[tommytwotone]

As a fellow shed motorist, I just accept such developments with open arms, and assume that the car has magically fixed itself.


I could run a book on the various permutations of engine management / EPC light I'm getting on turning the ignition at the moment. Some days it lights up like a Christmas tree, then the next day absolutely nothing.

[cha1n]

I changed a DMF on a 2.0 TDCI Mondeo, it's an expensive bit of kit, but think of it as a consumable. Totally doable yourself if you have some heavy tools. I wouldn't want to do it again though, certainly not on my own with only a small pair of axle stands, gearboxes are f'ing heavy.

I never noticed mine to be intermittent but it's not really noticeable unless you know what you're looking. It should be at its worst in idle and if you gently rest your foot against the clutch pedal you should feel vibrations if it's knackered. I found mine to be not too bad once it's in gear, it's mainly doing it's job of damping vibrations when you're changing gears/speed.

What's the mileage on the car and has it ever had the clutch replaced? If it's high mileage (and therefore due a clutch) I'd just replace it and at least you've got a car you know the history of. The job is no different to replacing a clutch really apart from the extra cost of the DMF.

[dave]

It's about 119k at the minute. When it was doing it the other day it deffo sounded bad when idling or with the clutch at the bite. Don't think it's ever had a new clutch, over never done it, and before me my dad had it from 11months old.

[cha1n]

Probably easier to think of what a knackered DMF means. It generally means that the springs inside of it are now shot, so the DMF no longer does it's job of dampening vibrations in the system. With the springs knackered you start to get metal bits hitting other metal bits they aren't meant to hit within the DMF and in extreme situations they fall apart completely and break other more expensive bits in the process.

This metal on metal action generates a lot of metal dust, which finds its way into your starter motor. Common ways to find out your DMF is knackered is to find your car won't start and it is because the starter motor is clogged up with the dust. People then replace their starter motor for the DMF to break 6 months later and also need another starter motor as the new one is now knackered.

I suppose with that in mind, you could take your starter motor out and see how clogged with metal dust it is. Some cars it's an easy job to do if there's not a lot in the way.

The clutch on my berlingo lasted 100k from new, so having to change at 112k isn't the end of the world. Obviously some people go 200k+ on a clutch, just depends what the car is used for. I personally would never buy a diesel again unless I was doing big miles. Too many expensive things to go wrong for the miles I do!

[James Malloch]

I personally would never buy a diesel again unless I was doing big miles. Too many expensive things to go wrong for the miles I do!

As an aside, is there a large difference between petrol and diesel in terms of repair costs? Currently looking at new cars and have been erring on the side of diesel but that's mainly because the cars I'm looking at (berlingo) are more common in the diesel than petrol.

[Jim]

do you do lots of small journeys? If so then definitely petrol

[Johnny Brown]

Thinking of switching to petrol soonish. I think diesel will be largely socially unacceptable in ten years and values will plummet.

[Paul B]

 

Thinking of switching to petrol soonish. I think diesel will be largely socially unacceptable in ten years and values will plummet.

I wonder if you'll still think the same when the highly economical small engine petrol cars are having longevity issues. 183BHP out of a 1.5T? 

[slackline]

Petrol will be socially unacceptable at some point in the future.

[Johnny Brown]

Yeah, plan is to go petrol initially then electric. We're not far off a tipping point with electric.

Certainly won't be looking for high bhp from a small petrol engine.

[Paul B]

Certainly won't be looking for high bhp from a small petrol engine.

They're all high BHP relative to their diminutive size. Just look at the evolution of something like the Golf GTI as an example, the same is applied to poverty spec versions.

[tomtom]

Hybrid for me with the next motor. Diesel is a burning platform (literally and metaphorically) - and the NO2 emissions are sonething I'm not cool comfortable with as an owner. Latest Korean offerings wedding electric with 6-7 speed auto's rather than toyota's cvt look promising.

Full electric is a way off (infrastructure more than car tech) and would only become viable for me when it reliably cracks 200-250 miles (as in that distance when its cold, wet and with a headwind!!). But I love the idea of electric cars. Anyway - driverless will be here in a big way in ten years time.

[Paul B]

Actually, the Golf is a poor example - look at something like a Fiesta ST.

I think diesel will be largely socially unacceptable in ten years and values will plummet.

"I'll take that 335d M Sport Touring, thanks", although I guess they'll tax the hell out of it.

[Bubba]

I don't think we can write diesel off just yet; the majority of commercial motors will remain diesel for many years to come - who knows what advances will be made in diesel to make it less polluting?

"I'll take that 335d M Sport Touring, thanks", although I guess they'll tax the hell out of it.

[tomtom]

Solutions to the NO2 are straightforward and readily available (addblue - urea) but the market (cars that is) isn't geared up for it.

[chris j]

I would like to go full electric for the family car, but it would need a reliable 250 miles with the ability to mostly recharge during a lunch break to get us on the odd trip up to the in-laws in Scotland. Otherwise most likely for the next car plug in hybrid that can do 25-30 miles off the batteries - that would cover I think more than 3/4 of our use. I know it's mostly just shifting the pollution from exhaust pipe to the power station but I do like the idea of instant torque from the electric motor (though I would want to keep a fun car with a big simple non-turbo V6...)

I suspect diesel will be taxed out of existence for driving in major cities relatively quickly, probably within the next 10 years. I also read that the next round of emissions legislation beyond the current Euro VI is tough enough that it may make diesels uneconomic for small and family cars due to the cost of making compliant engines.

[Bubba]

Solutions to the NO2 are straightforward and readily available (addblue - urea) but the market (cars that is) isn't geared up for it.

Don't quite a lot of recent diesel cars use Adblue?

[Scouse D]

I would like to go full electric for the family car, but it would need a reliable 250 miles with the ability to mostly recharge during a lunch break to get us on the odd trip up to the in-laws in Scotland. Otherwise most likely for the next car plug in hybrid that can do 25-30 miles off the batteries - that would cover I think more than 3/4 of our use. I know it's mostly just shifting the pollution from exhaust pipe to the power station but I do like the idea of instant torque from the electric motor (though I would want to keep a fun car with a big simple non-turbo V6...)

I suspect diesel will be taxed out of existence for driving in major cities relatively quickly, probably within the next 10 years. I also read that the next round of emissions legislation beyond the current Euro VI is tough enough that it may make diesels uneconomic for small and family cars due to the cost of making compliant engines.

I too am going to go full electric but will hold fire for a year. Battery tech has had a major breakthrough this year and in conjunction with huge battery factories such as teslas gigafactory, the cost of batteries is set to plummet. The risk for me is buying too early. I don't want to get a family car with a 200 mild range if a 300 mile range comes out 6 months later for cheaper.
The question of emissions is a no brainer for me. Our power is increasingly coming from renewables with huge investments from private companies to move towards low carbon.  (Have a google at what tech firms are investing into combattjng climare change, its comforting.... a little)Although the government is far from proactive wrt climate, economics will continue to push renewables as there is lots of money to be made and many if the major tech firms are very environmentally conscientious. This year has been record breaking in terms of the energy from renewables so the future of our energy I believe is bright despite the likes of trump and the infatuation of the government towards fracking.
We've just switched our electricity and gas to octopus energy. This has saved me 300 quid a year (with no sneaky price rise after one year) and all my leccy is from renewable and all my gas offset by planting trees. If I charge a leccy car on my drive I would be zero emissions ( except for carbon footprint in manufacture which will drop as more electric cars are made and economies of scale kick in).
If more people switch to such fantastic energy companies which invest a huge percentage of profits into new solar (read the reviews and check out the octopus website) then more solar etc will be built. I'm well up for this solar and ev revolution.

[dave]

Scouse is already ahead of the game vis a vis cranial-mounted solar panel.

What I've found looking at the current array of leccy cars is there's very little being made in the family-size segment, bar the Teslas. Is that just cos they think the biggest market for them is compacts and city cars, or because they can't currently make a heavier car with a decent range on current battery tech?

[Scouse D]

I reckon just hold off for a while and I reckon we will see a hole glut of ev suvs and family saloons. Every car manufacturer seems to have an electric range in the pipeline. The one family size one I've seen which looks half decent is the Hyundai iconiq which you can buy as full electric or hybrid but like I say, just wait a bit and there will be shitloads to choose from. This is a decent website http://www.nextgreencar.com/

[chris j]

Scouse is already ahead of the game vis a vis cranial-mounted solar panel.

What I've found looking at the current array of leccy cars is there's very little being made in the family-size segment, bar the Teslas. Is that just cos they think the biggest market for them is compacts and city cars, or because they can't currently make a heavier car with a decent range on current battery tech?

I think it's profit margins and market demand at the moment. With cost of current battery tech, a mid-size vehicle would probably be extortionate compared to the petrol/diesel competition, whereas an executive size, with the higher profit margin in that class, you can lose a lot of the battery cost by taking a slightly smaller margin. + you need a certain size and density of battery for a given range, which then dictates the size of vehicle. City cars are more or less all range 100 miles or less so smaller batteries?

I suspect range anxiety for family size cars (that annual trip to the in-laws...) is also a big killer for pure EV so they are all plug-in hybrid EV at the moment. Probably we will have to wait for the mid-size Tesla to force change in that market as well (though looking at their blurb for the 3 the estimated range is barely going to break 200 miles.)

[chris j]

I'm well up for this solar and ev revolution.

Must admit I have aesthetic issues with the creeping industrialisation of farmland by solar panels...

I'll also be holding on to the existing cars as long as possible as it is greener to run what you have than replace it with a new car of any description.

[tomtom]

For me it's all about the infrastructure. The tech exists to allow a 150mile range car be charged in 30-40 min - which allows long journeys etc... but there are few/no such places. Certainly not enough to charge 200 cars at once etc.. (supply and demand I guess..). For those of you with driveways - that's fine for charging. I live in a terrace (as many do) with no allocated or off street parking.. so that's a non starter..

It'll come.. but needs a bit more of a push before it tips over. It also takes a while to iron out the tech difficulties.. we're now on the 5th gen of Prius drive trains - and several motoring iourno's recob it's taken them this long to get it right..

Hybrid/plug in hybrid is a good stopgap as others have mentioned - especially if most of your journeys are short...

[galpinos]

For me it's all about the infrastructure. The tech exists to allow a 150mile range car be charged in 30-40 min - which allows long journeys etc... but there are few/no such places. Certainly not enough to charge 200 cars at once etc.. (supply and demand I guess..). For those of you with driveways - that's fine for charging. I live in a terrace (as many do) with no allocated or off street parking.. so that's a non starter..

This is a big issue of city living. I'm the same as Tom in a Manchester terrace so have no way of charging my electric car at home. It would be quite an effort to have a dedicated parking spot in front of all terraced houses with charging cables run under the pavement to a roadside charging point.Large swathes of Manchester are terraces, as are most cities I guess, so it's a big issue. There are a couple of electric charging points where I live but I've no idea of the cost/how they work.

As an aside, Es Tressider (ex-Cullin Ridge record holder, runner, climber, GB ski mountaineer) wrote something about living in the highlands having an electric car as your only car. I'll see if I can find it.

[tomtom]

As an aside, Es Tressider (ex-Cullin Ridge record holder, runner, climber, GB ski mountaineer) wrote something about living in the highlands having an electric car as your only car. I'll see if I can find it.

I've also read this  and was trying to find it earlier... was an interesting read.. IIRC it was all fine apart from a round trip to Manchester airport in shitty weather when their range crapped out badly...