Timely, just sold my Skoda Superb diesel…not because of any problems. We had done 45000 kilometers in under two years. But left hand drive and now spending more time in the UK, it had to go. Completely fault free. 50mpg and cavernous (estate). It did though have an extended five year warranty, and despite short journeys, it also got plenty of long runs. Things that can go wrong, adblue system issues, egr valve issues, turbos, engine oil dilution and more (though the Skoda/VW group 150 tdi may not have all these potential problems. I have just bought a hybrid (NOT a plug in! ) Toyota Corolla tourer 2.0 in rhd for the UK. 50 mpg expected. Warranty extends up to ten years if you service each year with Toyota. Max 100’000 miles. I was very torn as I love diesel torque. But the emissions systems now have too many issues and complexities. Even finding a decent diesel with any manufacturers warranty is hard. Toyota hybrid? Imo the best, fairly simple and very well proven. Not sure, but I think I worked out when I was back in UK over the holidays that diesel is approx 6-7% dearer. Then adblue too, consumption for adblue varies between makers, model and use..so 45mpg on a petrol compares to 48 ish in a diesel? I think.. Road tax. I was looking at hybrid Rav4s. Then I saw the road tax. Fcuk that.
i guess someone had to do it. Petrol's have DPF's (PPF's) now too and have had EGR's for several decades. but thankfully no adblue. i've seen a couple of petrol's with PPF issues but as yet i've still to diagnose them as they have been within the manufacturers warranty period. my part of the world doesent see much in the way of emission faults though more are coming through as folk are hanging back for longer than normal because they dont want to go electric along with other uncertainties. these faults are mostly due to the type of commuting involved. long distance at higher speeds up here. but may start to become an issue for city dwellers.
Petrol if you do short runs It’s not just the DPF to be wary of. Modern diesels can be a nightmare if used for short runs or sit about. Ad blue can crystallise in the tank, nox sensors fail and other ancillaries all which cost a stack of money to fix
Yep, dont get a diesel for short journeys. I bought a used Diesel SUV last year and if i had known then how painful the ADBlue nonsense can be, it was, i would not have bought it. Also the EGR valve. I had to have the EGR valve replaced at £500. Although it is possible to recover their function yourself with some dedication and some time spent injecting chemicals into the inlet tracts. It does work. And a nice man came to the house to diagnose some running issues. Funnily enough the ADBlue issue has never returned. The worrying thing about all this emissions bollox is that curing the issues are frighteningly expensive, not guaranteed to work and not guaranteed not to return.
They really need frequent decent length runs.. I do wonder if anyone has thought all of these parts through, or if they are just rushed to market each time there are changes from euro 5, to 6, to next version. Adblue. Is anyone factoring in manufacture and materials, components, delivery to pumps etc. ? I doubt it. Just like electric cars, with the damage to environment with battery manufacture/mining. Meanwhile it is fine to launch rockets (for satellites), daily flights and boats/ships largely emissions unchecked.. Yes, there are petrol issues too. I had a Mitsubishi 1.8 GDi some years back. Quick and economic…till it started to coke up. The garage sorted under warranty but could not say it was not going to happen again. Which I took as, it will happen again.
People don't drive Diesels like they should. Because of their torque people tend to drive them sedately or in too higher gear all the time. They need a good hard run/thrash to blow the systems through. It's easy with an auto to simply select sport mode a couple of times a week to keep the revs up a bit higher than the emmisions focused gearbox software is set to do in normal mode.
I had adblue failure on a 2019 Frod Ranger. Apparently it was the heater which had failed, a common problem. Without it the urea crystalises, the injector blocks so no adblue is being injected and the system assumes the tank is empty. If you continue to drive, when you shut off the ignition it won't let you start it again until the adblue has been topped up. I'd brimmed mine and the low level warning was still showing. Sometimes you can blow the crytstalised blockage out by running under stress at high revs for a few minutes, but it will happen again if the heater isn't working. Ford dealer wanted about £700 for the replacement injector and heater plus fitting. Took it to a dyno shop and got it mapped out for £200 with a combined economy fueling remap at the same time. It was no bother at all for another 10,000 miles and then I sold the thing before the next problem arose.
