Lead foot or light touch for long engine life?

[Duggerz]

Hi all,

I've seen a few posts advocating specific driving styles for diesels and I wonder what forum refers think.

My own opinion is that the enemy of any engine is wear. Wear is exacerbated by high rpm and hard acceleration as the loads on components increase. Poor oil and irregular servicing can play a part but are I think out of scope for this discussion.

Diesels are also potentially affected by smoke, which clogs ports and fouls the oil further increasing wear. Diesels produce the vast majority of smoke under heavy acceleration and at high rpm (overfueling)which contraindicates it as a style of driving

The exception in my view is dpf regeneration when higher rpm must be used to get the temperature high enough.

Any thoughts?

Regards

Ian

[HartmannX]

I think you missed an important point

Servicing the car right is the main cause to a long and problem free life.

Also use off additives to the fuel and sometimes oil flush additives, whit oil changes.

/HartmannX

[yossarian247]

IMHO maintenance is the key, but with modern diesels too gentle driving can be counterproductive. Engine wear in itself has become almost an irrelevance, most engines will now easily outlast the rest of the vehicle they're installed in, the real issue now is with the pollution reduction systems (EGR, DPF) giving trouble due to the engine never getting properly hot. 

[Duggerz]

Thanks both for your responses. I agree completely that maintenance is critical to long engine life, but that wasn't the focus of my question. I have maintained my Toyota with good quality full synthetic oil at regular intervals and it is still running well at 216k. I've also been very gentle on the throttle and used low rpm. and had no carbon related issues, although I do clean the egr regularly. I can only relate that to light driving producing little carbon in the first place. My reason for the light touch was mainly economy but it also appears to have paid dividends in the longevity area. I've seen and heard of many diesels that have had catastrophic failure well before the life of the car was over, we've even seen a few oven this forum, mostly because of carbon buildup, so i must disagree with the statement above. It's also the higher powered engines that suffer most, I.e. The ones that will generate the most stress, and smoke.

Regards

Ian

[Heidfirst]

59 minutes ago, Duggerz said:

 It's also the higher powered engines that suffer most, I.e. The ones that will generate the most stress, and smoke.

whilst there certainly seems that there may have been some kind of link between power & the head/head gasket issues on the 1AD/2AD series before they were resolved I am not sure that I would go as far as saying it's a general rule for all diesels.

As for high rpm, what is high? I would argue that a car that has spent it's life running up & down motorways at the legal limit (so probably 2-2500rpm) probably has had an easier life than one with fewer miles used for short journeys in an urban environment.

My suggestions:

Don't be aggressive with the throttle whilst the engine is warming up.

Do journeys that allow the engine to fully warm up plus some ones that are also long enough for the DPF (if fitted) to regenerate fully.

Maintain properly.

Use good quality fuel.