First Drive: 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI

After 18 years of turbodiesel I said enough.

 

Thanks - for both!

I never left you guys - just in read mode.

Busy with my own forum!

Anyway, to back IT: I have a Prius user that was given as a company car an Alfa 159 1.9 Turbodiesel. While he was good with the prius (5.0 highway (130 km/h) 3.3 home/office) with the alfa he is around 9.0 - and NOT happy.

 

Yes, Dang! That is my personal record on one tank. But had to do tons of P&G.

Yes, not good. But you know why? All those filters to make the exhaust clean choke the engine up.

Many here say that a Prius is not convenient compared to diesel. But what diesel? The old and dirty ones, yes - maybe. But not the new ones, with Nox filter and particulate filter. No way!

Even the new Toyota Auris, with a 1.4 clean diesel 90 HP engine, the average is 6.0 l*100 km. The old Corolla with the same but dirtier engine did 4.5...

 

Documented!



Please note the mileage and fuel level.

We are talking about diesel, right? The 1NZ is a petrol engine.

Diesel engines never had a throttle that limits air intake, but limits the diesel injected in the piston. Therefore a diesel has no pumping loss and this is the main reason for their high efficency.

Unfortunately this created tons of Nox, while particulate (PM10) has always been a niusance (the black puffs).

There are two ways of reducing Nox:
1) You choke the throttle (hey! We got pumping loss)
2) you inject diesel after burn, in the exhaust collector - pre cat.

PM10 is more of a niusance - they are collected in filters and, every 500-1000 km the engine runs in a special mode to burn what's in the filter. creating PM2.5 - some say it is more dangerous than PM10.

This special mode burns extra fuel and can work only is the engine runs above 2000 rpm. A problem for those who use cars in big cities.

Mazda had a serious issue with their DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) equipped diesels: if the regeneration was missed, diesel started to dilute the oil, which then made the check engine light goes on, the car goes in safe mode and have the whole engine reserviced.
The official solution is to do a motorway run (over 2000 rpm) for 20 minutes when the DPF light comes on.

Not quite the best eco-friendly solution!

You can read more about it here: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/deer_2004/session12/2004_deer_seguelong2.pdf

 

I did post there.

What do you have? E F?

I don't know.
Since the next day I had to to a trip, I filled her up before leaving: I don't like filling on the road since motorway fuel is more expensive.

USA and Canadians are expeiencing that cicle we had in Europe in the 90's.

What I showed you are the problem we are facing after 15 years of growing diesel supremacy. last year 60% of all cars are diesel, and if you remove the city cars, that percentage goes up to 90%.

Now diesel is losing it's popularity because:
1) diesel cars are more expensive to buy and maintain
2) diesel fuel was by far cheaper, now it costs about the same. Since our diesel is becomeing cleaner (less and less sulphur) it is becomeng more expensive to produce.
3) Newer cars consume more than they did previously. See previous post.

Pretty soon the used cars market will be inondated by used diesels that nobody wants. So much for keeping their value.

Oh, I'm so happy that I have a prius.

 

When I first had a diesel (Fiat Uno Turbo Diesel: 1350cc - 72 Hp) diesel was 590 lires, petrol was 1410 lires. Diesel cars had to pay a special road tax to compensate the lack on income tax on petrol. For the Uno was 375000 lire per year.

In 1990 they abolished the diesel road tax but the price of diesel went up to -25% the price of petrol. When the Euro came petrol was just 1€ and diesel 0.75€.

In the meantine the sulphur was reduced to max 350 PPM and will have to be reduced to 50 PPM by 2009. Today petrol is 1.30€ diesel 1.25€ and sulphur free diesel costs as much as petrol.

How much suphur is in your diesel?

 

Our ULSD is 15ppm.

 

While getting morally slapped I did a few researches....

In the 80s, PPM limit was 350.

In the 90s, reduced to 50.

By 2009, if has to be <10.

I can give you italian links. But wiki comes in hand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-low_sulfur_diesel

At the European Union level, the “Euro IV†standard applies since 2005, which specifies 50 ppm maximum quantity of sulfur in diesel fuel for most highway vehicles[7]; ultra-low sulfur diesel with a maximum of 10 ppm of sulfur must “be available†from 2005 and is actually widely available. A final target (to be confirmed by the European Commission) of 2009 for the final reduction of sulfur to 10 ppm, which will be considered the entry into force of the Euro V fuel standard. In 2009, diesel fuel for most non-highway applications is also expected to conform to the Euro V standard for fuel. Various exceptions exist for certain uses and applications, most of which are being phased out over a period of several years. In particular, the so-called EU accession countries (primarily in Eastern Europe), have been granted certain temporary exemptions to allow for transition. Certain EU countries may apply higher standards or require faster transition.[8] For example, Germany implemented a tax incentive of €0.015 per litre of "sulphur free" fuel (both gasoline and diesel) containing less than 10 ppm beginning in January, 2003 and average sulphur content was estimated in 2006 to be 3-5 ppm. Similar measures have been enacted in most of the Nordic countries, Benelux, Ireland and the United Kingdom to encourage early adoption of the 50 ppm and 10 ppm fuel standards.[9]

 

Since 1991 (yes, I know, 20 years after America) we started adopting emission limits called Euro 1. Now we are at Euro 4, with Euro 5 and 6 proprosed for 2009 and 2014 respectively.

You can read all about it here as well as consunting the tables with the various emission limits.

 

Drastic but necessary. The effects of inhaling particulate matter has been widely studied in humans and animals and include asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular issues, and premature death. The size of the particle is a main determinant of where in the respiratory tract the particle will come to rest when inhaled. Larger particles are generally filtered in the nose and throat and do not cause problems, but particulate matter smaller than about 10 micrometres, referred to as PM10, can settle in the bronchi and lungs and cause health problems.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particulate_matter#Health_effects

The problem in discussion now is that DPF disintegrates PM10 to Pm2.5 and PM1, which is not measured and therefore legal.

The problem with such fine particles is that DO NOT settle in bronchi and lungs but go into the blood streams and end up in liver, kidneys, etc.

From the frying pan to the fire....

If you understand French you can watch this http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=500000#page=lastvideos;vid=7554697 and keep in mind that Switzerland has much less diesel cars than the rest of the EU.