This is a very important scientific test to show the importance of not leaving a vehicle at idle for long periods. I will publish the winners on Monday on our Facebook page, thank you all for making a guess and happy Christmas.
I was thinking it had a 50ltr tank and there would be some error on the gauge which do report 0.6-0.8/h usually So I would've guessed 62,5 hours :D I guess I shall stop shutting engine down while idling lol.
@@rkan2 He put everything drawing power like the cabin fan, lights and so on, off. So the consumption is more to be 0,5-0,6 Liters pers hour. If I remember correct, these Golfs had a 55 Liter fuel tank that could be fueled up to about 58 Liters when pushing the vent pin with the nozzle while refueling. So about 100 hours is realistic. And it was nearly perfectly that. I have driven a Octavia of the same generation and had a bet to run 1500 km on a tank. I did 1550 km with all the tricks, with a consumption of 3,7 L/100km. But after running dry, I would never push the high pressure pump (belt driven) so long without diesel in it, which is also the pumps lubricant. Just turn the key, let the primer pump run (turns off after 10 seconds) turn off and on again for 30 seconds. After that, it will start in less than 5 seconds.
Hint for next time: you don't need to damage your starter by trying to start that long after running out of fuel, when you turn on and off the ignition before activating the starter. Every time you do this, you hear a splashing noise from the fuel pump. After a few times, this noise will stop. When you use the starter then, it will almost instantly start up. Much better for starter, battery and unit injectors, because then they don't run dry for so long. I drive my Golf PD TDI since more than 23 years now. First generation AJM Engine with 85 kW, Chiptuning since 23 years already, 103 kW, 350 Nm. Never any problem with drive train. Never needed to fix anythin in engine, first starter, first turbo, first alternator, even the muffler is still first one. With warm weather I can drive it with 3.5 l/100km at 90 km/h, although I have 19" wheels. When you press the ventilation button, you can fill another 10 l into the tank, so that you have 65 l of diesel. This way I was doing more than 1600 km with one tank of fuel several times already.
As a Canadian... Your comment about original muffler felt like a personal attack... lol In Canada you're lucky to get 5-6 years out of a OEM muffler. After markets usually like 3 years. Usually the pipe is what rots out first here.
@@TheWarjunkie666 There are different quality grades, which have different lifetime, even from VW themselves for the same part number. From my first car, I also knew what you described: after market mufflers rotten after 3 years. And I have to admit: from the clamp that connected the middle pipe to the end muffler fell to dust. But that was easy and cheap to replace.
@@skino666By using a power inverter that takes the 12v DC and turns it into AC voltage for household stuff. Not the most efficient way to do it, but does work and doesn’t require having a specific generator.
Back in the day when fuel was cheap and before we were concerned about the environment it was common in countries with a cold climate to leave diesel vehicles like taxis, buses, trucks and locomotives running 24/7 in the winter, the reason being they were often hard to start in the cold, took a long time to warm up and the cold start puts a lot of wear on the engine. Not to mention that your vehicle was always ready for use with ice free windows, batteries fully charged and (for heavy vehicles) air in the brake reservoir. The idling capability were even considered one of the big advantages on a (older) diesel engine over a petrol engine. They could often be kept idling indefinitely without any particular bad effects and with a minimal fuel consumption. The other big advantages were of course the overall low fuel consumption, the reliability and the simple service requirements the old ones with mechanical fuel injection had. A couple of oil/filter changes, a fuel filter and an air filter each year, timing belt (if any) and maybe a water pump every 100-150.000 kilometers, that was about it for most of them. The big drawback: Lower power output than a petrol engine of comparable displacement, but the diesels higher torque partially made up for it.
interesting fact, i own an honda fit, 1.3 L, it idles at 650 rpm, consumption 0,58 L/H. I found it great because other petrol cara idle at 800+ RPM, this brings wear to the engine earlier
Diesel engines does not have any better torque than petrol. 2 same size engines without turbo and there is no difference. Actually petrol might even have more torque because it has more hp and torque comes from low rpm hp. But people still think diesel has more torque because they have more displacement or turbo or both. Vw golf mk2 1.6d has less torque than vw golf mk2 1.6 petrol
@@Santelssithat’s wrong, more often than not a diesel be it turbo’d or non turbo’d will have more torque than a petrol for the same displacement however less horsepower. For eg E60 bmw 535d 3.0L has 560nm torque but like 268hp compared to M5 with 5.0L v10 petrol engine that has 520nm torque but 500hp. Diesels are notorious for their torque that’s why they are used in lorries & truck and larger vehicles where lots of torque is needed to pull weight.
These PD motors are brilliant things, tons of performance and efficient pretty much however driven. Looked after right (i.e regular oil changes and the right oil at that) they will just go on forever. Had an Ibiza 130 PD Sport some years ago and it was just hilarious!
We have a 1.9SDI in our Skoda Fabia from 2004. 64hp and 125nm Its the slowest shitbox we ever had. But damn its surprisingly fun in the corners and we never got it to take more than 5.5L/100km Regularly 4.5-5L/100km
Got a PD140 pushing 300,000 miles a PD 170 at 220,000 Miles And a mapped and Modified PD140 with 195,000 miles on the clock. You aint wrong when you say they go one forevery. Just keeping throwing oil and filters at it,
I remember back in the 80's we had a severe winter and people were stuck in huge traffic jams and of course kept their cars running to keep them warm. It was reported on the news multiple engines had blown up and they advised people not to leave their cars idling. So certainly back in those days not all engines could be kept running constantly like that !
@@henrik1743 Well thevoil shouldn't matter much since the engines are running and therefore warm. Even many fairly modern engines have problems with lubrication on idle though, so that's probably why... Just not enough oil preasure.
Friend of mine had the same situation last winter, they couldn’t move for 2 days because of snow and an accident. His wife was totally frightened because his car is electric. They lost around 45% of battery in the two days, because they had the heat on high, heated seats and infotainment for the kids. Now she always prefers his car in the winter 😁.
@@erebostdi guess you have forgot how li-ion batteries work? I mean under 0degrees C, you will have around 60% full capacity. So if your story would be true, that would mean from 50% battery theyve heated their car for 48 hours in subzero conditions. Did you write the bible mate? My friends, turn off the heat many times, because it drains the HV battery too quick. Also im pretty sure they didnt have a full battery to start with. Im guessing you have not seen the highways in -5-10degrees conditions, where every 20-50ms there is a dead EV left on the road :) next time try to come up with something more realistic mate.
Many years ago I worked in forestry and went on my Christmas holidays forgetting to switch off a Unimog which I had topped up with 120L of diesel - 10 days later I topped it up again with 85L
In august found a neglected mk4 Golf with good body and 430kkm on the clock (AGR engine). Cold engine started from half a turn and no lifter tick. Did a roadtrip in another AGR Golf, 2200km with average 4.3L/100km.
I have a Passat 130 estate which I had parked up at the side of the shed. Almost full tank of diesel. Started it last winter to keep the battery topped up and kinda forgot about it til 4 days later...
Thanks dude! I always kinda felt a little bad running my 1.9 ALH idle and always wondered how long I could do so.... I love those cars they are the best. Take care of that golf! Merry Xmas.
that is a great point. all S/S systems are good for is revenue for the battery and starter manufacturers. Absolute trash of a system. I mean really.... how many people are worried about saving a teaspoonful of fuel that may be consumed at a stoplight or drive through?
@@HamRadio200 Start Stop really isn't about saving fuel on an individual basis, it's about emissions. I've just come back from the US and over there they have traffic lights every 20 seconds and you typically end up stopped at them for 2 minutes or so. They need more roundabouts. But anyway, my point is it is about scale. Imagine the emissions coming from 40 or 50 cars sat waiting at traffic lights for 2 minutes. Doesn't seem like much when you only think about yourself, but when you scale it up to reality in cities.. the two minutes of having your engine shut off makes a huge difference. Isn't that useful here in the UK because I can drive for ages without needing to stop for more than a couple seconds at a roundabout, but I don't live in a city with thousands of cars waiting at intersections and roundabouts or in standstill traffic.
the smoke during the test might have come from the turbo.. they tend to leak a little oil when the exhaust / bosst pressure is low.. the type of seals used use the pressure to keep the oil inside...nothing critical
OLD VW's are INDESTRUCTIBLE engine-wise. I have a 52 plate Bora with 179k on it and the local mechanic says it's the smoothest diesel he's worked on, then again, I drive it HARD.
No they aren't lmao. In fact vw golf mk4 have bad engines, that start burning oil after 100.000km. You could do the engie rebuild which is costly, but that might or might not fix the problem. Also they pollute too much and they you will be swapping catalysators every 2 years to pass the emission test and that's with 10.000 km... they are just bad engines.
That was a brilliant experiment, i enjoyed catching up with your posts. That would of been a very sought after cat at one point, lots of extras like heated seats rain sensing wipers etc, my first nice car was a mk4 golf about 19 years ago was pretty new at the time ,only an 02 plate 1.6 se but i loved it, it felt very sophisticated lol. I actually remeber thinking the sun roof was quite cool with the felt cover that pulls over 😂 lol how times have changed for most , ive actually went back the way and drive a 2001 audi s3 as a daily driver these days
I had a volvo 740 that would randomly shut off. I was told to try cleaning an ecu heat sink. I cleaned it, started the car an intended to see if it would stay running for an hour. The next morning i stepped outside my house, realized I'd left it idling all night. It maybe used 1/4 tank at most.
Testament to how well an engine will run *if you don't have a particulate filter to clog!* bet doing this on a Euro 5 or 6 compliant PD would be clogged in about 24-36 hours lmao
Yeah the DPF and EGR are the worst things done to diesel engines. Horrifying that they call them more environmental friendly when all there will be is an engine that doesn’t even reach half of the lifetime of such an older engine
@@bmwenthusiast96 But for anyone worthy of a car, they aren`t all that hard to service and maintain... DPF can easily be washed out and have its soot and salts dissolved and the egr and the intake manifold can be relatively easily cleaned, and if you care about the car, you should check the engine every 100k km anyways... It can be a bitch to do so on some cars, but a weekend of passionate work will sort it all out...
I had a customer that had a 2002 Gulf. That was in a car wreck and he just cut the whole front half of the car off right about at the driver's seat just behind the driver's seat and used it to run an irrigation pump with a 50 gallon barrel for fuel. And he ran that for years an year's. He'd started up and let it run for days at a time and never had an issue. As far as I know, the car is still pumping. Water in the San Luis Valley in Colorado, watering potatoes in al falfa.😂🎉
I'm just pleasantly surprised someone didn't steal a car with the keys in, idling, left unattended at a business with a listed address after advertising all over the Internet.
The viewers of this channel are probably people who do not steal just like with any small intelligent channel from which you can learn something.. You know there are places in this world were ppl dont steal things, mainly in Europe outside the big cities with local native people. I can run idle a car too for several days and if somebody is gonna touch it, only to shut it off so that the car doesn't break down.
@@Arthurroo00 I wouldn't dare accuse any of the viewers of this channel but word spreads. Trust me I know there are places in this world where you can leave a car running and no one will touch it. Hell I wish I lived in a place like that instead of the Bay Area in California where 12 year old boys try to steal cars with handguns. So I have an understandably cynical view of humanity.
@@Arthurroo00”with local native people” do I detect a certain racist undertone there? What you described is like that pretty much everywhere: a local town or village look after one another where as a city they have an individualistic mindset. Its got nothing to do with immigrants. Last time I checked, most car thieves are still British white from the council estates running up drugs up and down the country
@@erikkovacs3097 I wish you to free yourself from this hell hole. Unfortunately, big cities are a tragedy where no one knows or trusts each other. I wish you luck my friend.
@@kennykennedy6298 Could mitigate that by working out a method to change oil out while the engine is still running. If it leaks oil at a set rate, easy matter to top off as needed. Filter changes might be problematic, however.
The PD doesn’t have the VE pump, the ALH does which was pre PD. The PD has a “tandem pump” on the head which pulls fuel through to the injectors and they do the high pressure pumping into the cylinders. There’s a lift pump in the tank too but the can run without that working, my beetle did just fine. I since replaced the lift pump just in case I ran out of fuel.
VE pump is for indirect injection diesels @@Dan23_7 VW group volvo peugeot in the 80s 90s used these pumps. There is no supplier here near europe who modifies these older pumps. Only Gilles but he is in canada. It's too far and expensive shipping. I have a mark 2 Golf GTD. I always wanted a 11mm pump. But with no one here that understands how that pump works. You can't just give it to some mechanic around the corner and swap the elements to 11mm.
My 2014 has the ckra and uses what i hear to be double the fuel at idle. But because of that the cylinder temp stays hotter and doesn't cause nearly as much wear. Semi trucks we idle the engine up higher with the cruise control to keep the cylinder temp up. Cars dont have that function built in. So i am glad my ckra runs about 350 to 400 egt at idle.
Lol come to Canada where we let our diesel run all winter… back when I was young it was -40 up in the oil patch so I never shut my Cummins off the whole winter, except quick oil changes at work. Truck still ran when sold it at 680,000km
I had a 2006 BEW golf like yours. Same color, same wheels! 😮 My scan gage II showed 1ltr/hr consumption at idle. Only problem is I saw engine temperature go down in cold canadian winter. Not worth it to idle. Problem too with long idling, you get fuel in your oil from low cylinder pressures. Also cylinder wall scoring. I recently purchased a 2000 chevy k3500 turbo weasel with only 125000km on the clock. Has blow by because of this. I installed a high idle switch. High idle is required to keep engine temps up and prevent damage. Just like the big rigs (Lori's) Cheers!
Yes, you are 100% right. Tthese people saying their TDi PD 1.9l engines stay up to temperature when idling in winter are probably going by the idiot gauge on the dash, which is designed to show 90 degrees C (needle at 12 o'clock) at any temperature between 75 and 112 degrees C. You say you used a Scan Gauge. That will show the true temperature. I can confirm that even in a UK winter when it is around freezing point, these engines will NOT maintain the correct 92 degrees C at idle. Even driving around in winter they won't, not unless you are driving them very hard. In winter a partial grille block is essential if you want to maintain that 92 degrees C, otherwise they over-cool. About thermostats, yes, of course a faulty thermostat will make things even worse, and faulty thermostats are very very common, but even with a working thermostat that does not open, does not send any heat to the radiator below 87 degrees, these engines don't produce enough waste heat to keep themselves warm in winter without a little help to keep the cold air out of the engine bay. It's really a testament to how efficient these engines are. Heat is wasted energy.
@@rkan2 Not in my experience. Are you relying on the 'idiot gauge' on the dash? That is designed to show 90 degrees C (i.e. needle at 12 o'clock) at any temperature between 75 degrees and 112 degrees C. So yes, it may well idle at over 75 degrees, but that's not hot enough to run efficiently, and is not hot enough to give decent heat in the cabin. And that's with a fully working thermostat, i.e. not opening, not sending heat to the radiator below the designed opening temperature of 87 degrees C.
What you did is you allowed the air into fuel system by letting it burn all the diesel, so no wonder it did not start immediately. I'm actually impressed that it started without proper bleeding the system.
All these old 1.9s will self bleed... Dunno if it does good to the injectors though. I dunno how much they open and therefore lack lubrication with just air...
There's a lifter pump in the tank, which runs for a couple of seconds when you turn the ignition key to the first position. (I don't think just opening the driver's door makes the pump run on these.) Probably a good idea to take the key out and put it back in and turn to the first position a few times before trying to start the engine, to give the lifter pump a chance to fill the tubes going to the fuel filter in the engine bay.
I'm old scool....started driving a Mini Clubman round the farm as a kid, passed my test in 1988 but stopped driving in 2006 (injury). That thing took days to draw fuel after being empty. Back in my driving years, your battery died if the car didn't start in about 10 se-20 seconds. Or it would at least turn slower. Things have changed. Back in the day a basic toolkit fixed nearly everything. Now you need to buy a specialist tool from Ford to undo bolts on a Ford. A basic, metric socket set used to be enough. Only tool I remember having to buy with a part was a ball joint splitter and it would have worked on any ball joint. Now I imagine there's a Toyota Only Splitter Tool or something.
What is "full" ? Full until the snorkel stops, or full until it runs out at the top? Also, did you shake it a bit to get all the air out of the tank? Also, cold or warm start? If cold, how cold?
It lasted 60 ish hours longer than i expected. It's actually more economical to use than my webasto water heater i have on my Mtdi mk2 it seems to use close to 1 liter an hour. I think you can "service" the intercooler on them they have a drain port so well VW probably expected some blowby
pretty good, my seat altea 1.9tdi bjb consumes 0.4l/h fuel with proof. i think those 1.9 tdi engines are robust. of course maintenance is key to success.
What a cool experiment! Me and my mates always drove (and 2 still do) MK4 1.9 TDI's and we left them running a lot! Always wondered what the fuel consumptesion would be and it is great! Daamn! Please be carefull with the car i believe its an ARL and they are pretyy unusual here in Netherlands. And with sunroof and winterpackage they defenitly are worth a lot of money here
@@colinscutt5104 cause running it at full throttle and you will either overheat and warp the engine or break an internal component looong before it runs out of fuel
Damn i only started 6 times my 330d e46 for about 30 40 minutes this winter because rwd and half tank is already gone but it suprising how economic is the mk4 tdi didnt have this fuel anxiety with owning it great cars
That’s a 150 Hp with the 3 red letters TDI. I have a beetle with the 100 ATD PD. But it’s not 100 anymore. I fitted a 130/150 manifold, (they fitted the same to both engines) I deleted the egr and had it remapped. He’s a nippy little chap now.
A good diesel needs about 4-5 liters of fuel every hour if You can maintain. 60-75 miles per hour constant speed. Depends on the car, engine, chassis, etc. My first thought was that slightly less than a litre per every hour while idle. So depends on the fuel tank size. 50 liters should be enough for 60+ hours. maybe up to 100 hours, depends on the size of engine. Actually checking the oil level and even start the engine to keep the battery healthy have guidelines. These guidelines were not followed strictly in this video.
How come full for 2 days and then to halfway next day and smoke did something happen to make it less efficient? Ur going to have to but a petrol and do it again.
My PD130 HATED being sat idling for long periods of time. As a security guard working 12hr shifts i had to stay warm that way and after 1 week of this the engine never stooped going into limp mode and made catasrophic noises that sounded worse than a cambelt snapping. Eventually i got sick of it and sold it cheap. It's still on the road somehere now to be fair but i will never know what happened, even my OBD11 reader told me nothing and only helped wipe the engine light of the dash so i could drive normally again. Great engines if you know them inside out but im done with them personally.
Side note: sleeping in a running car can be potentially deadly because of the possibility of carbon monooxide leaks. A lot of that is released when the car is idling, it has no aroma, no taste, yet it's very poisonous and kill a person in minutes without waking them ip.
@@M4V3RiCkU235 Someone I know died while sleeping in his van with the engine on. He had an exhaust leak below the floor of the van. He never woke up. Never ever sleep in a car with the engine on without a smoke and carbon monoxide detector.
@@Lewinner-nj6bh that leak should be fixed. Is not like this commonly happens. As I said, in the open you have no troubles. Also when heavy snowing, you must be sure that the exhaust is not obstructed. But really...how much can it snow to cover the exhaust pipe ?! Is not like all we live in Alberta or Norway. BTW in most countries, a car with a leak in the exhaust won`t pass the annual inspection. That car would be marked as "not road worthy/ is illegal to drive it anymore until is fixed". Yeah, we have drastic rules in Europe - just to be sure this kind of s*** does not happen.
@@Jonathan_Doe_ I disagree my car which also a diesel of same sort of era had it idling for half an hour earlier and the cabin was petty warm and heaters felt hot.
Diesel has 10kwh per litre. When idling its pretty much all coming out as heat. If the tank was 50litres and 100h. Its taking 0.5l per hour. Its same as webasto heater. 5000watts all the time. Lot of wasted of course but still enough for heat.
My car’s an old cop car. It’s had 8000 hours of idling over 10 years, only about 95K miles, and seems to only ever have needed a cooling fan in terms of powertrain items. It’s starting to make noise making me think it might need a power steering pump soon.
