1.6 tdi and short Journeys

Sorry if this has been asked before but I could not find a thread on it with the search functions, so if there is a thread that covers this please point it out to me.

I am about to change from my 02 Passat TDI sport to hopefully a Octavia of around 2011 age.

I have been to look at a few with the 1.6tdi engine and have heard a lot of talk of the sort "If you do short journeys / less than 10k a year the DPF will self destruct"

I do not do a lot of miles, so this has put me off the the diesels. I don't mind the petrol and would settle for a 1.4tsi but they are like hens teeth second hand.

So is real or just car sale men cobblers ??

sale men cobblers

We don't have any diesels in stock, but this petrol car will do you okay.

Doing 12,000 miles a year saves you £500 per year on a diesel car.


Forget the car salesman, all you have to do is drive at slightly higher revs than a petrol. People don't know that you just boot the car once a month to clear out the exhaust in a diesel car, hence the DPF .

Petrol cars are just as prone to problems as diesel, spark plugs, coil packs, etc .................................................. ....................... don't go back to petrol is my advice

all depends on how far your journeys are and what sort of driving. you could be sat in traffic most of the time, which is bad, or doing 3 mile journeys on a roads, which is also bad. you need to be doing journeys where the car gets to temp and the odd longer journey, or you will soon be needing a new dpf and they are not cheap. so overall annual mileage is not important, but the actual journeys are.

That's the potential problem I have. I recently moved house and my commute is now a 10 minute journey instead of 20. This has started causing problems with my current 1.9tdi with sticking vnt vains. I do longer journeys at the weekend. I am concerned that did engines won't like this

Sent from my D2303 using Tapatalk

Did = DPF

Sent from my D2303 using Tapatalk

buy a petrol, get a bus pass, get a bike, walk etc... there are plenty of options.

Sticking vnt vanes is inevitable 100K plus irrespective of journey length as diesel exhaust gasses are sooty and even more sooty when the egr is active .

Just cut n shut the dpf and remap and ride the effortless wave of torque and great mpg .

Short journeys in a petrol, just means the choke is working longer & your wasting fuel

Maybe getting a smaller engine like a 1.0 or 1.2 petrol is what you need

Like a Polo/ Fabia etc

I love my wifes 1.4 tdi Fabia estate , 55 mpg and she is doing 10 miles to work

Thank you for your replies, I have gone down the petrol road :Blush2: and not a VAG one at that (hangs head in shame)

When I did the sums it would take 5 years to get back the extra cost of buying the diesel versions of the cars I was looking at in fuel savings. I was also mightily impressed with the way the modern petrol's performed so for me it was the better solution.

So goodbye to all on the Forum for now a I say goodbye to my beloved Passat 1.9TDI