Honest John’s Motoring Agony Column 21-01-2018 Part 2

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Fri 19 Jan 2018 21:57
- Engineer Andy
Again, with diesels - a manufacturer is recommending an owner doing 25 miles a WEEK or 100+ a month just to guarantee it passively regenerates the DPF. So all that extra mpg they're getting over petrol engined cars is essentially wasted just to burn off some soot.

Just shows how ridiculous it is buying a diesel if you either don't do mostly motorway type driving (even on lower mileage, but then you get far less of a benefit from the better mpg than petrol if you do very low mileage) or over 20k miles (preferably 25k) pa and a regular (at least once a week if not more) amount on faster-moving roads.

Obviously if you tow a caravan regularly, then that's a different matter and you have to adjust accordingly, but if you only use it a couple of times a year, then surely it would be better to buy a much smaller, cheaper car suited to day-to-day needs and pay for an appropriate diesel hire car when you need to tow. Thoughts?
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Fri 19 Jan 2018 21:58
- Engineer Andy
I think our friend JC from the USA is perhaps confusing this site with honestjohn.com
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Sat 20 Jan 2018 10:43
- nrm1969
For sticking door seals you could try Gummiflege, i have used for a few years and seems to do the job of stopping them freezing to the door.
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Sat 20 Jan 2018 11:42
Honest John’s Motoring Agony Column 21-01-2018 Part 2 - HighlanderUK

agreed, I use this on my door seals every month of so, stops sticking in winter and squeeks any other time.

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Sun 21 Jan 2018 11:50
Honest John’s Motoring Agony Column 21-01-2018 Part 2 - Chris James
Again, with diesels - a manufacturer is recommending an owner doing 25 miles a WEEK or 100+ a month just to guarantee it passively regenerates the DPF. So all that extra mpg they're getting over petrol engined cars is essentially wasted just to burn off some soot. Just shows how ridiculous it is buying a diesel if you either don't do mostly motorway type driving (even on lower mileage, but then you get far less of a benefit from the better mpg than petrol if you do very low mileage) or over 20k miles (preferably 25k) pa and a regular (at least once a week if not more) amount on faster-moving roads. Obviously if you tow a caravan regularly, then that's a different matter and you have to adjust accordingly, but if you only use it a couple of times a year, then surely it would be better to buy a much smaller, cheaper car suited to day-to-day needs and pay for an appropriate diesel hire car when you need to tow. Thoughts?

The fitting of Particulate Filters is becoming more & more likely on Petrol engines, in fact some manufacturers such as VW are fitting them already, so in years to come you will face exactly the same problem for short journeys, whether you choose petrol or diesel. I suspect once more people have changed over to Petrol cars, fitting a petrol particulate filter to all new cars will rapidly become mandatory. because petrol cars emit health damaging particulates too, as well as several other nasty substances and when there are more on the road the pollution levels will eventually rise to where they are today - rinse and repeat.

There are already several reports that some newer petrol cars, put out just as many harmful particulates as early pre DPF diesel engines, plus they still have to figure out how they are going to reduce benzo(a)pyrene emissions from petrol engines, a substance which causes cancer and are already reaching toxic levels in some towns, so I predict this will be next topic on the anti-car agenda and they'll eventually be taxed to enter cities, just like diesels, as the circle continunes.....

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170523144338...m

Within the next ten years, I suspect there will be so much anti-pollution equipment bolted onto cars, that the only reliable options available for short journeys, will be an Electric Car, Bike, or Horse and Cart.

Edited by Chris James on 21/01/2018 at 12:00

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Sun 21 Jan 2018 13:57
Honest John’s Motoring Agony Column 21-01-2018 Part 2 - Engineer Andy

That might be going a bit too far, though it might still happen (to a degree) if people let the green lobby and leftwingers who really run councils and government get their way - unfortunately being an armchair critic (I am just as culpable as most) won't advance the cause of the motorist.

I would say though, that whilst all forms of fossil fuels are obviously pollutants and, to varying degrees harmful to human health, diesel still seems to be worse of the two, as its been noticeable that since diesel cars became vastly more popular and prevelent in the UK, and especially in cities, respiratory diseases and complaints have increases a great deal.

As an asthma sufferer myself, I can vouch for that - I went to college in London in the early 1990s, before the rise in diesels, and worked in the same area (of London) much more recently, and I noticed my asthma was far worse in recent years than when I was at college, and yet I was out and about at least as much, if not more so at that earlier time, including when vehicles were far more polluting generally on a like-for-like basis than today .

As I've said in another post (part 1 of the letters), having public (consumer) pressure brought to bear on the car and van manufacturers would easily get them (as they do for HGVs) to introduce DPF (or similar) warning/control/information systems so that they can be used more wisely, including the adpation of driving styles to suit passive regens, as well as to force manufacturers to start offering cars specifically designed for city use that either had automatic DPF systems that wouldn't be harmed by short use, new tech so they weren't required at all or at least a combination of the info/warning systems I previously mentioned and higher use of hybrid systems that would reduce the need for the fossil-fuelled engines for very short or exclusively low speed urban journeys.

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Sun 21 Jan 2018 22:20
- SteveLee
It's not just air pollution we have to suffer because of the eco-loons forced people into nasty dirty diesel cars in order to reduce the production of harmless plant food. It's the noise too, I bought my London home on a main road in the late 90s when diesels were rare - I'd hear the odd bus but traffic noise wasn't a problem from within the property - within three or four years I had to change the windows to try to reduce the din of diesel clatter from the inevitable London traffic jams, a further 5 years down the line where practically every car on the road was a diesel and New Labour's 7m+ extra people are jamming the roads even more, the expensive sound-proofed windows were no longer up to the job of containing the din. Needless to say - I moved!

Diesel cars should be banned - it's that simple.
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Tue 23 Jan 2018 10:58
- gordonbennet
I humbly suggest to AS of Warrington to find one of the very good MB indies in his area to perform the interim oil changes instead of Halfords.

Nothing at all against Halfords but when the time comes to sell the car on, a name known in MB circles on the service record will be a more welcome sight for many potential (quite fussy about such things) buyers than the other, plus genuine filters will more likely to be used instead of some generic make.

Agree wholeheartedly with more frequent servicing whoever does it.

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