How to lose friends

[King Harold]

Having owned a corolla for three years and only ever replacing tyres it seemed sensible to stick to Toyota. I never liked diesel cars but I was talked into buying one by friends and ended up with avensis 2litre 2004 with 85000 on clock and full service history. After only a few days I noticed on hard acceleration plumes of black smoke coming from exhaust. No doubt an expensive problem. Then I noticed after a few weeks the oil level was actually rising. (Head gasket?)  Clutch seems to be stiffer than it should and I suspect is leaking fluid because of the work it has to do. Love the avensis but diesel cars are just not for me....

[flash22]

Sounds like it needs a good service, oil level rising is more than likely oil diluition caused by diesel (if the oil hasn't turned into elmulsion or the water level has dropped) clutch - again more than like it needs servicing (fluid needs changing if it has a hydraulic clutch)

[mrfixer]

Most Diesel cars are less reliable than their petrol counterparts. This particularly applies to Japanese cars. If you want to run an older Diesel then go for VW PD engines.

[Heidfirst]

9 hours ago, mrfixer said:

Most Diesel cars are less reliable than their petrol counterparts. 

I would say "most modern diesels", older diesels were very reliable because they were very simple before we added turbos, intercoolers, common-rail injection,  EGRs, DPFs etc. ...

Normally a 1CD should be bulletproof (as long as you change the belt when due).

 

p.s. Hi, Harold, welcome to TOC 🙂