Jump to content
  •  
Advertise here

The diesel appreciation thread


Barry

Recommended Posts

I know there's not much love for Rudolph diesels invention in this part of the world but I guess it's because not many people have been exposed to it. Let's show some love for the Diesel engine. Haters need not apply.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yup you got it, no love for oil burners here, thought you were going to post something interesting, diesel related. Just go to Emirates road and you see loads of trucks.

My interest in trucks is only limited to playing Eurotruck 2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm hailing from a diesel country where it was practically subsidized in the past.. until they came to know that the fine dust particles really was an issue (remember the VW claims). Since then everybody is now shifting back to petrol cars.

The diesel technology was imho superior in a way that the performance of turbo-powered diesel engines was very impressive, and at the same time wouldn't cost you a fortune at the gas-station. On the other hand i experienced more issues with EGR valves clogging up and other stuff especially on diesel cars that didn't make enough miles on the road. Without a turbo the cars were horribly slow yet super reliable and could go on for years.

I still have good memories when my friend first came up with his Golf MK3 TDI that had magnificent torque and drove like a hot hatch. The cold 'knock-knock' however made it sound like a tractor sometimes :)

 

"Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was the same in uk. Diesel was half the price of petrol so everyone invested in Diesel engines. More torque, more miles per tank, what’s not to like?

Now all this emissions stuff is happening, the people who invested in diesel are getting penalised hard with fuel tax, road tax. MPG still makes it worth it (kind of) but the introduction of euro specs with DPF and Adblue can make it expensive if something goes wrong.

I don’t know how it is everywhere else but back home we have 2 grades of diesel. Normal road diesel and agricultural diesel. Agricultural diesel is the same as road diesel with a red or green diesel (depending which part of Ireland you live in). But the thing about agricultural diesel is that it’s a quarter of the price of road diesel so naturally many people put it in their cars. Sometimes you will come across a her majesty’s custom and excise checkpoint where they will dip random cars to check the fuel but the savings far outweigh the fine. Many people also run illegal diesel “laundering plants” where they pass the agricultural diesel through fullers earth aka kitty litter, which removes the dye and makes it “legal” again. Massive profit to be made at such operations. 

Diesel cars can be fun contrary to popular belief. I was looking for something reliable and cheap to drive to work, it was a 2 hour drive, so I bought a cheap Mk 1 Renault Clio for a couple of hundred pounds to go to work  and back. To my surprise the engine from the scrap Volvo 440 TD in my yard, same as the Laguna bolted straight onto the mounts so me and a friend did it one weekend for a bit of fun. The car was a real POS but nobody knew it was a TD and I beat many Nova and Corsa SRIs at the lights. I should have thrown a few pink slips down 😂

  • Like (+1) 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, sertac said:

In Turkey people love 1.6 TDI VW engines and 1.7 Opel engines these are amazing machines.

 

Hahaha these are definitely not stock DTi's. I had an Astra 1.7DTI and it had 75HP stock :)

"Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Barry said:

It was the same in uk. Diesel was half the price of petrol so everyone invested in Diesel engines. More torque, more miles per tank, what’s not to like?

Now all this emissions stuff is happening, the people who invested in diesel are getting penalised hard with fuel tax, road tax. MPG still makes it worth it (kind of) but the introduction of euro specs with DPF and Adblue can make it expensive if something goes wrong.

I don’t know how it is everywhere else but back home we have 2 grades of diesel. Normal road diesel and agricultural diesel. Agricultural diesel is the same as road diesel with a red or green diesel (depending which part of Ireland you live in). But the thing about agricultural diesel is that it’s a quarter of the price of road diesel so naturally many people put it in their cars. Sometimes you will come across a her majesty’s custom and excise checkpoint where they will dip random cars to check the fuel but the savings far outweigh the fine. Many people also run illegal diesel “laundering plants” where they pass the agricultural diesel through fullers earth aka kitty litter, which removes the dye and makes it “legal” again. Massive profit to be made at such operations. 

Diesel cars can be fun contrary to popular belief. I was looking for something reliable and cheap to drive to work, it was a 2 hour drive, so I bought a cheap Mk 1 Renault Clio for a couple of hundred pounds to go to work  and back. To my surprise the engine from the scrap Volvo 440 TD in my yard, same as the Laguna bolted straight onto the mounts so me and a friend did it one weekend for a bit of fun. The car was a real POS but nobody knew it was a TD and I beat many Nova and Corsa SRIs at the lights. I should have thrown a few pink slips down 😂

Same in Belgium. We have the red Diesel for heating up your house and agricultural purposes, and the regular one which is heavily taxed. And yes in many industrial zones throughout the country the traffic department was checking vehicles. The fines for being caught using red diesel in your car were however  very very hefty, so most people did not risk it.
I have the impression that most European car manufacturers used all possible tricks out of the book to make people buy diesel, and the technology was pretty advanced, much more than petrol cars where no new things were coming onto the market. The common rule was if you do less than 20,000km per year, then a petrol car would be the cheaper option. Above that, the Diesel becomes more interesting, even taking into account the yearly taxes were higher and maintenance cost was also a bit higher.  

  • Like (+1) 1

"Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a story about the 1.7 dti astra and corsas.

There is an electronic controller on the pump that fails, way down the back of the engine. The car starts, runs for a few seconds and dies. I have seen many cars with that problem being scrapped because vauxhall/Opel wanted to fit a new computer so I used to buy them direct from the scrapyard. It's a simple fix. Re solder a couple of dry joints on the computer and the car is good as new, 30 minutes work. Made a lot of money doing that.

Anyone got any love for the Peugeot/Citroen XUD series?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of use