Diesel engine software mods

[Hobby55]

At least the school run is only temporary for a few minutes per day, unlike taxis and minicabs in city centres which is all day every day...

Wonderful stuff, wood, burns without any emissions... The new fuel for cars perhaps...

 

[dr_mat]

(We walk our kids to school.) Yes there are plenty of examples as to bad behaviour around the schools and elsewhere, but that's not a reason to accept defeat.

The old cars argument.. the "powers that be" are fine with the understanding that it takes a generation to switch the habits of millions of drivers, and that's why only new cars are regulated. Though plenty of cities are now taking the view that if you can't upgrade to a clean enough car you should take public transport, or hire one before you're allowed to enter.


...if it creaks, it's probably made by VAG

 

[golfdave]

Wonderful stuff, wood, burns without any emissions... The new fuel for cars perhaps...

Never said wood does not emit anything...

Just my stove & what I do reduce the emissions to a tiny amount compared to your "general" assumption of my situation.


Anything that is combustible produces emissions, what type & how much depends on the fuel, combustion process, & what if any flue gas washing/cleaning is applied. We humans emit gases as a result of "burning" fuel to power our bodies....

A lean burn spark petrol engine that is well run & maintained produces very low emissions without all the complications of PDF, Adblue etc, etc... so long term reliability is better etc. & cheaper..

Oh & wood powered cars is old hat like the battery car...been around for 100+years...

 

[dr_mat]

Unfortunately same problem applies to wood burners - though some setups are undoubtedly excellent, I understand there are big air quality issues in the mountains in Europe these days because there isn't enough air movement out of the valleys to shift all the wood smoke.

Long and short answer is that anything you care to do is fine in moderation, but when everyone wants to do it it needs to be regulated and controlled to high hell.


...if it creaks, it's probably made by VAG

 

[golfdave]

Unfortunately same problem applies to wood burners - though some setups are undoubtedly excellent,

]

Which is why I also stated "Anything that is combustible produces emissions, what type & how much depends on the fuel, combustion process, & what if any flue gas washing/cleaning is applied."

 

[Hobby55]

what if any flue gas washing/cleaning is applied

A lean burn spark petrol engine that is well run & maintained produces very low emissions without all the complications of PDF, Adblue etc, etc... so long term reliability is better etc. & cheaper..

Oh & wood powered cars is old hat like the battery car...been around for 100+years...

1. Have you looked at the tail pipe of a modern Euro6 (or even 5) diesel recently? I have been driving diesels for the last 25 years and have also researched it as well. In the old days it was easy to leave a smoke screen behind you (my first diesel was the Perkins version of the O series) but over the years it's become more and more difficult to the extent that even under hard acceleration I can't with my current Euro 5 diesel... I entirely agree that with older diesels (some from only 4 or 5 years ago) something need to be done, but to include Euro 6 diesels in that group as well only shows ignorance of how well modern diesel exhausts work.

A very basic test is to run your finger round the tail pipe after a run, on my current car (Euro5) it comes away virtually clean, with an older car it'd be black. Time and technology move on, which fortunately some experts have realised but many people with a die-hard hatred of diesel haven't.


2. Modern car engines, diesel or petrol are extremely complicated, diesel is currently more so, but not a great deal and there is no proof that it is less reliable, in fact, as diesels are the engine of choice for high mileage vehicles it would seem that the opposite is the case.


3. Wood is a very inefficient method of getting energy, just because it's been around since the year dot doesn't make it somehow better... And if, God forbid, we all changed to wood burning then we'd run out of trees extremely quickly and that and the resultant emissions would cause far more issues than current fossil fuel use.

 

[golfdave]

as diesels are the engine of choice for high mileage vehicles it would seem that the opposite is the case.


3. Wood is a very inefficient method of getting energy, just because it's been around since the year dot doesn't make it somehow better... And if, God forbid, we all changed to wood burning then we'd run out of trees extremely quickly and that and the resultant emissions would cause far more issues than current fossil fuel use.

Diesels at not chosen to be in trucks, ships, trains etc because of reliability over that of petrol engines........other factors, such as no requirement for high volt spark ignition, very low end torque & historically they were used as such way before petrol was back 60+yrs ago.

There are quite a few petrol engines which are way more reliable than diesel just look at very high mileage petrol car engines in USA, Australia etc...

I only mentioned wood burning stoves in the context that it is an easy way to physically see the effects of good or bad fuel quality, combustion & emissions....nothing more nothing less..

 

[Hobby55]

And I was making the point that it did your argument no favours to admit that you use such an inefficient and dirty method of heating whilst at the same time criticising diesel engines for the same reasons!

Think it's best we agree to differ, Dave! As you will see from that other thread I've had to stick with diesel whether i liked it or not due to VW/Motability restrictions, maybe next time I can give petrol another go, hopefully they will have become more efficient by then (those 1.0 and 1.5 engines do look nice!)...

 

[golfdave]

And I was making the point that it did your argument no favours to admit that you use such an inefficient and dirty method of heating whilst at the same time criticising diesel engines for the same reasons!
..

Main heating is gas top firing condensing boiler rated A top for the past 20yrs & weather compensating...wood burner is to supplement during coldest months. Wood also has a whole life cleaner aspect to it due to what the trees capture during growing. The only "dirty" part is people burning it in open hearths & badly designed stoves, which does not apply to me.

Even if you took into account my "dirty" as you can call it wood stove, I still produce less pollution running my petrol cars for the past 20yrs....If I had been running diesel cars for the past 20yrs my pollution would be way higher...

That's the point diesel is only now with euro6 almost as clean as petrol cars...which have been clean overall for way longer...Christ my 14yr old Fabia hardly registered on the MOT tests for CO2, lamba & HC...but I got hammered more on road tax than a dirtier diesel engine car which was perceived to be cleaner & sold as such by the Gov & EU C02 push...

That Fabia had two catalytic converters on it, like my current 1.4TSi does....& both produce very low emissions, the diesel engine versions have way more complex, & costly flue gas cleaning systems to get anywhere near the same as my cars petrol engines emissions.

Starting from a better design is cheaper in the long run instead of starting with a bad design & trying to fix it with numerous "ad-ons"...

You can agree to differ, but plain facts are irrefutable...

 

[Hobby55]

Yes some of the technology is pricey, but so were cats when they first came out for petrol cars, in fact a lot of people bought diesel because of their costs, but as with most technology costs come down as they will with DPFs, though I haven't heard any scare stories in that respect so i suspect that they last longer than cats...

I agree that plain facts are irrefutable, trouble is you are using the wrong "facts"... There are just as many which support my argument!

Hence i said we'd be batter agreeing to differ...

As that's enough thread drift so I, for one, am leaving it at that, I'll leave it to you to have the last word, even if it is bias rubbish!!

 

[golfdave]

Yes some of the technology is pricey, but so were cats when they first came out for petrol cars, in fact a lot of people bought diesel because of their costs, but as with most technology costs come down as they will with DPFs, though I haven't heard any scare stories in that respect so i suspect that they last longer than cats...

I agree that plain facts are irrefutable, trouble is you are using the wrong "facts"... There are just as many which support my argument!

Hence i said we'd be batter agreeing to differ...

As that's enough thread drift so I, for one, am leaving it at that, I'll leave it to you to have the last word, even if it is bias rubbish!!

No scare stories re DPF'S??

Where have you been hiding for the past few years???

...even on current euro 6 diesels when the DPF goes its usually £1,200 for the dealer to replace...or £500-£600 for a remove & clean via an independent....& DPFs have been around for quite a few years now so costs should have come down by now....

Even better is if the sensor which cost about £100-£150 which registers & controls the DPF regeneration cycles goes FUBAR and if not caught & replaced quickly will FUBAR the DPF as well.....also the high Bio content which some supermarket fuels are as standard messes up the DPF & ERG etc....

I don't own a diesel, but have worked on a few inc new ones & high mileage ones..mainly VAG group cars.

 

[breaking badly]

You do realise the family car is cleaner than they have been for years especially with the particulate filters. It is just the EU war on the humble motorist. HGV, buses, vans in fact every commercial diesel motor puts out considerable more pollutants than the humble car. Then there are trains, plains and ships that you would not believe how much they pump out.

Purely our greedy government wanting to make money from the easy target.

this ^^

Ships, planes and trains don't even any kind of catalyst, not to mention
particulate filters, and this actually IS rather significant.

Petrols are just as bad, though they don't have many of the large particulates, they do have more of the much smaller ones which are now recognised as the main issue when inhaled into the lungs...

No, they're not. Petrols don't have issues with NOx for example, and some
(affordable) cars already do meet Euro 6c, even without particulate filters.

 

[Chris43]

No scare stories re DPF'S??

Where have you been hiding for the past few years???

.

Ive followed this forum for almost 4 years now and I can't remember a single thread posted about DPF failures or problems. Ive read plenty of comments about DPFs needing a run up the motorway once a week to prevent blocking problems. From experience this is also unfounded, ive had my TDi for 3.5 years, some weeks it does back to back short trips around town and I've never had a warning light.

 

[golfdave]

Ive followed this forum for almost 4 years now and I can't remember a single thread posted about DPF failures or problems. Ive read plenty of comments about DPFs needing a run up the motorway once a week to prevent blocking problems. From experience this is also unfounded, ive had my TDi for 3.5 years, some weeks it does back to back short trips around town and I've never had a warning light.

Just because they aren't on this forum doesn't mean the problems don't exist..

Anyway it usually takes 5yrs...plenty on the Skoda forum with MK2 Octavia...which is MK5-6 Golf

Also plenty where the dpf/exhaust sensor fails & some where the sensor has failed & not tripped the dash light & the dpf has fubared

Quote:-
had a similar Issue last year with my CR. Long journeys commuting at weekends 3hrs plus. No DPF lights on dash, DPF clogged completely and back pressure caused turbo pipe to pop off. Luckily covered by warranty but is was touch and go. It was thought that the DPF sensor and exhaust sensor had failed but not light on dash illuminated. Part numbers have since been changed which says a lot! :-/!. No problems since thank god. I regret not getting the petrol. DPF is To complicated.""

I know a few people who have had DFP problems with VAG cars (& jap cars) & replaced these sensors on VAG cars as I do offer my skills as a mechanic form home on some UK forums as I also have VCDS.

 

[Chris43]

I agree this forum doesn't represent the masses but it does have a lot of TDi users. Everything that is mass produced will have a percentage of failures, that doesn't mean its inherently defective.

Reading your quote, you'd think if the back pressure was so bad it popped the pipe of the turbo the driver would have noticed something wrong in the engine performance way before this happened, I suggest that the DPF sensor wasn't the sole culprit in the failure.