TD for over 100K with not a single problem and 40k on my current merc without a problem. The issue is that it's more of a risk now with how complex modern diesels can be. If they go wrong you can have some big bills that soon cancel out fuel savings.
My mondeo doesn't produce soot and it is more than worn in now, probably because it's rarely running at low enough revs to collect.
Another example;
Of the Land Rovers at work the TD5's are smokier than the new TDCi, not so much because of the common-rail technology progression or age, but the the heater tecnology progression, the older ones spend a lot more time idleing to get the cab at least as warm as outside, whilst the newer TDCi is warm before we get to the road, straight from start-up.
the older ones spend a lot more time idleing to get the cab at least as warm as outside
That's a bad idea. Just MTFU and drive the thing, it's better for the engine and will warm up far quicker. Your newer car will have an electric heater in it.
diesels can operate hotter than petrol engines, since they don't pre-detonate like petrols do at high operating temps (pinking, iirc). bigger temp drop for the heat cycle means better inherent efficiency.
Diesels can knock, though direct injection has helped prevent that (by ensuring fuel is only present when combustion is desired, unlike older injection methods).
One of the other reasons D's are more efficient is they don't have a throttle, immidiately offering up a greater efficiency especially around idle and lower revs.
It's mostly the other guys that leave theirs to warm up, we're all nice and cosy in chainsaw trousers in ours.
Do have quite an issue with the inside of the screens frosting over in winter, used de-icer inside once and won't be doing that again, so heat it will be.