Short trips with a Diesel car
 

Hi all,

I have a 2007 S80 2.4 D. I'm not doing motorway miles, just short round trips around town. Now I know people will be thinking why would I have a car with a 2.4 engine for use around town, but I wanted to treat myself to my first Volvo & I purchased the car at a reasonable price. It has full Volvo history, has the mod cons etc & I also heard that the D5 is a very good engine, providing its maintained of course. I know there's petrol models available, but I feel that they start getting a bit thirsty when you go above a 2.0 litre. I'm not saying a D5 is economical by any means, but I think its quite good on fuel for a car of its size.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what you'd do with a Diesel engine doing short trips to keep it running smoothly? So would you add fuel additives more often as an example, or maybe have a motorway drive every once in a while & if so, how long does the engine need to 'clean itself' so to speak?

I've owned the vehicle since March & so far I've done about 900 miles.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

I have the S80 D5 and since buying the car moved jobs and now only do short journeys. It hasn’t given me any problems in the past 15 months and I do treat the car to BP advantage diesel every now and again and give it a blast of about 15-20 miles down the A303, just to clean it out, but as I said, the car hasn’t given me any trouble and drives wonderfully.

Gary
Salisbury

With mine, I just take use Shell Vpower diesel and then if only doing short trips, just get it onto a motorway where you can work the turbo a bit. You don't have to drive like you stole it but, just keep the revs up a little higher for 15 minutes or so. My Astra GTC 2.0 had a 6spd manual box and I just used to slip it into 4th/5th and cruise along at 70mph on the motorway. The Merc CLS is a 7spd with manual mode, so in that, again, I just pop it into 5th, cruise along at 70mph for 15 mins and job done.

I did 90,000 miles from new in the 2013 Astra and that ran sweet engine wise and the exhaust tip was never black either.

Another point to note is, do not go along with extended service intervals. Change the oil out more frequently and make sure the air and fuel filter are also replaced annually.

Is your diesel car fitted with a DPF? My 2007 Saab 9-3 had a DPF, and it was fine when regularly driven at sustained high speed for 60+ miles a day. But when I changed jobs and my commute became just 6 miles the poor car would go through a DPF regen every 200 miles or so, and mpg went from mid-fifties to low thirties.

If your car does have a DPF then based on my experiences with the Saab, I'd suggest a regular drive keeping the engine speed at above 2500rpm for perhaps 5 minutes. This doesn't mean ragging it along the motorway at 70+, find a straight bit of road and simply keep it in a lower gear - it's the engine rpm not the car's mph that counts.

Jack

Thanks very much for the responses. I believe my car does have a DPF, but how do I know if its doing a regen like the Saab? Or, is that just a Saab thing?

Personally, I always service my car annually & I'll still change the oil if I've done way below the recommended service interval. I don't take any notion of these long life services, i.e. Going 18,000 miles before changing the oil. May I point out that I'm not saying synthetic oil quality today isn't top notch & many people do change their oil at longer intervals, but that's their choice at the end of the day.

So from what I'm gathering, I need to bring it on a motorway every now & again & do 70mph in a lower gear (5th instead of 6th maybe?). Its an automatic by the way, so will this do damage? Alternatively, drive on say a 40mph or 50mph road in say 4th gear instead of 5th.

Someone may be along to correct me, but I believe DPF regent is active between 70-90kph. At least that is what an indie garage told me while my car was hooked up. Certainly when I drive at that speed a regen is more noticeable with regards to a drop in mpg than if driving at 70mph and in a gear lower than normal.

Keep the revs at a relatively smooth range (in other words over 2000rpm) so the engine generates more heat, it makes very little difference to mpg. Take it for a blast down a dual carriageway once a week if you can. If it has 6 gears, leave it in 5th and do 70.

My Saab's regens were highly noticeable - a strong smell of very hot diesel engine with smoke and fumes from the exhaust, plus a short period of "lumpy" running.

The car had the 1.9 TiD engine and was I think quite old school compared with modern diesels. It ws a very close relative of the 1.9 turbo-diesel fitted to most GM and Fiat cars of that era.

By 'close relative" I mean that everything had GM part numbers!

Jack

Thank you all for your helpful responses. :regular_smile:

Quite honestly, any constant speed above 50 mph (actually anything above 70 km/h, which is 43.5 mph) will initiate a regen if needed, no need to hold a lower gear, just cruise above that speed & it will do it's thing.