Advice need on buying a diesel & Dpf filter

LizzyBennet

Im looking to change my car , I have always driven petrol cars but I cant find any cars I like or can afford that are petrol, it feels like nearly everything I come across is Diesel.

My question is I drive ten minutes to work and ten minutes home with short trips in between 5 days a week. And 20km on M50 twice in one day once a week , would that be enough to stop the Dpf filter from clogging ? what else could I do ? Or am I clutching at straws here ?

grogi

LizzyBennet wrote: »

Im looking to change my car , I have always driven petrol cars but I cant find any cars I like or can afford that are petrol, it feels like nearly everything I come across is Diesel.

My question is I drive ten minutes to work and ten minutes home with short trips in between 5 days a week. And 20km on M50 twice in one day once a week , would that be enough to stop the Dpf filter from clogging ? what else could I do ? Or am I clutching at straws here ?

No, not really... The engine will not even get proper temperature - will not be any more efficient than a petrol.

FortySeven

Not a notion of buying a diesel for your needs. If you do it will cost you thousands in repairs in no time.

bazz26

Have you looked at a hybrid OP?

LizzyBennet

bazz26 wrote: »

Have you looked at a hybrid OP?

No never occurred to me, any suggestions ?

biko

Maybe you could start by giving us an aprox budget figure OP?

bazz26

LizzyBennet wrote: »

No never occurred to me, any suggestions ?

Toyota Yaris, Auris, Prius are all available as hybrids for example, depending on your budget. A plug in electric car like the Nissan Leaf might worth looking at too if you have access to a charge point either at home or work.

The_Honeybadger

What kind of cars are you looking at? Sounds like a small car like a fiesta or Yaris would be ideal for your driving and they are nearly all petrol.

BrianD3

Boards Motors forum has always been full of doom and gloom and wild exaggerations about any potential issue a car might have.

DPFs can give problems in diesel cars used for short journeys but many people never have an issue. 2 x 10 minute journeys per day plus 2 x 20 km journeys per week on the M50 isn't even that short.

Also, DPFs can give problems in cars that are used for long journeys.

If you are worried about DPFs. some relatively modern cars don't have one. For instance my 2009 Renault Megane Mk3 1.5 DCI 86 (current model but just about to be replaced) doesn't have one. I think 2010 year cars also don't have a DPF but Renault started fitting them in 2011.

For the first few years of its life my car did mostly short journeys and gave very good fuel economy and didn't have any problems. Now it does mostly long journeys, still gives very good fuel economy and gives no problems.

Jimmy Garlic

FortySeven wrote: »

Not a notion of buying a diesel for your needs. If you do it will cost you thousands in repairs in no time.

How so? I have had all sorts of diesel cars and vans, old and new, all sorts of distances traveled, from periods of long commutes to having my work ten minutes down the road. I never had to thousands on repairs in no time on anything I ever owned.

Jimmy Garlic

DPFs are just a pure nuisance. Easy enough to get rid of them by gutting them and deleting their file from the ECU. There should never be that sort of built in restriction in an exhaust system.

FortySeven

Jimmy Garlic wrote: »

How so? I have had all sorts of diesel cars and vans, old and new, all sorts of distances traveled, from periods of long commutes to having my work ten minutes down the road. I never had to thousands on repairs in no time on anything I ever owned.

I spend my day selling parts for diesel fuel systems, injectors, high pressure pumps, metering valves etc. They are much more problematic than a petrol system.

DPFs are in daily for forced regen and we replace a few a month, petrol cats we replace a few a year. The latest disaster is the fuel vaporiser injectors that fire diesel into the dpf to burn contaminants. Failure rates are starting to become noticeable. Pressure sensors in DPFs get clogged etc, etc

Egr valves would be one of our biggest sellers. All these components are hundreds if not thousands of euros.

Most petrol cars do not need half these systems as they are not negating blowing smoke out the tailpipe. If they do have them, such as egr valves, their failure rate is minimal.

Which, the highly respected UK independent consumer group conducted a long term study of diesel cars and concluded that when maintenance was accounted for a Diesel car had no benefit over petrol in an economic sense and yet would spend much longer off the road being repaired.

grogi

FortySeven wrote: »

I spend my day selling parts for diesel fuel systems, injectors, high pressure pumps, metering valves etc. They are much more problematic than a petrol system.

Sure...

But on the other hand a statistical diesel covers much bigger distances. Plus there are three times more diesel cars being sold than petrol.

Which, the highly respected UK independent consumer group conducted a long term study of diesel cars and concluded that when maintenance was accounted for a Diesel car had no benefit over petrol in an economic sense and yet would spend much longer off the road being repaired.

The issue we have in this country is that the selection of petrol cars was extremely limited. It is getting slightly better now, but still far from ideal.

I can only praise VAG to offer petrol engines on the whole range of their vehicles. Other are offering petrol powertrains typically in smaller and poorer equipped cars.

FortySeven

grogi wrote: »

Sure...

But on the other hand a statistical diesel covers much bigger distances. Plus there are three times more diesel cars being sold than petrol.



The issue we have in this country is that the selection of petrol cars was extremely limited. It is getting slightly better now, but still far from ideal.

I can only praise VAG to offer petrol engines on the whole range of their vehicles. Other are offering petrol powertrains typically in smaller and poorer equipped cars.

Agree with your first point, it is hard to make comparisons but diesel cars do seem to be much more problematic than petrols, largely due to the complexities of contaminant management. Petrol cars need much simpler systems so less failure. Also, the high pressure nature of the fuel system makes it more susceptible to failure.

A malfunctioning fuel pump in a petrol will need replacing at a cost of a hundred or so euro. A high pressure pump in a diesel will cost a thousand to replace and is likely to cause injector damage if metering is too high or if pressure builds. Add 4 injectors at 2-300 euro each. We see this commonly. I took delivery of four injectors today to be fitted Monday and I will see the same within the month.

Diesel is almost done anyway, manufacturers already admit they cannot do much more with emissions and the regulations are outpacing development. Euro V emissions are already incredibly complex engines with expensive component failures at an early age. There are just too many things to go wrong.

grogi

Jimmy Garlic wrote: »

DPFs are just a pure nuisance. Easy enough to get rid of them by gutting them and deleting their file from the ECU. There should never be that sort of built in restriction in an exhaust system.

They should. PM wasn't a huge problem in Ireland, but in other places it was... DPF are needed.

LizzyBennet

mickeyk wrote: »

What kind of cars are you looking at? Sounds like a small car like a fiesta or Yaris would be ideal for your driving and they are nearly all petrol.

I ideally want a Vw golf but 95% are diesel in what i can afford and the year i want. I originally wanted a Passat but couldn't find one petrol in a 2012 - 2013 its ridiculous. Im not into little cars even a golf is a compromise, I just rather a bigger car.

FortySeven

LizzyBennet wrote: »

I ideally want a Vw golf but 95% are diesel in what i can afford and the year i want. I originally wanted a Passat but couldn't find one petrol in a 2012 - 2013 its ridiculous. Im not into little cars even a golf is a compromise, I just rather a bigger car.

Have you looked at a civic? Great car.

The_Honeybadger

FortySeven wrote: »

Have you looked at a civic? Great car.

Great suggestion, Civic hatchback is lovely. Available in 1.4 and 1.8 petrol I think. Would be ideal. I would have one over a golf any day of the week. They may be dearer to insure than a golf though?

bazz26

LizzyBennet wrote: »

I ideally want a Vw golf but 95% are diesel in what i can afford and the year i want. I originally wanted a Passat but couldn't find one petrol in a 2012 - 2013 its ridiculous. Im not into little cars even a golf is a compromise, I just rather a bigger car.

2012 Passat petrol:
http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Passat/ComfortLine-DSG/201114442290177670/

What about a Jetta:
http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Jetta/HL-1.4TSI/201114629913901350/
http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Jetta/CL-1.2TSI/7293607745827517349/
http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Jetta/HL-1.4TSI/7469182120490957572/