Short trips with a Diesel car

[green van man]

Originally Posted by TM01

D1s are alright, so is the RR Classic, used to enjoy green laning in a ‘88 3.5 EFI Vogue that cost £700 at the time(dread to think what it would be worth now), like you say though anything later is a nightmare with them!, unfortunately made the mistake of getting a 2005 RR Sport a few years back, everything that could fail on it did, including the gearbox and air suspension .
It’s a shame the modern ones are built so badly as I’d love a D4, agree on the old Discos being pretty good though, need to be handy with a welder now and then though!.

Agreed, D1 should of been sold with a mig welder in the boot from new. Simple job of box section sills morphed into 4 and a half months of welding for me.
I have given up on the chassis and fitting a galvanised replacement. Still cheaper than replacing the truck and it's a known quantity.


Paul.

[phil1968]

Originally Posted by TM01

D1s are alright, so is the RR Classic, used to enjoy green laning in a ‘88 3.5 EFI Vogue that cost £700 at the time(dread to think what it would be worth now), like you say though anything later is a nightmare with them!, unfortunately made the mistake of getting a 2005 RR Sport a few years back, everything that could fail on it did, including the gearbox and air suspension .
It’s a shame the modern ones are built so badly as I’d love a D4, agree on the old Discos being pretty good though, need to be handy with a welder now and then though!.

I have a friend who had a 57-reg RR Sport TDI V8 ...it cost him £7k to have one of the turbos replaced as the whole body has to come off the chassis And that bill was from an indy...

[green van man]

Originally Posted by phil1968

I have a friend who had a 57-reg RR Sport TDI V8 ...it cost him £7k to have one of the turbos replaced as the whole body has to come off the chassis And that bill was from an indy...

While on a D1 you only have to remove the body to change the chassis

No they are no longer user friendly, pity as they had a name for rugged dependability that could be repaired in a field with a hammer. A reason the army stuck with the 300tdi long after the td5 came out.

Paul.

[TM01]

Originally Posted by phil1968

I have a friend who had a 57-reg RR Sport TDI V8 ...it cost him £7k to have one of the turbos replaced as the whole body has to come off the chassis And that bill was from an indy...

I thought £2.5k on a gearbox, £800 on an air suspension compressor and the cam belt service being £900 was bad!, I bet your friend was angry at that bill, £7k for a turbo is just nuts!.
Unless I bought an old one I’d never have anything made by LR again, the new XC 90 looks a lot nicer than the Disco 5 too.

[TM01]

Originally Posted by green van man

While on a D1 you only have to remove the body to change the chassis

No they are no longer user friendly, pity as they had a name for rugged dependability that could be repaired in a field with a hammer. A reason the army stuck with the 300tdi long after the td5 came out.

Paul.

I know the 200/300 TDIs were good engines but I didn’t think the TD5 was considered bad overall?, it’s certainly got to be leaps and bounds better than the
TDV6 and TDV8 that came after it, which have a habit of self destructing!.

[green van man]

No the td5 was a good engine, it did however mark the introduction of electronics to make it go.
Given what the car was designed to do, shoving the ECU under the seat caught a lot of people out.
A friend spent 18 months trying to sort out why his td5 defender stopped on the key and would not restart. Ecu sent off for testing , relays changed etc etc. Nothing made it work,untill another mate trying to help pulled the wiring loom out of the way to get more room, engine started next try. TurnEd out it was a high resistance joint on an earth bus bar. Nothing obvious, no sign of corrosion externally, but internal corrosion on the spades caused the voltage to drop enough to prevent the electronics working.

All cars have their weaknesses, but to the mechanical purist the electronics of the td5 were a step too far. I mean what could a garage charge for 18 months work chasing a high resistance joint?

Paul.

[Dastardly Diesel]

As an ex D1, 2, and IIi owner I reckon the D2 is fine...once you've binned the fragile air suspension and fitted springs and dampers. The engine itself is very tough developed from the Rover L series diesel, which was crude but utterly unburstable. Like for like a longer lived unit than the 200 and 300 series diesels.

As for the OP, I wouldn't use a diesel for short journeys. Aside from being injurious to the engines health, diesels are horrifically polluting until they've got some heat through them. People, are dying directly as a result of traffic air pollution, and using a diesel for short - and presumably urban - journeys is terrible in this regard.

If its less than 10 miles I cycle, day or night, rain or shine. Longer than that, usually SAR callouts, then I'll light up the car. I'm in my 50s and manage it ok, so I don't believe a word of the excuses people trot out for using a car for a 2 miles journey.

[green van man]

These people dieing directly of traffic air polution, could you state who, where and when? Or is this the generic people are dieing because of diesel cars scare tactics.

I heard a report that if 100% of the cars were removed from London the air quality would only improve by 10%, but hay let's crucify the drivers.

My 26 year old landrover passes the quick test for emitions every mot, has no visible smoke and no erg valve or dpf to block and 205k miles under it's belt, the ideal car for the mile trip to town for milk and papers. Living atop a 20% hill has its disadvantages and trying to ride a bike that I dont have up it is one of them.
So my take is that my car passes all required standards, is taxed and insured as required and I am going to use it as and when I feel like for whatever legal purpose I require.
Others are of course free to take a differing course if they so choose.

When the real polluters, aviation, shipping and industry are controlled then you can look at my landrover. Untill then I'm not interested in kneejerk reactions to be seen to be doing something, even if totally inefective.

Paul.

Ps, I'm also a man made climate crisis denier, it's just the climate changing as it always has.

[TM01]

Out of the D1/2s I think I like the look of the early 200s the best with the blue interior, TD5 doesn’t sound like it was a bad engine at all, I do really want to see what the big 4.2 TD in the Toyota is like though.

I don’t tend to do that many short trips in my modern diesel, it really can cause problems with the dpf, if short trips are the most common use I’d probably go for a petrol.
I’ve been doing my bit for congestion and climate change this week and commuted by motorbike(ok maybe not climate change as it gets worse MPG than my car!)

[CCFMJL]

Originally Posted by green van man

These people dieing directly of traffic air polution, could you state who, where and when? Or is this the generic people are dieing because of diesel cars scare tactics.

I heard a report that if 100% of the cars were removed from London the air quality would only improve by 10%, but hay let's crucify the drivers.

My 26 year old landrover passes the quick test for emitions every mot, has no visible smoke and no erg valve or dpf to block and 205k miles under it's belt, the ideal car for the mile trip to town for milk and papers. Living atop a 20% hill has its disadvantages and trying to ride a bike that I dont have up it is one of them.
So my take is that my car passes all required standards, is taxed and insured as required and I am going to use it as and when I feel like for whatever legal purpose I require.
Others are of course free to take a differing course if they so choose.

When the real polluters, aviation, shipping and industry are controlled then you can look at my landrover. Untill then I'm not interested in kneejerk reactions to be seen to be doing something, even if totally inefective.

Paul.

Ps, I'm also a man made climate crisis denier, it's just the climate changing as it always has.

Well said..