Diesel engines and mostly urban driving

fonecrusher1

Howdy all.

Is it inevitable that small yearly mileage (mostly urban) will break a modern diesel engine? I'm not referring to fuel economy gains or pricing here, I'm well aware of needing to drive long distance in daysuls to get the most out of them.

Would driving for example a 1.6 diesel Focus (lets say 2009/2010) mostly in a city environment cause excessive stress on the unit and could I avoid this by giving it the occasional long run up the country?

I know DPF's are meant to cause all sorts of issues if the they're not charged / purged.

Are they're any particular diesels that don't mind mostly city driving? Ive had a couple of old (very old) school diesels that are bulletproof but i'm referring to fairly modern units.

Thanks

GustavoFring

The dpf will regenerate itself if it hasn't had another opportunity. The problem comes with this cycle being interrupted and not completed. Once the deposits go over a certain % it won't happen no matter what you do. You might be absolutely fine for years, you might get caught out. No one can say anything more than your usage isn't going to help in this regard.

Aside from the reliability issues you're not actually going to see much in terms of fuel efficiency gains with a diesel around town. Yes the fuel is cheaper alright but it won't be as refined, heat up as quickly which can be annoying in traffic.

You seem clued into the issues - why take the risk when you know it's not ideal?

JBokeh

People say they're bad for city driving because you don't see any fuel savings driving them in an urban environment, the DPF can clog if it isn't driven on a run every now and again, I always remove the DPFs from my cars, can't be bothered with the potential hassle, and it frees up a bit more power.

If you want to keep the DPF in the car just drive it on a bit now and again, first chance you get as you're coming out of the city rev the car out in 1st 2nd and 3rd, and it should keep things ticking over for longer

JBokeh

People say they're bad for city driving because you don't see any fuel savings driving them in an urban environment, the DPF can clog if it isn't driven on a run every now and again, I always remove the DPFs from my cars, can't be bothered with the potential hassle, and it frees up a bit more power.

If you want to keep the DPF in the car just drive it on a bit now and again, first chance you get as you're coming out of the city rev the car out in 1st 2nd and 3rd, and it should keep things ticking over for longer