Maintenance costs, Diesel vs. Gas, help please!

McBrew said:

A lot of what you say goes for gassers as well. My Scion was supposed tom have a 5,000 mile OCI, but they updated it to 10,000 miles. Oil analysis ( I use Blackstone) shows that the oil still has quute a way to go at the 10,000 mile mark, and I do a lot of towing too!

Air filters and oil filters are similar. There's not even a recommended interval for changing then fuel filter on my Scion.

Also, many gassers (Scion/Toyota included) are using timing chains these days. Most of them are good for 250,000 miles or so.

Comparing spark plugs to glow plugs is kind of odd. They don't do the same thing at all. There are some gassers that need spark plugs every 25,000 to 35,000 miles, but there are also spark plugs that last more than 100,000 miles. Glow plugs can last well over 100,000 miles too... But they tend to be more like incandescent light bulbs -- they burn out. Sometimes for no obvious reason. My TDI needed one glow plug at around 70,000 miles. The others lasted more than twice as long (they are still working). Some people experience a glow plug failure at 20,000 miles. They are highly variable, and are not a regular maintenance item.

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Actually per my own post, I actually follow my own advice for ...gassers. Because of the superior design (but butt ugly )of the VW diesel air filter/box and the difference in the way it functions, I would not significantly extend the gassers air filter change cycles. ( I run 60,000 miles with a recommended 30,000 miles Honda Civic intervals) I do run 20,000 miles OCI's on all my gassers.

I think if anything, reading these current threads has me thinking along the lines of going from 25,000 miles OCI's to 30,000 miles on the TDI's. Time to break loose from the belt and suspenders mentality.

ruking said:

Time to break loose from the belt and suspenders mentality.

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Not sure what you mean by the above.

BryanK said:

My take.....
TDI's are damn expensive to fix/repair. Unless you have a fully equipped garage in your back yard, spend the $8,000 for the diagnostic cpu and have the amounts of time on your hands to fix the thing every time it brakes down and are mechanically inclined, buy something else, honda, toyota whatever. Seems like I have had to pour a ton of cash into this thing.

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See my sig for cost of ownership, i have no doubt in my mind that any other car would have cost me more per mile than what i have currently invested. Granted i owe a lot to this community and esp paramedick and eric for there amazing knowledge, having a guru withing 15 min of you is priceless. But i have run 5 days a week, 150-250 miles per day, and never really had any down time because of mechanical problems, so respectfully i disagree....

BryanK said:

Not sure what you mean by the above.

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The analogy is along the lines of 7,500 miles OCI's= 20 to 25,000 miles OCI's

RichmondKYtdi said:

See my sig for cost of ownership, i have no doubt in my mind that any other car would have cost me more per mile than what i have currently invested. Granted i owe a lot to this community and esp paramedick and eric for there amazing knowledge, having a guru withing 15 min of you is priceless. But i have run 5 days a week, 150-250 miles per day, and never really had any down time because of mechanical problems, so respectfully i disagree....

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I would say the TDI was tailor made for what YOU use it for. (20,000 to 50,000 miles per year)

RichmondKYTDI
"See my sig for cost of ownership, i have no doubt in my mind that any other car would have cost me more per mile than what i have currently invested."

This is what we (as a TDI forum) should be using for reference.

Forget the intitial cost of purchase as most will buy the car that they want anyways. If you calculate the total cost of repairs/maintenance and divide by your odometer, this is the true cost of ownership when comparing different vehicles (or same vehicles for that matter). Just stating that it has cost you this much or x years, is a complete waste of internet bandwidth as it means nothing to anyone else. My wife has spent $900 in 4 years on her Pontiac Sunfire, I have spent over $8000 on my TDI in 5 years. Huge difference huh? But she actually only drives 1/5 of the distance I do...so now her costs are actually $5625 over the same distance I have driven....yes, quite a bit lower, but this isn't factoring in fuel savings either....I get 5.1L/100km, she gets 7L/100km...(her cost normalized to my distance driven is $25,000, while my fuel costs are $18000 over the same distance...)

Sorry if the math is above some, or confusing to some, I mean no disregard to any; but this is the only way to figure out your total cost of ownership vs. another vehicle.

RichmondKYtdi said:

Granted i owe a lot to this communitys

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Yes, this website has a great wealth of TDI diesel engine knowledge and know how, and it has helped my out on a few occasions as well. For this I am grateful.

cleaver said:

RichmondKYTDI
"See my sig for cost of ownership, i have no doubt in my mind that any other car would have cost me more per mile than what i have currently invested."

This is what we (as a TDI forum) should be using for reference.

Forget the intitial cost of purchase as most will buy the car that they want anyways. If you calculate the total cost of repairs/maintenance and divide by your odometer, this is the true cost of ownership when comparing different vehicles (or same vehicles for that matter).

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Yeah i have kind of been a geek since day one about what i paid initially and on repairs but i have to keep up with it for my job. That way i know what my car cost me per miles and then i can add what fuel costs me per mile (about 6 cents)... so about 15 cents per mile total to run my car, i get reimbursed .28 per mile. So i keep that money aside to pay for repairs, tires, taxes, insurance, etc. On top i get the deduct on my taxes. It also reminds me it is much cheaper to take care of this one than to think about how many thousands of miles it would take me on a new car to get back to this point.

JIESEL said:

I was talking with my cousin yesterday and he basically told me that TDI maintenance costs are generally so much higher then petrol engines that it outweighs any fuel savings I might have. Is there any truth to this? He's also a mechanic so I'd assume he knows what he's talking about, but perhaps he just ran into a few TDI's that wern't taken care of properly?

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There are a lot of used TDIs out there with neglected maintenance, and they will cost a lot of money to make right. OTOH, they are usually worth fixing, whereas a gas-engine VW in similarly poor condition might be ready for the salvage yard.

So if you want a used VW and not get killed on the maintenance costs, start with a TDI that is already up-to-date on the maintenance and repairs. This means buying from a private owner who has complete records... NOT from a dealer whose inventory comes from an auto auction, who has no idea of the car's history.