I have absolutely no evidence for the following and I don’t claim to be an expert, what I know about cars has been built up over many years from reading and owning cars of all makes and types….

There seem to be lots of failures of EGR and Turbos on the diesel v8’s, more so with the 3.6 but recently I’ve heard of problems with the 4.4 as well… Lots of speculation surrounding why and how to prevent it…

It strikes me that a lot of these problems are due to the engine not being used as it was intended, these are high performance complex engines that were tested flat out for many thousands of miles and were signed off as fit for purpose, then, along comes an owner who maybe does 20-30 miles a day, in traffic and the engine rarely gets above 1500rpm, it never gets to the correct operating temperatures across the whole engine as it’s basically doing nothing (start a cold diesel and leave it ticking over and see how long it takes to get to normal temp) this must cause a lot of wear on parts that are designed to all work together at the same temp. The inlet tracts get bunged up with deposits from the EGR’s and I think we all must have seen some pictures of the mess they can get in.

I personally know of three cases of turbo failure on Range Rovers that have cost bucket loads to fix, two were driven by the owners wives most of the time and they both drive very steadily as they usually have children in the car, the third is a good friend who makes Morgan Freeman from “Driving Miss Daisy” look like Sterling Moss… I also know of two other 3.6TDV8’s and both have been chipped and occasionally get driven like a hire car, both are leggy on the miles but both running fine with no issues at all (that statement has probably just sentenced one of them to death…!!!)
I had an ageing XC70 a while back as a work car, there was a post on the Volvo forum from a guy who took his inlet pipe off and the 80-90mm pipe was reduced to 20-30mm due to thick black sooty sludge, mine had far more miles so I took mine off to see if it was similar, mine was not restricted at all, just had a black coating… I don’t know how the guy drove his but with all he did to it he obviously loved it and was probably very steady with it…

So, it seems to me that if you own a big engine diesel you need to “give it the beans” every now and again, make sure it’s fully warmed up, pick your favourite “B” road, stick it in sport and explore the upper reaches of the rev counter… when finished, drive steadily for a few miles before stopping. I really do think this is a good idea and won’t do any harm to your pride and joy and hopefully will make it last a long, long time…

There again I could be way off the mark… please feel free to comment, call me names, slag me off, or anything else you can think of, maybe a discussion like this will help us all. I don’t think petrol’s suffer quite so bad as diesels but I follow the above practice at any opportunity just because I like the noise it makes……  Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
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Pete, I think you are right about this. Ideally every engine needs to be warmed up fully and get some real work done over the entire rev range. If that is not possible to do it all the time then at least once or twice a week one should try to take it for a long trip where it gets to warm up completely and work up and down the rev range for a while. It is a bit like the "Italian Tune Up".

Diesel engines are notorious for warming up slowly, I remember my Peug took forever in the slow crawl to the highway and than the traffic jam to work. My petrol cars never had that problem. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Good thinking pete. Its been on my mind the same, one reason I may put off getting another diesel.
I also think the same is related to the gm box in the td6, if it does loads of motorway miles I think it lasts a lot longer.
And with the dpf on later cars, shows the car has to do a good run to clean it.
Greg.

i agree with you Pete..  ... - .- -.




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Agree entirely

A friend of mine sold his four year old BMW x5 to a guy down the pub who wanted it for his wife. The car had about 200,000 miles on it and had been serviced by BMW on the button every time. My mate had all the normal stuff - tyres brake pads etc.
He did regular long trips to Glasgow and somerset, and he has a place in Portugal which he drives to a couple of times a year.
It is one of the most reliable cars I can think of and he is no slouch.
As I say he sold it to a guy who wanted it for his wife to do the school run and go to Morrison's etc.
Well I bet you can all guess the rest!

Yes. She has had nothing but trouble with it.
Turbo failure, two injectors, radiator, etc.
It's as if the car has said to her"I've had enough"!!!!!!!
Complex engines need to be driven as Pete said. Certainly up to temperature!
Drive em like you stole em!!!!!!!

Mine should be fine then

Spot on, IMO, Pete.  Visiting from DISCO3.CO.UK
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I always suggest to customers that when they join the motorway (heading North or South from here 3 miles away) they should get into the habit of flooring the throttle, going to the red line in at least the first few gears, clearing out the crud on the slip road effecting an “Italiano tune up”

Im sure thats why company cars came back from a service feeling/driving better back in the day! NOT because of all the new service parts fitted! No no, because of the 18yr old let loose in it for the road test

Yep, I see the same thing on my work hack. Coming on 200k now, VW 1.9 PD engine which are well known for lunching on turbos. I've not even done the EGR delete, just drive it like I stole it and change the oil every 10k. Original turbo, EGR, exhaust, no issues (That's f.!cked it now)

As for the 'Charger, it simply isn't possible to drive it like Morgan Freeman. 500+ horses would soon get bored walking everywhere, a damn good canter is much more fun

This is the reason I'm contemplating selling mine I've done 500 miles since January and only about 120 were motorway where I assumed the more spirited approach. No muck and filth came out the back, which was nice. I cycle to work now and she sits on the drive, looking splendid. I really love this car though

Very interesting read above. I always suspected this approach but was reluctant to follow.

Semi related thread here from last week:
http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic37268.html

I'm off to Cirencester from Bromsgrove tomorrow so some beans will be given if I find an empty stretch of M5.

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Remember it's easier to get forgiveness than permission!

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I have the petrol version, and like to give the beans just to know it still does indeed sound nice!
However, by day I often drive an old company van from around 2007 vintage. We were briefed a few years ago, to try and run the engine in say (manual) 3rd gear to clear the engine, as some were going into 'diesel runaway' in traffic.
Maybe, drivers instead of holding throttle open, all be it for maybe 5- 10 seconds.... Could maybe, when hot, lock out the gearing to say ( equivilent of) the 'old third'gear, and hold reasonable throttle, to get the engine revving quite high, and sit in outside lane, for say 10 mins. Plenty of air rushing through, no-one to hopefully see all the soot etc, and redline not quite entered.

How about some of that Seafoam product that you spray into air filter to decrud the engine....

Agree, but not only for diesel. Having had many big engined cars I'm convinced that a good "powerdrive" now and then, really make them better driving cars, might it be diesel or petrol. I am also convinced that driving on lpg, "dries out" the engine and that a good ride on petrol always does the car good. Modern city traffic is killing bigger engined cars.

Last edited by Robert on 3rd May 2016 5:31pm. Edited 1 time in total

I am a total advocate of the floor it at least once a drive method of engine cleaning. My car generally gets used for longer trips so will normally enjoy a nice slow warm up, a bootfull of revs when joining a dual carriageway, and now summer is here a tin tent on the back, so will normally sit in a lower gear than it would without it.

i let her warm through then give it the beans on pretty much every trip, it won't do it any harm at all, and keeps all the moving parts, well, moving! I don't tend to drive it like i stole it, juts more revs a couple of times a trip then a nice cool down.

As mentioned in the thread above, the secondary turbo on the 4.4 doesn't spool up until around 2500rpm so its perfectly possible to drive it for months without ever using it, thus filling it with oil. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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It does ring true - mine will no doubt get several 'work outs' once the tin-tent is hitched up for the summer season.

For now, it's safely tucked up with a conditioning charger connected ... as I'm outta the Country! Regards,
Mick

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