Diesel anyone?

[benm]

If you were going to buy a car right now, for example let's say a VW jetta, would you go with diesel or gasoline? Why?

[69cougar]

It would depend on what kind of driving you do:

If mostly city and short trips I would stick with gas:

Cheaper to maintain and mileage not so much of a factor.

If I drove back and forth province to province (nismoder?? somehting like that?) I would go for diesal as mileage is a factor. that would make the most sense

thing I dont like about diesels is winter starts.

All in all though it is a personal opinion.

One other good thing about gas is any tech can work on it and a diesel tech can work on gas but most techs are pretty cluless about diesel.

[Ford]

Originally posted by 69cougar
It would depend on what kind of driving you do:

If mostly city and short trips I would stick with gas:

Cheaper to maintain and mileage not so much of a factor.

If I drove back and forth province to province (nismoder?? somehting like that?) I would go for diesal as mileage is a factor. that would make the most sense

thing I dont like about diesels is winter starts.

All in all though it is a personal opinion.

One other good thing about gas is any tech can work on it and a diesel tech can work on gas but most techs are pretty cluless about diesel.

I have a 1986 jetta with stock turbo diesel motor, rolling over to 400,000 kms and I havent had a single starting problem. Something to think about as well...

[bspot]

Depends on which driving experience you like better. Diesels are really torquey, but with no top end and a really low red line... very different feel than a gas engine. When I was in europe I had quite a bit of fun driving a diesel around for a couple of weeks (Mitsu Carisma) but when I got to an open straight away or big sweeping curve, or attempted to pass on the highway, I sure missed my car. Of course I'm also comparing a grocery getter to a performance coupe. Go test drive one, try all those scenarios out, and see what you like ;)

[Zero102]

I bought a new golf TDI. I drive ~35,000km/year, and the savings of the diesel are huge. Presuming the 2.0L gets EPA specified fuel economy, I've already saved $400 over the 2.0L, and I've only had it 4 months...
If you drive around 15,000-20,000km/year and under, then don't bother with the TDI. You won't save enough for it to be worth-while.
However, the TDI is pretty peppy. IMO it's much more driveable than the 2.0L.

[nismodrifter]

Originally posted by 69cougar
It would depend on what kind of driving you do:

If mostly city and short trips I would stick with gas:

Cheaper to maintain and mileage not so much of a factor.

If I drove back and forth province to province (nismoder?? somehting like that?) I would go for diesal as mileage is a factor. that would make the most sense

thing I dont like about diesels is winter starts.

All in all though it is a personal opinion.

One other good thing about gas is any tech can work on it and a diesel tech can work on gas but most techs are pretty cluless about diesel.


Gassers aren't cheaper to maintain! It ends up being the same stuff for both cars (oil, filters etc...) Diesel has no spark plugs so you don't have to worry about that either. In the 160k I got, only 1 Glow Plug has gone bad.


Even in the city with a TDI you'd be getting around 40 mpg (minimal change with more aggressive driving). Compared to the 2.0L's 24mpg.

On the highway it is around 50mpg for the TDI vs 30 for the 2.0.....

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: for diesel.

[dericer]

If you're ambitious, and have the space, you can make bio-diesel for about 10% the cost of Petro-Diesel.

Just a thought.

[bart]

dont do biodiesel, the only plus is, sure its cleaner, but it screws up your car and actually offers less performance then the dirty stuff :)

[Zero102]

10% of the cost?!
Where the heck do you get your methanol cheap enough to cut it down to 10%?
40% is about what it has cost me (~35c/L)
Biodiesel is nice, yet not nice...
10% power hit, which translates into roughly a 5-7% mileage cut, but the engine runs much quieter. It's much cheaper, and cleaner than petro diesel (if your brew your own, if you buy it the cost is higher), but it clouds and gels at a very high temperature compared to petro diesel, and the anti-gels available for biodiesel don't work very well.


In a golf GLS TDI automatic (on winter diesel right now) I have been getting 34-36mpg, 100% city 50/50 rush hour/light traffic, and it's about 80% trips under 10km. With a manual gearbox, I've seen people getting 40mpg city. That beats pretty much any gasser out there.....

[dericer]

Originally posted by bart
dont do biodiesel, the only plus is, sure its cleaner, but it screws up your car and actually offers less performance then the dirty stuff :)

Are you sure about that?

It's supposed to burn cleaner, and extend the life of your engine substantially.

Infact many cities (including Calgary), and Big business' are looking at the benefits of making their own bio diesel.

I've been considering it for a while now, and have not heard a single negative.

Do you have sources?

[nismodrifter]

I just googled "biodiesel performance" and found this link from the USA gov't.
There is tons of info out there if you want to read up on it.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/analysispaper/biodiesel/
Some info cut and pasted from the above site:
"blah blah disadvantages of running it in winter

Vehicles running on biodiesel blends may therefore exhibit more drivability problems at less severe winter temperatures than do vehicles running on petroleum diesel.11 This is a potential concern during the winter in much of the United States. The solvent property of biodiesel can cause other fuel-system problems. Biodiesel may be incompatible with the seals used in the fuel systems of older vehicles and machinery, necessitating the replacement of those parts if biodiesel blends are used.12 The initial use of B20 or B100 in any vehicle or machine requires care. Petroleum diesel forms deposits in vehicular fuel systems, and because biodiesel can loosen those deposits, they can migrate and clog fuel lines and filters.13

Another disadvantage of biodiesel is that it tends to reduce fuel economy. Energy efficiency is the percentage of the fuel’s thermal energy that is delivered as engine output, and biodiesel has shown no significant effect on the energy efficiency of any test engine. Volumetric efficiency, a measure that is more familiar to most vehicle users, usually is expressed as miles traveled per gallon of fuel (or kilometers per liter of fuel). The energy content per gallon of biodiesel is approximately 11 percent lower than that of petroleum diesel.14 Vehicles running on B20 are therefore expected to achieve 2.2 percent (20 percent x 11 percent) fewer miles per gallon of fuel. "

[bart]

there ya go. buy yourself husky dieselmaxx for example, and put in a good amount of diesel additives, i use power service, the grey bottle. you can get it at the esso at road king off deerfoot.

my last tank (just ended right now) i got 850km, in this weather, with pretty hard city driving, and not to mention all the mods i have....

[Zero102]

Bart, no offense, but only 850km?
I have an 05 golf auto gls, and I am running ~925-975km/tank right now.
I thought yours was a manual, and a pre-pump duse, ergo it should get better mileage. Then again, perhaps your mods counter that out?...


On the biodiesel topic. Once you have cleaned all the crap out of your tank, and changed your fuel filter (read: run biodiesel for a couple tanks), there will be virtually no problems so long as the weather stays good.
You can run B100 all summer long, and blend down to B5-B20 for the winter, depending on the weather. I know of at least one person who uses B100 year round, with biodiesel anti-gels, but I just don't feel confident enough to do that.
I will be brewing my own biodeisel soon, and going to big batches with an appleseed processor as soon as the weather warms up.
Let's see, better for the environment (I'll be using WVO), cheaper than diesel by 50-60%, but you only lose 5-7% on your mileage.... definately worth it :D

[bart]

yes thats right, 850 is what i got. driving style and mods i am very happy still :) i dont care for the lower 100km per tank if i can go 'exponentially' faster :) thats just ~$4 per tank it costs me, for say an extra 100hp compared to your car.

[nismodrifter]

I don't think that we've gotten over 850 city in EITHER of the TDI's in the garage.

I did just pull 700kms on a half tank highway though. Could drive back to Calgary on the same tank if I wanted to. :D

[euro_racer]

hmm thats wierd my moms car is a 04 jetta tdi sport automatic and she can only get liek 620-650 kms max thats including the small tank beside the big one

[Zero102]

The small tank beside the big one, say what?

How many HP is your car bart?
Mine's a PD TDI, rated 100hp. I don't know my conversions, so for all I know 147kW is 2,000HP. I've considered chipping mine, but I just don't think the auto-tragic transmission would stand up to 150HP or more.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think mileage is everything... my other car is a Porsche 951, which gets a whopping 14mpg city, but it's a blast to drive.

I try to keep the revs at or under 2000RPM when accelerating/coasting. It's tricky with the automatic, and it leads to somewhat-slow acceleration, but it gets excellent mileage. That said, I make sure to stomp on it and run it right up to redline at least once or twice every hundred km, both because it's fun, and because every engine needs to stretch it's legs sometimes :)
If you always step on it, let it wind up to 3k, then hit your brakes because you put off braking to the end, you'll get bad mileage. Like when my G/F drives it, she gets ~600km/tank. It's not like mine's some super-car, it's all in how you drive.

[euro_racer]

^^well you know how theres the actuall gas tank? well theres this little thing u open with the gas gun and u pour gas into it, it can hold like 15 liters i think

[Zero102]

Do you mean when you vent the tank?
If so, that will hold ~6L.
I just hold the vent open while I fill the tank, many have done a vent-ectomy.
That is just taking advantage of an air pocket that was engineered into the tank because they share the tank with the gas models.

[bart]

yes i do the vent trick too. anyway, no biodiesel for me, i dont really care much for the environment especially when it can wreck my car. didnt get a tdi for the economy, just wanted to see if i could humiliate cars with it in a race. :)

[Z24_3.1.]

i would go for diesel more Km on not much saves alot of money and still fun to drive and cheap insurence

[benm]

I used to own a Mercedes 300SD with 350,000 KMs on it and that engine ran so smoothly.. I've heard of people driving those cars up to 1 million KMs and they're still running great!

[nismodrifter]

Originally posted by benm
I used to own a Mercedes 300SD with 350,000 KMs on it and that engine ran so smoothly.. I've heard of people driving those cars up to 1 million KMs and they're still running great!

hahah...thats what I was driving before the TDI

Heres the odometer in MILES (it was a Nevada car) on the day that it was written off :cry:
http://members.shaw.ca/nismodrifter/miles.jpg = 313383 kilometers.
It had a lot of life left in it...was running like a beauty...I'll definately be getting another W126 later on in life.