How to drive a diesel

[kaillum]

Tell me about it, got to find someone to buy a 7 year old Fiat with 128k on the clock

especially one thats been tinkered with by you! I still remember the drivers side electric window in T-Bag that needed an elbow in a specific place to get it to work thanks to the alarm!!

Something tells me i'm really going to miss 4-6k in 2nd gear

nah.. you'll find a new friend in 1500-4k in 3rd instead!!

[Gumby]

ummm. the glow plugs are only on a diesel engine to aid starting.. once started the fuel burns on compression only...

Hmmm yep I know that silly

Thats just what MB said could be the causes of black smoke from our exhaust. Maybe they just explained it in laymen's terms to me! Either way they claimed that it would have cost about £5k to rectify, or that they could replace the turbo which may fix it for £1.5k. Replaced the turbo (obvious choice really - £3.5k difference) and it drives almost like new.

Edit: Whether they were just trying to con some more money i do not know, but it doesn't kick out black smoke now

[Avalon]

Torque! I can drop my derver into 5th gear from 40mph and it'll pull nicely to 2750rpm then it stops being nice and just pulls (turbo). Try and avoid hammering the turbo without the engine being warm - it won't thank you for it in the long run, in the same way it's good practice to avoid flogging the turbo as you approach your destination giving it a chance to cool a little. I got all this from the Toyota mechanic while driving him about to show him a faut with my rav.

[slugs]

the other thing to remember when your new to a desil is don't pull out on a roundabout like you used to. the first one you come to an try and nip out you'll get a quick reminder of how slow it is initally.

youll keep the throtle open and wheel spin around the roundabout thinking that was close.

i used to a have a tdci 130 mondeo and it started to pull at 1.5k youll just get used to keeping the revs above there

it may also take a while to get used to not needed in to change down to overtake. you just run out of revs. and its just as easy to leave it in gear and enjoy all the torque

[Avalon]

the other thing to remember when your new to a desil is don't pull out on a roundabout like you used to. the first one you come to an try and nip out you'll get a quick reminder of how slow it is initally.

youll keep the throtle open and wheel spin around the roundabout thinking that was close.

That my friend is due to under fueling at the low end of the rev range, the more modern derv's don't suffer as badly but it's one area that manyf's under fuel to meet the eu emissions specs.

[Killaspeed]

The best thing i like about diesels is the fact that when in traffic and you have to keep on starting and stopping all the time i never use the accelerator.
All i do is let the clutch out (even on hills) without touching the accelerator. This saves a little fuel (due to less revving) and also helps with reduced wear of the clutch.

[Nox]

have to admit, i noticed a bit of a difference when i went from driving my swb audi quattro to a 200tdi defender.

Nox

[streetster]

try not to stall it i've been driving my dad's 2.0 tdi golf for the past couple of days (54 plate, so i assume the same as what you're about to get?) and its certainly good fun to drive..

3rd gear seems to be a great gear for sliproads

[joshwa]

Accelleration from a standstill from a TDI is pretty swift in my opinion (hence the need for traction control!)

The best accelleration tends to be from 1800 revs to 2500 / 3000 revs. A friend has an automatic deisel and when it floors it his keeps on revving to 4500 ish so there must be some benefit from revving the range. I tend to change around 3000 though.

Deisels with Turbo are fun - but deisels without are much less fun

[Barakka]

try not to stall it i've been driving my dad's 2.0 tdi golf for the past couple of days (54 plate, so i assume the same as what you're about to get?) and its certainly good fun to drive..

3rd gear seems to be a great gear for sliproads

54 Plate indeed, picked it up last night, first impressions are quite good, certainly well specc'd.

How often do I need to be checking the oil ? the presence of the bottle of oil in a special holder in the boot indicates it's frequent - my old car never used a drop in 7 years but obviously diesels are different.

[joshwa]

54 Plate indeed, picked it up last night, first impressions are quite good, certainly well specc'd.

How often do I need to be checking the oil ? the presence of the bottle of oil in a special holder in the boot indicates it's frequent - my old car never used a drop in 7 years but obviously diesels are different.

My guess would be that you shouldn't need to check it. (but it's probably recommended you do) The new Golf's are good at telling you if there's a problem with the dash board lights. My TDI hasn't had any oil loss in 6 months.

I drove a petrol car last night (1.6 petrol golf), and was reminded how good diesels are at accellerating (well mine anyway ), with the petrol you set off at 1k rpm and have to wait till the car gets way up to 3 or 4k rpm before it picks up the pace, but in my diesel getting to 1.5k rpm where speed really picks up takes no time at all

[herulach]

My guess would be that you shouldn't need to check it. (but it's probably recommended you do) The new Golf's are good at telling you if there's a problem with the dash board lights. My TDI hasn't had any oil loss in 6 months.

I drove a petrol car last night (1.6 petrol golf), and was reminded how good diesels are at accellerating (well mine anyway ), with the petrol you set off at 1k rpm and have to wait till the car gets way up to 3 or 4k rpm before it picks up the pace, but in my diesel getting to 1.5k rpm where speed really picks up takes no time at all

A 1.6 golf is hardly a high performance vehicle though is it?

[joshwa]

A 1.6 golf is hardly a high performance vehicle though is it?

True It's not a very fair comparison, but it's vaguely close, the Golf being a 115bhp, and mine being a 130ish bhp TDI.

[arbitor]

but the 1.6 will probably go faster in the end.

theres only one deisel for me and its the bmw twin turbo beast in the 335d

[kalniel]

my old car never used a drop in 7 years but obviously diesels are different.

Nope. This is completely down to the state of the individual engine. My diesel's coming up to 7 years and doesn't leak a drop either.

But you should always check before a long journey, and probably each time you fill up.