v40, how many miles do they last?

[skyship007]

I always do my homework before buying a car and the Renault block used as the basis for the engine of the phase 2 1.9D is generally considered to be about the best of the diesel engines made at the time in terms of life expectancy and is also one of the more economic ones as well.
There is no reason why you should not be able to do 3 to 400,000 miles before a rebuild and the limiting factor will probably be the emissions test in my case, as Germany has tougher standards than the UK.
The secret to long engine life is mostly a matter of using top quality oil and filters (Definitely Volvo filters), combined with adjusting the oil change interval to suit the cars use. If you drive mostly on the motorways then 10,000 mile changes if you use top quality 5/40 full synthetic oil is reasonable to start with, but the trick is to cross check the change interval by doing occasional oil analysis using a lab like Blackstone in the US that has experts to write the comments section and warn you of potential problems.
If you are faced with driving in town a lot and doing a lot of stop starts, then cut the change the change interval down and once you get past 200,000 miles then defintely change oil and filter every 6,000 miles. The oil analysis results will guide you in your final few hundred thousand miles and low oil consumption is a very good sign (Mine is 1 ltr per 10,000 km change interval). I will be taking a sample for the lab alternate oil changes when I change the air and fuel filters and if it starts to show fuel contamination then I will shorten the oil change interval further and think about changing the injector tips if the oil consumption and metal particles figures look good. Obviously if I start to see traces of anti freeze or silica particles in the oil analysis results I will act accordingly in terms of sealing the cooling system and checking for air filter leaks.
I am investigating the possible use of Liquid Moly Ceretec additive to reduce wear of the rings in particular as I have to do a lot of stop start driving, but I want to get several oil analysis figures first to use as a base line for checking if it works. The general opinion is that it helps reduce wear in the cylinders but not the exhaust valve guides and top end, so my aim is to hope the bearings are in good enough condition at 400,000 km to consider a top end only overhaul including new injector tips and valve guides. If I make 400,000 km that will be the key decision making service, because the cam belt will also be due and in economic terms there is no point in doing a top end job to pass the emissions test for a few more years and the expensive cam belt service, if the particle figures and oil consumption graph looks like either the rings or even a bearing will fail in the near future.
Some time in the future I will check if switching to the use of LM 0/40 Synthoil helps, but I will have to watch the analysis results in terms of TBN in particular, because use of 0/40 has not been evaluated by either Volvo or LM, but it is listed as OK in the handbook and Renault think it is also acceptable. It might help offset my stop start cycle ring wear issues, but oils that have a wider viscosity range sometimes use additives that don't last as long, which is one reason why a lot of trucks use 15/40 because some of the good quality oils of that type last longer and most trucks do much longer trips, so initial cold start wear is not such a concern.
Obviously driving style makes a difference in terms of engine life and the avoidance of high revs when the engine is cold is very important, but my main concern is lack of autobahn use, as a once a month blast on a Sunday will have to be included to try and burn off carbon deposits and luckily the lack of a speed limit is of great help in that respect as you need to get to near max continous RPM (Red line is 4500 and continous rating is 4000 for the 1.9D) for a few hours to really clean things out.
If the figures look good I am going to see if Liquid Moly will sponsor my oil changes as I try for the record before a rebuild.

3133 Keith Hinchliffe UK England V40 2002 457478
2659 Gerhard P. Hirsch Germany V40 diesel 2002 370647

Does anyone know if the two chaps above did any kind of rebuild or top end job on their diesels, as I would be interested to know? In my mind the real record will be miles before a rebuild.
I kind of think the tubo might not last that long, but not sure about that as most fail because of incorrect maintenance and one reason I use a good full synthetic approved by Porsche is that turbos are real fussy in oil terms, although some get killed off by drivers that go hammering down the autobahn and then suddenly decide to answer a call of nature that has a fast direct access lane to a parking place, so they slam the brakes on and immediately switch off the engine as soon as they stop. Doing that trick even once with most turbos causes real damage to the bearings and modern top of the range cars have an electric post shut down oil pump to keep oil flowing around the turbo for as long as 5 minutes in some cases.