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Re: Thoughts on Diesel Posted by Davecl [Email]  (#1994) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Davecl) on Fri, 25 Nov 2016 07:30:41
In Reply to: Thoughts on Diesel, David, Thu, 13 Oct 2016 09:51:29 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I've had my 2003 9-5 since new, now 145K miles, and I'll keep it forever. It's my daily driver and the best car I've evern owned. But I like to have a second, fun car, so I've gone through a Miata, then a Mini Cooper S, then I got diesel fever. So I bought a low-miles, 2011 BMW 335d a couple of years ago. Nice car, with a ridiculous amount of torque (425 lb/ft). It's fun and a complete road-eater. 1900 rpm at 80 mph.
It's fun and an impressive piece of engineering. They brought this to the US for only 3 years, in low volume. It's a 3.0 liter six, now they have a 2.0 liter four. As a modern diesel it's quiet, fast, gets great milage of well over 40 on the highway. I'll keep it a long time, but there are some drawbacks.
Direct injection engines, diesel and gas, are prone to getting carboned up. It's a well known problem with the 335d. At 40K miles it needed a complete clean-out, with special tools. This is normally a $2500 or so process. Mine had complications that ran it up to $7,000, fortunately covered in the last month of new-car warranty. I've had to replace four injectors at $600/each. Three were covered.
The emissions system is very complex, with EGR, urea injection and who knows what else. This is likely to be the cause of the most expensive repairts. The basic diesel engine is robust and well-proven. A friend put 80K on this engine in an X5 with no problems at all. BMW claims that the 3.0 liter in a 3 series car is so understressed that you need to stomp on it to keep it clean. No problem!
I've learned that diesel fuel in the US is crap. The octane rating of diesel is cetane. These motors in Europe run on 50+ cetane. In the US it's mostly 38-40, if the vendor shows a rating at all.
So my advice is yes, a diesel is fun and an interesting car to own. If you get a BMW or Audi be prepared for some expensive maintenance and buy an extended warranty. But other than that, you'll have a blast.
, Fri, 25 Nov 2016 07:30:41 <-- Viewing This Message
, Sun, 16 Oct 2016 13:27:27
, Fri, 14 Oct 2016 20:33:51, Fri, 14 Oct 2016 04:50:27, Thu, 13 Oct 2016 18:47:31, Fri, 14 Oct 2016 11:19:04, Fri, 14 Oct 2016 08:51:10
, Fri, 14 Oct 2016 15:30:29
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