1.6 tdi and short Journeys

[TheMadhatter]

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 ??

[niall campbell]

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

[zollaf]

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.

[TheMadhatter]

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

[TheMadhatter]

Did = DPF

Sent from my D2303 using Tapatalk

[zollaf]

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

[Gazwould]

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 .

[niall campbell]

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

[TheMadhatter]

Thank you for your replies, I have gone down the petrol road 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