Diesel Engine Maintenance

[Surya]

Team : We all always hear and read that Diesel Engines need maintenance and are costly to maintain in the long run.
But, should we revise this statement, taking into the consideration the today's generation of Advanced Diesel Engines?

New generation engines are Less Noisy, more fuel efficient, produce more torque, are more durable.

Let us thrash the statement that "Diesel engines cost more to maintain" by brainstorming on this topic.

Surya

[GTO]

The only concern I have is with the longetivity of some parts in Common Rail Diesel engines. I have heard several people complain that the fuel system goes bust much faster than in a regular IDI / DI diesel powerplant.

Otherwise, Its absolutely hogwash that diesel cars are a pain to maintain. They are most definitely more robust - In fact, Mercedes diesels are known to last much longer than their gasoline fuelled siblings.

Buttttttttttttt engine oil changes at regular intervals must be followed with strict discipline. This is the single most important maintenance factor.

GTO

[prkothan]

Not yet! People not even could come to conlusion whether to use Premium diesel or ordinary diesel. (Please see the " Innova diesel" thread). My Uncle's Indigo (2003 model 35k km on Odo) gives all sorts of troubles, starting from truck noise, engine over heating to could not start the engine immediately if it stops. My another uncle has spent (according to him) equal amount to purchase price of his Indica (2001 model, 100k+ on Odo) for maintenance.
Accent CRDi is very much sensitive to fuel adulteration. And we never know whether we are getting pure diesel or adulterated diesel.
Palio-D also suffers engine overheating problems.
Ford Ikon 1.8D is one among junkest engine available in India.
According to our company driver (where I am working) Octavia's maintenance is too huge to bear, just oil servicing cost them Rs 18000 (Oil is imported from Italy,I don't know why :-( )

We need to travel some more distance to get diesel engine with petrol engines maintenance. By the time govt will announce no subsidy for diesel for personal use!!!

[filcord]

I have used the Ford 1.8 diesel. The engine is robust and reliable. In 1 lac km, never gave any engine trouble, did not require even adjustment of the fuel pump, and all it asked for was regular oil and filter changes. This I did every 5000 km, average cost around 2000/- There were other things I did not like about the car, cost of repairs, suspension alignment was not properly done ever, the car was underpowered... but no blame attached to the engine.
Essentially if you run at least 2000 km a month, and do long highway drives, a diesel will suit you very well. It will not allow you to burn rubber like a Baleno, but maybe that is not in your top ten list!

[chaxy]

My friends CRDi has underwent a rebore and complete engine overhaul at 120K km.

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by chaxy

My friends CRDi has underwent a rebore and complete engine overhaul at 120K km.

So? Is it bad or good??

[.anshuman]

hyundai crdi's have long term problems in fuel pumps,ive heard a lot of cases,while i dont have any doubts on the merc cdi units and the skoda's tdi units.

[Surya]

I expected a crisp reply from tsk on this topic, if at all he managed to notice this thread.

Surya

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by Surya

I expected a crisp reply from tsk on this topic, if at all he managed to notice this thread.

Surya

Buddy... I am sure tsk has not noticed it yet However I can assure you of one thing. If you have a regular diesel engine (the modern CRDi and their ilk may have some health problems with our quality of fuels) that is maintained at the recommended periods with oil and filter changes rest assured the diesel engines are some of the hardiest things you can get.

Proof of the pudding is in eating it... and I have experienced it first hand

[tsk1979]

Now I notice it
Once autocar(was it overdrive) did a survey about car maintaince and running costs/year.
They found small diesel car(indica) low on running costs but high on maintaince costs/year. The reason, diesel owners run their cars more than petrol car owners. Per km maintaince cost was not much different.

Now lets take an avg indica driver. He is a taxi driver(There are some like me who are not taxi drivers). How many santro or wagon R taxis do you see? Taxi drivers abuse cars.
Also people who buy diesels do it if they want more use. More use /day increases the chances of driver driven car and not owner driven. This is also a contributing factor.
There are two areas in which diesel engine contribute to higher maintaince. Seals and mountings etc., Diesels vibrate and they vibrate enough to register on ritcher scale on cold mornings(My flatmates in blr used to swear that windows vibrated on cool winter mornings). So at 50-60000kms you have cam seal leakage, power steering clamp coming loose, engine mountings boom, and silencer mountings going bad. Not much of an expense, but irritating nevertheless.
Second factor is weight. Heavy means more load on suspension. Beefed up suspensions provode relief. But with modern cars having thick metal and beams and all, this is not much now.

Now in all this throw in the crdi. Bad fuel here is the killer. An indica fed on a diet of bad fuel will require a FP overhaul at 50000kms. 6900rs. Not much right. A crdi will cave in at around the same time or maybe lesser if fuel is too bad, but it will cost 30000+. Even MPFI petrol cars will give problems due to bad fuel, but repair cost is less. When crdi becomes as common and mundane as your MPFI costs will drop. As of now if a part costs 3000 to make, just because its a crdi, the workshop will list it at 30000. Moreover hyundai crdi is imported and not made here, so higher costs.

IF you own a crdi, try to get good fuel and always keep systemD with you. High speed diesel/turbojet etc., may be ordinary diesel through a different dispenser, you can never trust a petrol pump.

Also at every alternate service tell the service engineer that vibrations are too much even if they are okay. This will ensure they will tighten all mountings, and check silencer mountings. A little stich in time saves 9.

[vishwas]

On the contrary is'nt it true that diesels last much longer? I thought that is why they are used in trucks and commercial applications (in addition to the better torque compared to a gasoline engine). a commercial truck goes for 5,00,000 miles as against a maximum of 2,00,000 for most cars.

[arjun_crsce]

[SIZE=2]Hi All [/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]I Read all your views. One thing is sure one needs to take care of his vehicle be it petrol Or diesel. n Yes diesel requires a little more maint.. but on contrary the efficency is awesome. i have driven my uncle's 2002 indica done 135000 km n its still running good. just a regular oil change some bushes replaced on shocks n nothing spent on engine.[/SIZE]

[extreme_torque]

Regular, timely maintenance, oil and filter changes, thats all.... i have seen taxi indica's with over 150k's on th odo without an engine overhaul.. and we all know hw badly abused they are.