In praise of a 2011 with 178,500 mile Yaris diesel

[Marcusthehat]

As above, nipped into town today in the daughter's 2011 Yaris, it is still bright, light, tight, nippy, etc etc, etc etc.

Still a joy to drive.

Cept for having to remember to change gears.

Cheers all 

Marcus

[Jimota]

Haven’t driven a manual in years.  I’m still handy at stirring porridge though.

[flash22]

The reason diesel do so well in Ireland is you don't need a main dealer and there are loads of tractor mechanics in the sticks, ah the smell of red diesel in the morning

[Jimota]

Used to be a common sight in my part of Scotland when police and other officials stopped private and non agricultural commercial vehicles in their quest to detect illegal use of red diesel. Don’t seem to see it as much these days.

[flash22]

See the old DVSA vans floating about, especially around a major junction with a weigh bridge site, the local council also do 4-5 check points a year with the police, home office and DVSA - put it this way they keep the local tow company and courts busy

[Cyker]

The pre-DPF Yaris diesels were great cars - They felt soooo powerful compared to the petrol ones and shattered the "diesels are slow" stereotype when I had mine.

My Mk1 D4D could probably get to Scotland and back on a single tank it was so unbelievably frugal at motorway/A-road speeds. It really made it hard to find a car to 'upgrade' to as the collimated digital dash and insane fuel economy were so far ahead of their time that nothing could touch it, and I couldn't go back to a 'normal' car with their boring unreadable analogue dials and mpg less than 60!!

That 1ND-TV engine was ridiculous - Only the japanese could do something as mad as make a high revving diesel engine and mate it with a short-ratio gearbox - I didn't think diesel engines could go above 4000rpm max or 2000rpm during normal use until I had that car and found I could hoon it around like a petrol  

It was so good it took 20 years for them to make a successor that could beat it; That's pretty good engineering!  

The Mk4 is a very very good successor, but I do miss my Mk1 D4D still (And the 20+ grand difference in cost! )

 

[Marcusthehat]

17 hours ago, flash22 said:

The reason diesel do so well in Ireland is you don't need a main dealer and there are loads of tractor mechanics in the sticks, ah the smell of red diesel in the morning

I worked out what I WOULD have save running on red, and it was seriously depressing(and btw I got a tank of rebated red diesel for the tractors) but I never have taken the risk, but was never stopped or dipped either.

[Cyker]

I had an acquaintance that used to make his own biodiesel - He'd collect up used oil from all the local takeaways, mix it with a load of chemicals and then get biodiesel out after a week or two  

Turns out you don't need to pay fuel duty on the first 2000L of fuel you make, so it was basically free motoring just for the cost of his time and the chemicals and gear!

My travelling mechanic was also telling me how he used to run his old old old van on customer's used motor oil, back when diesels still used mechanical fuel pumps  

I must admit I am still surprised biodiesel isn't more prevalent, esp. with the high cost of mineral diesel. I don't even know where you can buy it from now, as the small producers I knew about when I had the D4D seem to have all closed down!

It's much better for the engine as it has a much higher lubricity than ULSD, and has lower emissions and higher power across the board, with the exception of NOx, which is higher with biodiesel.

Main downside is, initially, you will go through several fuel filters as it will strip out all the deposits from the fuel system and dump them in the fuel filter, but once they're all gone it pretty much just runs like normal diesel!

 

[Rhymes with Paris]

I noticed on the side of a McDonald's wagon that it said it ran on recycled bio diesel made from the cooking oil.

Only problem that I can see with that is the fuel filter being clogged up with nuggets, and then when breakdown arrives, the driver being asked if he wants fries with that.

 

 

 

[Cyker]

Must admit I wouldn't have said no to some nuggets and fries last time I was stranded on the motorway, freezing my proverbials off!

(Hmm, that's an idea, we should campaign for all smart motorway laybys to have a burger van/stall so stranded motorists can have hot and cold food and drink for the long duration of their stay  )

 

[Jimota]

3 hours ago, Cyker said:

I had an acquaintance that used to make his own biodiesel - He'd collect up used oil from all the local takeaways, mix it with a load of chemicals and then get biodiesel out after a week or two  

Turns out you don't need to pay fuel duty on the first 2000L of fuel you make, so it was basically free motoring just for the cost of his time and the chemicals and gear!

My travelling mechanic was also telling me how he used to run his old old old van on customer's used motor oil, back when diesels still used mechanical fuel pumps  

I must admit I am still surprised biodiesel isn't more prevalent, esp. with the high cost of mineral diesel. I don't even know where you can buy it from now, as the small producers I knew about when I had the D4D seem to have all closed down!

It's much better for the engine as it has a much higher lubricity than ULSD, and has lower emissions and higher power across the board, with the exception of NOx, which is higher with biodiesel.

Main downside is, initially, you will go through several fuel filters as it will strip out all the deposits from the fuel system and dump them in the fuel filter, but once they're all gone it pretty much just runs like normal diesel!

 

A similar story more than 5 years ago when an Edinburgh couple went round the local chippy and other take away establishments and picked up their used cooking oils.  After filtering the oil they combined it with some super duper additive and off they went with a virtually cost free tank of fuel.  Apparently the car smelt like a fish and chip shop and polluted the local area big style.  Never got to find out what they did with the left over filtered gunge though.  

[Rhymes with Paris]

The reason that diesel's run so well on this stuff is that the engine has probably been chipped.

 

[Marcusthehat]

5 hours ago, Cyker said:

I had an acquaintance that used to make his own biodiesel - He'd collect up used oil from all the local takeaways, mix it with a load of chemicals and then get biodiesel out after a week or two  

Turns out you don't need to pay fuel duty on the first 2000L of fuel you make, so it was basically free motoring just for the cost of his time and the chemicals and gear!

My travelling mechanic was also telling me how he used to run his old old old van on customer's used motor oil, back when diesels still used mechanical fuel pumps  

I must admit I am still surprised biodiesel isn't more prevalent, esp. with the high cost of mineral diesel. I don't even know where you can buy it from now, as the small producers I knew about when I had the D4D seem to have all closed down!

It's much better for the engine as it has a much higher lubricity than ULSD, and has lower emissions and higher power across the board, with the exception of NOx, which is higher with biodiesel.

Main downside is, initially, you will go through several fuel filters as it will strip out all the deposits from the fuel system and dump them in the fuel filter, but once they're all gone it pretty much just runs like normal diesel!

 

3 of my 4 G Wagens, the 1984 and both of the 1989 ones, still got the indestructible inline engine oil lubricated MB injection pump that will run on anything kinda oily, so SVO is 100% dooable. As is biodiesel.

[Jimota]

10 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

The reason that diesel's run so well on this stuff is that the engine has probably been chipped.

 

Your jokes are every bit as bad as mine! 😉

[Rhymes with Paris]

2 minutes ago, Jimota said:

Your jokes are every bit as bad as mine! 😉

I was hoping that you would say even worse.😅

My granddaughters have a default groan and eye roll whenever I am around and they deign to unplug themselves from the matrix.

[Jimota]

Sometimes I have this urge to tell a joke which I think would be funny, then, I get an incredible rush of common sense that tells me to keep my mouth shut!

[Jimota]

I’m a great fan of Ken Dodd and his rapid fire style of comedy and joke telling.  Wonder what kind of jokes he would make of the EV and Hybrid cars malarkey.

 

 

[Rhymes with Paris]

As somebody famous once probably said,it is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool ,than to speak and remove all possible doubt.

I try to remember this, but often fail.

But then again 'tis better to laugh at life and all it's travails, than to succumb to the puritanism of the humourless.

 

 

[Jimota]

It’s always better to laugh than be a cynic.  Life is too short for negative views of life.  That’s why I bought a Toyota Yaris Cross. 😁

[Marcusthehat]

7 hours ago, Jimota said:

It’s always better to laugh than be a cynic.  Life is too short for negative views of life.  That’s why I bought a Toyota Yaris Cross. 😁

Well, you set yoursel up for thattun!