WHY ARE MODERN DIESEL ENGINES SO UNRELIABLE ? 

Pre 2010 cars can’t be beaten, for reliability and simplicity.

I own a 2006 Audi A6 3.0 Tdi Quattro. Bought the car new. Still drive it today. In almost 18 years of ownership, apart from brakes and tyres, the car has cost me less that £2k in parts. It’s the best car I’ve ever had. Reliable, powerful, comfortable. A joy to drive. Does the distance on one tank of gas. I won’t be selling it and I’ll be driving it for another 10 years I suspect. There isn’t a modern car in production today that could replace its capabilities for either range or reliability or quality of build in one package. Diesels were the future, but the future has bought less reliable, more costly vehicles to run which are highly damaging to the environment to produce. We haven’t gone forward with EV’s, we’ve gone backwards. My diesel has already outlasted many EV’s that didn’t even exist until my car was over 10 years old, and those EV’s have already been used and scrapped. Governments and politicians simply refuse to acknowledge the environmental damage that is causing. My diesel will continue to be reliable and outlast even EV’s that haven’t even been built yet. My A6 in this regard is way ‘greener’ than any of them.

I have a Toyota Avensis 2009 diesel with 200000 miles on the car. I do 40000 in 1 year. I paid £1800 for it and had no problems. a very good car

Built in obsolescence. And a mechanic told me nothing lives long eating its own waste

I have worked on the design of three diesel power plants, in three different locations in the Alaska bush, over the course of about 40 years, since the mid-1980's. The last power plant design I worked on, in 2018, required diesels with exhaust filtration, catalytic converter, electronic fuel injection and two radiators, one for cooling the engine block and heads, and the other to cool the aftercooler. I have to admit to being a "tree hugger" believing that we need to reduce and ultimately eliminate airborne particulate and polluting gases, however, it comes at progressively greater cost and complexity in modifications to traditional technology. I also had the chance to go on a trouble call in the late-1980's to troubleshoot a Lister diesel generator. The engine ran fine but the voltage regulator had failed, and a new one was a few weeks away. Sitting beside the Lister was an early 1930's vintage Witte diesel generator. When I asked about it, the guy, who was about 30 years old at the time, said it had never run during his lifetime, but his dad had operated it, and he thought it might still be operable. The 55-60 year old engine turned freely, so I bled the fuel line, filled primer cups, opened the compression release, spun up the flywheel, closed the compression release, and off it went, just as if it had run the day before. On the first attempt, it didn't generator electricity, however, I stopped the engine and with a battery, arced the field of the generator, and then it generated. I adjusted the mechanical governor to 60 Hz and adjusted the voltage regulator to 120/240 volts. The guy ran this unit for about one month before he replaced the voltage regulator for the Lister. I doubt if a new diesel generator would start up after 30 years of remaining idle.

Here in the US, owning a modern diesel truck out of warranty is a great way to bankrupt yourself. New injectors might cost $10k on a Ford 6.7L turbo diesel. Plus diesel fuel is more expensive and DEF fluid, maintenance etc. You need deep pockets. If you’re not towing heavy everyday then buy a truck with a simple gas V8.

In my opinion the vag 1.9 pd tdi engine was the most reliable as long as it was regularly serviced obviously. Amazing engines

I have a 97 Cummins 12 valve that has been the most dependable vehicle I have ever owned in the last 60 years. In a heavy-duty 2500, it still gets 21 MPG and has no rust. Almost every time I fill up someone compliments me on it and about every third time on average someone wants to buy it. I will drive it until I'm dead😊

Not just cars it’s applies to most household appliances .The material world needs its suckers to consume to keep the rich richer.

I had a 3L BMW 330D 2011. It did 40+mpg even driven quickly (in the 50s easily if you didn't have a lead foot) and at 170,000 miles it still pulled like a train. It's annual MOTs showed its emissions were still extremely low. One of the great engines of our times.

Dpfs are a nightmare

I drive an IVECO 7.5T on an '18 plate at work, and the DPF problems it has are legendary. The vehicle is used for short trips and has had never ending emissions problems. We now have to give it a regular run up and down the A1, burning fuel for no reason, simply to keep it out of the workshop and on the road.

We've owned a string of diesel powered cars from our old Citroen BX 1.9 (non-turbo) to a Xantia 1.9 TD and then to a W210 (2.3L straight 4) and W211 Mercs (3.0L V6) (all estates). We now have a Skoda Superb 2015 SEL Exec estate model with a 2.0L 148Bhp ULEZ compliant diesel, which I reckon just hit the 'sweet spot' and does not use Ad-Blue for compliance. We're sticking with it! Great car :)

Completely agree with your assessment, the more complex you make something the more failure points you get. An example, I had a 2013 Merc E350 which had an AdBlue tank, which was placed in the boot, where the spare tyre would have gone. The AdBlue tank had a sensor to tell you when it was getting empty, it didn’t tell you how much was in there, just enough or getting low and needed topping up. After xx years these sensors started to fail, the ECU’s reaction to this was to say no AdBlue in the tank, you need to put some in within 500 miles, but as the sensor had failed adding some AdBlue in did nothing, you got to 500 miles and the ECU said, I warned you, now I won’t let you drive any more ! The sensor was embedded in the tank, so the fix was to replace the tank, £2,000+ to do and it was taking Merc 6-8 months to supply replacement tanks. So you had a dead car for all that time !! I’m back to a simple petrol engine, it makes me wonder what’s going to happen with all these v complex hybrid cars, those are just as if not more complex with loads of opportunity for failure.

Wrong here, Lee, as regards Ad Blue and what it's there for. I'm a retired analytical chemist, the real reason for Ad Blue is it's there to neutralise some of the acidic gases caused by burning fuel, it's a weak alkaline solution, based on sodium ureate, designed to neutralise acidic gases. When the fuel is burnt, the chemical impurities in the fuel cause the formation of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2), not nitrous oxide (N2O). Both these gases are highly acidic and will cause respiratory irritation, including lung inflammation. On the other hand, nitrous oxide (N2O) is chemically neutral, neither acidic or alkaline, it's better known as laughing gas and is used in hospitals as an anaesthetic. I've seen the diagram you've used before, the text is factually incorrect.

My Honda Civic 2008 2.2 cdti has been the best car I have owned in 34 years of driving. Just bought a 08 plate Octavia 1.9 TDI with 60k off my elderly neighbour for £1200. Seems like a really decent car

So I purchased my Discovery Sport in 2018 . At the time the dealer made great claims that it only needed servicing every two years. No details about the problems that may occur with short journey runs . So not helped by the lock down period in 2020 when short journeys were enforced not long after I got the dreaded DPF blocked message appear. 0ver a grand later to have my DPF professionally cleaned and a complete oil and filter change I was back on the road. Don’t get me wrong I love the car it’s perfect for my transport needs . Three years on I’m still enjoying the car , three recommendations I would advise. One use premium fuel not cheap supermarket fuel . Use a DPF in fuel cleaner every three or four fill up or if you are doing a long run . Most importantly take no notice of LR’s completely bollocks advice about two year 16k oil change intervals and make sure it’s done no later than 12 months or 5k miles .

1st diesel I ever owned was a 2.4 VW transporter 1992. 40 mpg not that slow because of gear ratios. Did 350k and was still running perfectly. No turbo, just pump no sensors. Was superb. My father put 250k on a 1.9 non turbo berlingo with zero issues

As I understand it: 80s-90s - a lot of Australian out-back farmers preferred diesels because they could be started in the morning, be left idling all day (you really don't want to be stuck two days walk away from your cot in the big dry because you couldn't start because a starter stripped itself in the field or the battery went tits up) and drive home in the evening, and be economical doing this. Also they were very easy to fix with a decent set of tools and some number 8 wire. They're still preferred over modern electronics for that purpose.

You are so spot on with you assesment of the later more modern diesel engines. They are way to complicated. Purchased my 1st diesel new back in 1977, a Peugeot 504 estste. Worked it hard and sold it in 1986 with mega milage on it. In 1981 purchased a VW Golf diesel van for work, still have it, now over 600k. In 1995 I purchased a LDV 200, also for work, its got the Peugeot 1.9 diesel, still running great. In 2011 I purchased a Kia Rio diesel, It has a fabulous engine, just can't make it do less than 50mpg no matter how I drive it.

2014 Dacia Ugly Logan Estate. Never missed a beat, 120k so far, zero tax and 60-70mpg on the motorway, zero status but the most practical car on my drive.

Two things: Dual Mass Flywheels. High Pressure Injectors. If these fail in an older car, it can be more than the car is worth, so it gets written off. Replacement turbos can cause a write-off too. Then of course we have manufacturers putting the belt/chain on the gearbox end of the engine, making a belt/chain swap massively more expensive to do.

You know I used to come to this page to watch car auctions and see what’s what, but honestly this is one of the most informative and thorough videos I think I’ve ever watched and I never expected for a minute it would be from this channel! Honestly you should do more videos like this explaining more about modern engines and pitfalls and why things keep trading on their old name!

I’ve done 15000 hrs in between three new era kubota diesel tractors in the last 8 years. They have the waste burn, and it is the most reliable amazing thing I have ever witnessed. Got a blocked fuel filter once, otherwise never stopped. And the power they produce never ceases to amaze me.

Great video! You are right about the Kia diesel engines. For the last 7 years I drive 2013 Kia ceed SW 1.6Crdi with 250.000km on the odometer. I never saw any code on a dashboard, DPF warning light never come on. Zero error codes on the car diagnostic or zero errors on emissions. Car still runs like new. I do service myself and oil change every 10.000km instead 30.000km recommended by the factory. I Installed Webasto diesel engine and cabin parking heater on my Kia and new large screen android navigation system with all new speakers. Love my Kia and I will keep it as long as possible. Most reliable car I ever owned in my life.

Loved the PD130 engine. No DPF bollocks, and an EGR that was at the top of the engine bay and easy to reach.

My old 2002 VW Passat TDI 130 was bullet proof with great fuel economy/performance. Was on 195 thousand miles last time i checked.

1996 VW Vento TDI. The 1Z 90hp version. Averages 58mpg no matter how hard you drive it. Currently 315,000 miles. On it, owned since December 1996 bought as ex-demonstrator/run around. I gave up on modern diesels around 2012 when I traded a Mk5 Golf with 2.0TDI 170ho DPF equipped car for a petrol Scirocco. Keep up the good work.👍.

The government hammer older cars with high road tax. You cant win . Great videos pal keep it up ,great info and always to the point.

ive got a 1993 mk4 transit..no common raill,no dpf,no sensors...has outlasted my previous mk8 transit and sprinter,i kept it as an investment but its still doing a 1000 miles a week earning its keep

I've got a Peugeot 207 1.4 diesel (2008), it's the last of the french diesels that were made WITHOUT a DPF and it's an absolute tank of a thing, now approaching 330,000km. Meanwhile my wife had to scrap a Scenic 1.5 diesel (at about 230,00km) because the DPF turned the car into an endless money pit.

I have a 22 year old Merc 2.7 sprinter which I have had from New, runs perfect, No EGR, no CAT, no DPF and I will keep it until I stop driving. 🙂

.. Your comments are spot on. The blame sits squarely on the Uneducated Government so-called Regulators and Pollies. EV's a solution? Really?

One of the problems is no feedback to the driver regarding the regen cycle. Would be great to have something like “regen in 15 miles” and “regen started, advised to continue driving for another 5 minutes”

I have a 2002 vw passat 1.9tdi pd 130hp, 285nm, estate. 430000km (266000miles), just did a 1050 km trip with a measured consumption of 4,63l/100km (~51mpg), with about 250kg load. I love the car but the age starts to show. Paid about 800e for it a few years ago, no dpf, no ad blue, just drive it, no problems. Best every day driver work horse I ever had.

I ran a Mondeo 2.0 TDCi (2006} for seven years . Without doubt the best four cylinder engine I've ever driven . I did modify it : EGR delete , K&N air filter , Discovery intercooler and a Drake Box 2 fuel rail performance chip (adjustable) . The 6 speed version had ' overboost on 4/5/6th gears which combined with the other mods made this car a serious performance car .

One day - driving my diesel Citroen BX to work my indicators packed up, a couple of miles later the radio stopped working... I tried an interior light - nothing. I don't know why there was no warning light on the dash but it turned out the alternator had packed up and my battery was completely flat... I continued my journey to work and parked the car next to the building where I could get power, a borrowed charger and 8 hours later I drove home. I drove it around like that (putting it on charge at home every night) for a couple of weeks until I got a new alternator installed - happy days!

Morning, you’re spot on . The old Peugeot / Citron 90s and the late 80s Merc 5 pot diesel engines were outstanding . Anything from 2016 onwards are a nightmare . I’m an ex mechanic of from the early 90s and have always chosen diesel over petrol until euro 6 . My advise is if your buying a car from 2016 to new go petrol .

My 2013 Volvo V40 D3 5 cylinder is an absolute peach of a car / engine. 55 mpg, £35 / year road tax and ultra reliable. 120k miles now and no thoughts of changing it. Another 10 years? Yes please! Great video Lee 👍

I own a VW Caddy with the 1.6 diesel unit. It’s done over 260k now and still going strong! My favourite diesel engine has to be the 2.5 turbo off the Mitsubishi Shogun Sport. A bit agricultural but what a great tool 👍

I used to have a vauxhall combo with the 1.7D izuzu lump in it and it was bullet proof. The previous owner had filled it up with rad weld as the radiator was leaking like a sieve and this had caused the radiator to block up solid (no water flow what so ever). Managed to drive it around 600 miles a week for about 2 months with the heating on full blast and it never skipped a beat. Had to sell it when I gave up the van work, was a sad day.

MK4 Golf, Tdi 130, 234,000 on the clock, original turbo, original gearbox, pre-DPF, only wear and tear parts replaced, and had full service history. Sadly got wrote off when a BMW X3 came out of a side road and didn't give way.

My VW Passat 1.9 TDI was a real work horse and did 330,000 km before I sold it. The car was relatively fast as well as 200 km/h at Autobahn was no issue.

Where I work we are still getting old D.I transits 0n 2001-2004 plates still running strong with 400000 miles and going strong mechanically. In the workshop we are getting 2018 Transits with 70k needing new engines. Crazy!

Brilliant presentation, clear, competent, knowledgeable and informative. Producers of other RU-vid videos who are trying to use AI should take note and see how it should really be done. Great job and thank you!

I had loads of Diesel company cars over the years that did mega miles with no issues whatsoever. The best one that comes to mind was a 2005 VW Passat 1.9 TD with a PD engine in it. It was sent back to the lease company in 2009 with 187000 miles on the clock and it still drove like new. Over the years I also had two Citroen BX's, a Peugeot 405 a Citroen Xantia, a Ford Mondeo, all of which were at around 130000 miles on the clock when returned to the lease company. In 2009 I then had a Mazda 6 2.2 TD which constantly had DPF issues. Bring back the old reliable Diesels.

My best pal bought a Peugeot Boxer based camper van, new, in 2017. 19000 miles of mainly longer trips. Last year started going into limp mode. This year it finally gave up. £3200 bill. £50000 van! I was with him, when it broke down, driving my ancient 2000 model Citroen Dispatch 1.9D which plods on and on, as does my 1999 1.9D Peugeot Expert 1.9D which I’ve used every day for the last 13 years. Tax expensive but uses not a drop of oil between services, starts first time and 40mpg. I’ll be buried in the old bugger.

This excellent summary is one of the most succinct videos out there from a channel usually bogging down on tyre kicking Astras in auction yards. Great work !

One thing I saw years ago was a report stating that the problem for government was that the high mpg of newer cars was effectively curtailing tax revenue. There is perhaps the real reason gov started passing laws to curtail diesels. Secondly health but primary reduced tax income from duties revenue linked to high efficiency of modern cars!

Absolutely brilliant talk on this topic and answers a lot of niggling questions I've had after driving diesel cars for nearly 20 years.

I have a C4 1.6 115 bhp diesel since Jan 2015 I bought it 1 year old and it still runs like the day I bought it. it has passed all MOT's with no advisories and I love it and hope it lasts another 10 years

Great video , I own a Peugeot 106xnd , 1998 , purchased , last year for £650 , paid for itself in fuel saving . Slowly restoring it back , keeping this one .

Vw PD diesel and Peugeot/Citroen older diesels are great. I like Kia/Hyundai crdi for later engines

Cracking video. A potted history of the last 30 years of diesel development. Totally impressed at how much information you can throw out per minute without missing a beat. I learnt a lot in just over 10 mins. Well done. Now subscribed. Looking forward to more. The only diesel I ever went for was a 110bhp Xsara Picasso. Brilliant car, reliable as heck and we drove it for thousands of miles without missing a beat all round Europe. Will Never go for a modern diesel, a waste of money.

I sit on the technical committee of an industry trade body. I’ve seen the key points of Euro 7. The emissions don’t bother me. It’s the fact that brake and tyre wear will become an emission. That’s a hard square to round. Love the videos.

Fantastic talk. I have been a diesel VW Touran driver since 2006. Now on third model. First model ran fine until 2022 when it was t-boned by a someone as we came out of our driveway. An interesting thing about this 2006 model was that it was my company car which I bought off employer after 4 years in 2010. It had an issue with the cd drive which I asked Lombard as fleet manager to remedy. They refused, saying the entire unit had to be returned to Germany, sealed, before VW would touch it. I have always wondered why VW were so protective of this. Following the write-off of the 2006 model, we bought a 2007 version. We noticed early on that the exhaust smell was quite bad. It got really bad about 4 months ago which lead us to have it properly flushed out. Then it broke down in a trip to another city. Diagnosis was that ERG unit needed replacement. Finally got it to a main VW dealership they advised they thought the electronic control unit feeding the dashboard diagnostics was at fault and would need replacement. VW offered to replace the ERG but felt it might not be the core issue. Then they found that VW parent no longer made such electronic control units for 2007 Tourans. So the 2007 model was a write-off. But it still left me wondering why VM electrics / electronics and their interface with mechanical systems are so unreliable.

I gave up with diesels in 2013. My last diesel was 206 2.0 hdi turbo diesel. Good car with no dpf.

2001 VW T4 2.5 tdi, 220,000 miles, flies through MOT and still pulls like a train. Love it.

My euro 4 2.0 Mondeo reached 330,000 miles and my current Mondeo is at 246,000 fingers crossed! Massively reliable! 163 BHP all for £30 a year Car tax. I think because most of my miles are long distance and the oil is changed regularly. I think you nailed it concerning diesels are not really suited for short trips and therefore not getting up to temperature often enough. Having designed engine test cell instrumentation for various manufacturers over the years, I sat in on meetings, where whole committees have had their say rather than a strong single mind at the top we end up with things like wet belts, etc. Years ago the heads at engine development were experienced engineers, rather than accountants, wannabe politicians and academics.

Thank for this….lots of useful information….we’ve just sold a 2014 Merc Class diesel estate that had done 155k….we were lucky and had no problems in the 7 years we had it, but we may have been lucky, and the type of driving we do may have helped…..we’ve just re-laced it with another MERC with adblue…..we shall see…but good videos with quality useful information like this are not easy to come by…keep up the good work….

All you say is exactly correct, when they went from a proper diesel fuel pump to the common rail with electronic injectors it just caused a lot of problems that previously didn't happen.

I’ve got a 2006 MK5 Golf 2.0 gt tdi. It has a PD 140 BKD engine in it. It’s on 190k. I replaced the turbocharger and clutch around 5k ago. It pulls like an absolute train and still does 55+ mpg. I think it’s the last decent VW diesel engine IMO.

Buy a petrol problem solved, mind you I drive a Nissan elgrand 3.5 v6 petrol..... she drinks more than Oliver Reed, but it's a great car!

Great assessment. I bought a Passat 1.9tdi new back then. Great engine 50+ mpg even in town. I've now got a Merc with a 2.1 diesel. 46mpg is the best it can do and that's 1000km down the East coast of QLD, so 3 sets of traffic lights and 1 motorway merge the whole way.

Great video friend, I’m still driving my 1.9 cdti Astra van… It’s an absolute dream

I run the 2.0L TDi in my VW Passat CC, a 2010. I have had it for over a year now and it has just run continuously without fail, amazing engine. So long as they are serviced in a timely fashion they will run forever.

I had a ex aa maestro 2.0 Di diesel van back in 1997 best diesel engine i had

Great run through, thanks so much. Points and justifications; experience 👍

Had a Skoda Fabia VRS 2006 1.9 130BHP Diesel from new. Did 85,000 miles in 16 years, (so not a lot, less than 6000 a year) and never had a problem from the engine. Just serviced once a year and 2 cam belts and water pump kits over the 16 years with 2 batteries. It was still on stock clutch and exhaust. It did have 2 or 3 new rear brake calipers. Bad design as they would break on the handbrake part. I had a twin spring kit to try to stop it, but ended up just not using the handbrake and leaving it in gear. Also needed a new Radiator and a pair of front springs (dam speed bumps everywhere!). Oh & the drivers side window mechanism broke. Motor still worked. A pain to fix apparently as a load of rivets had to be drilled out to get to it, then riveted back afterwards. Loved the car though. Quick & good on fuel, even on my short commute, but great on a long run.

It isn't only diesel engines but all combustion engines that's being regulated out of existence! Here in the US, the EPA has forced auto makers to put direct injection into gasoline engines. This causes a problem that port injection engines did not have - fuel being injected directly into the combustion chambers does not clean the back sides of the intake valves. This along with Exhaust Gas Recirculation causes carbon build up on the intake valves. And at around 60K miles, performance drops and the ECU detects this and you'll get a check engine light. It costs thousands of dollars to either disassemble the engine for carbon cleaning or walnut blasting will need to be used. Either way, this is another added cost to consumers that manufacturers don't tell the public ! ! ! In the long run, this doesn't really save any emissions as there will be millions of folks who will just run their engines on limp mode and pollute significantly more than engines with port injection ! ! !

What an excellent explanation of what we all (me especially) knew -to our cost. My 205 diesel and 1.9 Citroen estate before all this nonsense were FANTASTIC; my Mazda just made it to 100K, clogged up and I sold for 100 quid;- what is really worrying is that this is the same set of uninformed political zealots who; Recommended diesels and gave duty breaks then Hated diesels and said you were the devil if you had one and then Moved onto EVs Surely they couldn't have cocked up again-could they ?

My best was a 1989 Peugeot 405 estate with 1905 plain diesel motor. It lived until 2018 and 0.5 million km going everywhere from hot summers in southern Europe at +40 C to Nordic winters at -30 C, no problem. Fuel consumption was 4.7 l/100 km. The motor was still running perfectly at the end, but the car structure was starting to disintegrate, all the plastic interior was turning impossibly sticky and breaking up, and finding spares became a huge problem, so I had to dump it. RIP.

Still running my 2004 Audi A6 with a 1.9 PD130 diesel engine, sweet as a nut 👌

When I recently bought a VW 1.9TDI the garage who knew my route to work, advised once a week to drive at 70 on the motorway option (which I hate) to keep the DPF filter happy. Without them saying this I would have taken my usual "stop start" steady back roads route and no doubt ended up with problems.

Best diesel we had was a 2003 Peugeot 307 2.0 HDi 90bhp. I believe the 90 bhp version was one of the last Peugeot diesels that did not have all the problematic emissions stuff on it. Unlike the 110 and 130 bhp versions, ours did not have a DPF or a Dual Mass Flywheel (the other failure point on a lot of diesels), it was old tech. We did 180000 miles on it then sold it on. It was a very good car. Wouldn't touch one of the newer diesels, we don't make regular long journeys so we'd never see the benefit.

Fantastic overview, spot on. Having been a diesel fancall my life until a 2014 audi A6. Disaster. Now driving a 2019 petrol volvo v40. Half the mpg but no christmas lights on the dash. Great work regards Ger

diesels like clean oil and filters .change oil at 5k happy days

I am a articulated lorry driver in the United States and we went through the same problems with the same emissions systems that you had. When introduced in 2008 in concert with Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel they were a nightmare. But by 2012 -2013 the manufacturers had worked through the bugs. Now we have powerful lorry engines that get good milage 8mpg that are reliable and run very cleanly. In my opinion the emission systems just should have been researched and developed more before going into the market because of there complexity. Now they are fine but do require a regen every once in a while when being driven. Despite all the problems I think it was worth it rather than breathing all those toxic emissions.

Cracking podcast as usual Lee very informative nice one mate

Really valuabke and informative video Lee, I've been retired many years now but you have enlightened me no end on all this emissions crap on the later stuff, thanks

1,9 TDi was loved in day. Even in early days 2.0 TDi pre CR and then early CR TDi 140 2.0 just weren't good. Traders left them. Demise of diesel was around then , 2005 on

A lot of modern petrols are unreliable too. A few years ago a large 6 cylinder normally aspirated indirect injection petrol engine would easily do 200,000+ with the correct maintenance. A 2 litre turbo with direct injection is unlikely to do that without major expense along the way. Modern engines are also cost cut to the extreme with plastic parts that should be metal, and service intervals are too long.

The biggest issue with DPF filters is that they mask/hide real issues with the engine. If you noticed grey smoke from your exhaust, you'd immediately get the car checked out and it would likely be a faulty injector. The DPF, by burning off that smoke, hides the fault until either the engine has suffered other damage or the fault becomes so bad that the DPF is in a constant state of needing to regenerate.

Very accomplished report. Thank you.

Very informative video 👍thank you for making sense of what’s happened over the years !I’ve always had diesel vans , the older diesels where very reliable ,I had 300 thousand miles out of my hi ace with nothing going wrong ! I have a VW t6 now and it’s been a nightmare it’s cost me £7 k last year on oil leaks , dpf failed , power steering pump failed ! I have lost faith in its reliability and Sadly I will never buy another diesel . 👍

4:00 Lee Just out of curiosity, if I purchased a Lexus Diesel 58 plate and it had a dpf filter baring in mind the new laws came into force in 2011, could I have that dpf filter removed and the car remapped without breaking the law? I shouldn't really say this but my 64 yaris has over 200K on the clock now and still drives like brand new since I had that horrible filter taken out and a remap I seriously think this thing is gonna out live me, it's only ever broke down on me once it just needed a had a new starter motor.

Thanks, i like your no nonsense no BS approach.

vw 1.9tdi 100 bhp still going strong in a mark4 golf 335000 miles the engine itself has never giving any bother. Oil and filter change every 6000 miles.

Gasoline engines went through the same issues when the government introduced catalytic converters, EGR’s and emissions ignition curves in the mid 70’s. Gasoline engines were polluting and something had to be done about it. It took the manufacturers 20 years to figure out how to make them reliable and eventually they increased the power output. For some reason Diesel engines were exempt. This went on for 30 years until somebody finally clued in to how much diesel engines pollute. Now they are facing the same 20 year learning curve.

Best diesel engine VW tdi 1.9 engine with 130bhp on a golf or the 150bhp version..dpf filter made me change back to petrol from the vw 2.0tdi engines, pain in the backside...Rip diesel engines

I own a 2003 Nissan X-Trail 2.2 turbo diesel that has done 267k Kms. I am a pensioner and because I don't do big mileage I only service it annually, but it runs like a train and still returns better than 7,0 litres per 100 Km fuel consumption. The best vehicle I have owned, bar none. (I had problems with the EGR system so I had it blanked off - no negative result, just smooth running)

I bought a second hand Peugeot 405 diesel in 1993, and ran it until it had 220,000 miles on it. Bought another in 1997 and kept it until someone drove into the back of it on the M56. After that got a Vauxhall Astra diesel (the 1.7 DTi) and drove that one to the scrap yard at quarter of a million miles. After that, all company cars a Vauxhall Vectra 1.9 CDTi, a Renault Megane 1.5 DCi, and finally a 2015 Euro 5 Vauxhall Insignia 2.0 diesel. All pretty reliable, but my favourites were definitely the Renault and the Peugeots. Now back in a petrol car, a 2019 VW Golf 1.5 TSi with 125,000 miles on it. I own the Golf, running it for business use, desperately trying to avoid an EV. (I get to a customer site at 10am, colleagues in EVs arrive at 2pm)

Excellent presentation on diesel engines. I think we are in the twilight years of *all* ICE engines,especially for people who do mostly local driving. You can now get excellent EV cars that are competitively priced which produce no emissions.

I bought a dirt cheap Citroen Xsara Picasso 2.0 diesel, 2005 model off here, starts on the first turn, runs like a top and is extremely frugal. I don't now do very long distances, but if I travel over to North Wales and back, the needle hardly moves. It needs a new front seat as it's a bit tatty, but otherwise it's brilliant.

I had an mb w124 300 tdt . love that and it had over 400 000 km on it...run like a dream. then I got MBW211 320 CDI 2007. and that has done 307 000 km...with very litle problems. I got it at 126 000 km....so I use it and it not gone be sold for a long time...maby ever. just keep up the service often...and it pays you back. thank for the video.

Great video! I would add another "nail" to the diesel coffin - manufactrer's oil change intervals. I used to have Hyundai i30 estate Mk1 facelift 1.6 CRDI and I did 144k miles with it ( got it with 99k on the clock and brand new clutch). I poped in the garage for fresh oil (mostly Castrol Edge 5w30 C3) every 6-7k miles and I never had any issues with the engine, aside of the glow plugs and two starters. No chain adjustments, replacing tensioners or anything else. My wife got Kia Sportage with 1.7 CRDI Hyndai engine, which I decided to carry on servicing in Kia and what a nasty surprise - they change the oil every 20k miles. This might sounds reasonable, if Kia/Hyundai specified particular brand of oil to be used in every service department, but that's not the case, unfortunately. One garage could use Q8, the other something Shell, another could just put 5w30 as specified by the manufacterer, and I think this is a problem in long term. Yeah, the first owner wouldn't have any problems, may be the second too, but after that? My Honda Civic Mk9 has a bit more reasonable 12.5k interval, but it's still too much, especially for diesel engine.

Very interesting explainer also very nostalgic. Thumbnail gave me a shock 😧 Decided to keep my skoda 2.0 diesel euro 6 well maintained until forced by government including council down my way that charges varying costs based on emissions for annual on street parking permits. Still have to drive around another 5-10 minutes trying to find a parking space.

A great video Lee. Ad Blu is the bane of all diesels. Do not drop it on your shoes, it bleaches everthing white lol. Imagine what that's going to the engine? DPF's - I run a fleet of vehicles and the amount of EML's that come on and then we have to send it to a garage for a DPF clean and regen. The AA now don't come out for an EML unless it's in Limp Mode. I am almost certain this was a great ploy by the EU to phase diesel out and make EV more attractive, even though EV's are so not the future people think. Great video well done!!

1.7 izuzy vectra One of the best engines.

My 1967 Ford Falcon 6 cylinder C4 transmissions still runs great