Diesel Engines-How long do they last?

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Gold Pirate
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Post by Gold Pirate »

Just dug the manual out for my 1.9D non turbo, and Cit. recommend Total Quartz 7000 10w 40 semi synthetic or Quartz 9000 5w 40 fully synthetic at 10K intervals. As everyone here recommends the 5K oil change and those mileages speak for themselves, i'll do that, but is a fully synthetic oil really necessary in this older type of engine? and at a staggering £25 a can!!....£30+ with sump washer and filter.
simonelsey
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Post by simonelsey »

look after the engine everythink will be ok . This applies to all engines , Before buying my Hdi xsara , i had a toyota carina e 1.8cd petrol . By the time it got writeen off after someone pulled from side turning , it had done 250,000 miles , all on the same headgasket and clutch . The only stuff to go wrong was 1 set of discs, 1 set of drums , 1 Raditor and water pump , and the front pipe of exhaust obivously pads, shoes,timeing belt.

I had it serviced every 10,000 miles which basically worked out to every 3-4 months.

Just hope xsara is as good
2.0 hdi xsara estate been a pain but starting to look like a good buy
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reblack68
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Post by reblack68 »

Gold Pirate wrote: is a fully synthetic oil really necessary in this older type of engine?
No, it might even be detrimental. £10 should comfortably buy you a can of oil with a CF4 rating and that's as good as you need. Expensive oils stay in grade longer but I think most of us agree that frequent oil changes are the key to longevity. If your oil lasts twice as long it just means it accumulates twice as much dirt.

I used semi-synthetic oil in my SAAB once (Comma were doing a good deal at the time). It burned through it in no time. As the oil level fell I topped it up with mineral oil. Once I had put a sump's worth of mineral oil in the SAAB stopped burning it. On mineral oil I didn't have to top up between changes.
Richard

No French cars of my own at present.
Care of a 1994 205 D.
Gold Pirate
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Post by Gold Pirate »

excellent advice!

Thanks one and all and look forward to many years and many miles from the Blingo.

Cheers Steve
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Kowalski
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Post by Kowalski »

arry_b wrote: Tesco Diesel oil isn't too bad either, looks smells and drives just like the Comma stuff (who probably make it, what with Tesco not having their own oil refinery....)
I've tried both Comma (reasonable oils) and Tesco engine oils, they most definately are not the same stuff. The Tesco oil I tried was VERY runny, almost like water after 5k miles, where as the Comma oils come out with much the same consistency that they went in with.

Maybe I got a dodgy batch, but I'm not going to bother buying a second gallon to find out.
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Post by AndersDK »

reblack68 wrote:
Gold Pirate wrote: is a fully synthetic oil really necessary in this older type of engine?
No, it might even be detrimental. £10 should comfortably buy you a can of oil with a CF4 rating and that's as good as you need. Expensive oils stay in grade longer but I think most of us agree that frequent oil changes are the key to longevity. If your oil lasts twice as long it just means it accumulates twice as much dirt.

I used semi-synthetic oil in my SAAB once (Comma were doing a good deal at the time). It burned through it in no time. As the oil level fell I topped it up with mineral oil. Once I had put a sump's worth of mineral oil in the SAAB stopped burning it. On mineral oil I didn't have to top up between changes.
My words too ...

And please guys : no more oil religion discussions here. Stick with the oil brand & type that you swear to.
The secret is to find the VISCOSITY grade of oil that suits your engine best - and that definetely has to do with the build year and degree of wear of the engine. NOTHING to do with synt or mineral.

I said it before and I'll say it again : its amazing how many owners think they know better than the engine manufacturer - and pour in the best "5 star golden hypergrade synthetic synpower I'll-make-a-meal-of-you" oil they can find around.

Still these words are that wise they can do with a reprise :
reblack68 wrote:
Gold Pirate wrote: is a fully synthetic oil really necessary in this older type of engine?
No, it might even be detrimental. £10 should comfortably buy you a can of oil with a CF4 rating and that's as good as you need. Expensive oils stay in grade longer but I think most of us agree that frequent oil changes are the key to longevity. If your oil lasts twice as long it just means it accumulates twice as much dirt.

I used semi-synthetic oil in my SAAB once (Comma were doing a good deal at the time). It burned through it in no time. As the oil level fell I topped it up with mineral oil. Once I had put a sump's worth of mineral oil in the SAAB stopped burning it. On mineral oil I didn't have to top up between changes.
Anders (DK) - '90 BX16Image
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Post by Village »

And please guys : no more oil religion discussions here
the only religious moments I had when buying oil for my (much missed) V6 Cavalier was "Jesus Christ, thats expensive!!" whilst handing over the thick end of 30 quid for fully synthetic oil!! I felt that as it had high milage (for a petrol - 170k) and I regularly used the 190 bhp you could wring out of it at 6.5k rpm, the synthetic stuff was worth it.....

Having said that, I will be buying reasonably priced, correct grade oil for the ZX.

Changing the oil will be fun too, coz I don't have a drive and our road is so narrow that you have to park half on half off the curb. I wonder if they'd mind if I did it at lunchtime in the carpark at work.....
French car free zone....
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Kowalski
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Post by Kowalski »

Village wrote: the only religious moments I had when buying oil for my (much missed) V6 Cavalier was "Jesus Christ, thats expensive!!" whilst handing over the thick end of 30 quid for fully synthetic oil!! I felt that as it had high milage (for a petrol - 170k) and I regularly used the 190 bhp you could wring out of it at 6.5k rpm, the synthetic stuff was worth it.....
Off topic... but you'd need pretty special engine oil to get 190 bhp out of the 170 bhp V6 engine that the Cavalier had in it. Unless yours was modded it didn't produce that much power, in fact after 170k miles you'd be lucky if it produced the 170bhp that it had when it left the factory.
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Post by JohnTurbo »

simonelsey wrote:look after the engine everythink will be ok . This applies to all engines , Before buying my Hdi xsara , i had a toyota carina e 1.8cd petrol . By the time it got writeen off after someone pulled from side turning , it had done 250,000 miles , all on the same headgasket and clutch . The only stuff to go wrong was 1 set of discs, 1 set of drums , 1 Raditor and water pump , and the front pipe of exhaust obivously pads, shoes,timeing belt.

I had it serviced every 10,000 miles which basically worked out to every 3-4 months.

Just hope xsara is as good
Father's Carina E 2litre 16v eventually threw a bearing shell after 371 thousand miles on the original clutch. That ran magnatec.

The chap who moted my Xantia however claimed similar figures for his brothers 405 taxi diesel, and sold it on running. I should imagine having 1 brother owning a garage, and another one a bodyshop would mean you'd be in the mindset for frequent oil changes.
Citroens have more spheres.
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Post by Village »

off-topic again... The Cav came with a rolling road read out when I bought it. It showed 189 bhp with 137.5k on the clock. It had been poked with some sort of power stick by the guy who had the car before the fella who sold it to me. so your right it didn't have 190 horses at 170k, but it did have 189 at 137.5k. It felt like it would pass anything (except a petrol station!!) Now sadly missed, but not by my bank balence!

:lol:

Diesel is better anyway.....
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Post by pwatson »

When people start asking/quoting high mileages or reliability of Cit diesels I always use this post nicked from the old forum a few years ago

Posted by Mike 1703 on September 24, 2002, 12:58 pm , in reply to "Perfect car?"
194.117.133.84
I drive a BX diesel which I use as a taxi. It's my 5th. BX 19 diesel & all gave me the greatest satisfaction in both reliability & economy. I still have my 1987 BX which I cannibalise for spares, not that I need many. It was retired for 'scrap' after a crash @ 350,000 miles. It's replacement was sold off for less than the value of its parts @ 450,000 miles; one has been retired to my driveway @ 740,000miles & my current workhorse is now @ 380,000 miles. I've never changed a wheel-bearing, only one gearbox and a few suspension bits; one major engine overhaul; two head-jobs but never a tow-home failure [unless you count the one time I let the cam-belt snap!]. Why is it Ford drivers keep telling me 'You've just been lucky mate' which is usually followed by 'anyway, no car can do that sort of mileage, who are you trying to kid'!

Wonder what happened to Mike 1703?

By the way, loads of room in the back of a Berlingo for oil and beer (and don't forget the wine boxes at £6 for 5 litres from Auchan!! (about same price as the oil!! - but needs topping up more often!!)
Phil
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sdabel
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Post by sdabel »

What do people suggest for intervals based on time? I do very few miles and have been changing every 6 months, should it be more often?

regards
sean
1996 XM 2.1 TD exclusive
jeremy
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Post by jeremy »

Sean - yes 6 months is probably about right - but how long are you going to keep the car and is it likely to make any difference? - either from the reliability or financial viewpoint -ie on sale. (You must remember that in UK we can barely give away 10 year old cars)
jeremy
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Post by Kowalski »

sdabel wrote:What do people suggest for intervals based on time? I do very few miles and have been changing every 6 months, should it be more often?

regards
sean
If you're doing more than 12k miles per year, that means your oil changes will be more than 6k apart, if thats the case you need to think about more oil changes. I'm doing 3 oil changes a year but I am doing a little under 18k miles annually.

Generally speaking the car should have at least one oil change a year, regardless of whether it does enough miles to need it, i.e. even if you don't drive the car.
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sdabel
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Post by sdabel »

My insurance limits me to 5,000KM a year and I don't get anywhere near that. Engine and trans fluid are easy enough to change so I could do it every 3 months. But it that going to make any measurable difference the car?


regards
sean
1996 XM 2.1 TD exclusive
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