DPM
Top Post Dawg
really?
Based on the number of engine internal parts we sell (valves and guides, piston rings, rod and crank bearings, etc.) a lot of them aren't making it that far. And if you replace a cam and lifters like you did you've already got the belt off, what's the big deal in replacing it?Diesel VW's regardless of the year run 500k miles easy with simple maintenacnce. Cams last 300k miles heads and valves last 500k. Most importantly is high quality full synthetic oil is used and changed at proper intervals. 10k is pushing it, I change mine at 8k.
A comment about engine longevity, from a retired BMW power plant engineer -Snip... I think the reason you sell so many engine parts is due to the fact that so many of these cars do NOT get the proper care. There is no reason a stock, well cared for 4 cyl VAG engine cannot last "indefinitely" under most circumstances.
Great information Rod. Thanks!A comment about engine longevity, from a retired BMW power plant engineer -
My understanding from talking to a retired BMW power plant engineer, living in the Netherlands, is that the design life was typically 500,000 KM (310.6k miles) for the 1980's production engines (M10, M20, M30, M88, S38, etc.), before you may have to open it for an inspection and refresh. This did not include any service necessary to address any revision during the coarse of the products production history.
However, he was quick to comment that American owners wouldn't get this kind of service out of their powerplant, because Americans don't maintain them to German specified levels! We simply do not maintain BMW powerplants to the levels clearly specified and necessary, to obtain such engine longevity.
I asked about other German vehicles and if they had the same longevity history and he said 'yes, certainly Mercedes and VW, where he had friends working and discussed, as engineers, their desires to create engines of significant power, economy and longevity'. Given the large number of poorly maintained BMW E28 models I've had personal experience with, including my own 1983 BMW 528e <http://www.mye28.com/tech/rods_pages/> which I had for 31 years since new, I have to say this gentleman was correct. Our typical level of auto service is pretty grim, as Oilhammer has noted.
-Rod
The TDI in your signature is nearly 15 years old, and is pretty simple compared to the design of modern TDIs. If you're expecting any TDI newer than 2009 to go 500,000 miles with only simple maintenance, then you're in for a very rude awakening. Very few things on the new cars are simple. While you might not have a catastrophic failure, routine maintenance and replacement parts will be more expensive than what you're used to due to the massive increase in the number of components.Diesel VW's regardless of the year run 500k miles easy with simple maintenacnce. Cams last 300k miles heads and valves last 500k. Most importantly is high quality full synthetic oil is used and changed at proper intervals. 10k is pushing it, I change mine at 8k.
Yep. It is a mystery to me. I guess it goes hand in hand with what I see in electronics: nothing is built to last for an appreciable length of time anymore.At the end of the day, you really can't compare a pre-2009 TDI to a post-2009 TDI.
300k on a PD cam? That'd be rare too.
The early Mk IVs certainly had their share of problems: MAFs, relay 109, coolant migration along the main wiring harness, short timing belt life (only 60k km on automatics, 90 on manuals), and one we tend to forget, the EGR (where have I heard that acronym before...) causing the intake to coke up requiring an expensive tear-down and clean (well, expensive if you're not the DIY type).I think the new cars are good. They are more complex, as VeeDub points out, and that means more stuff to fail. To many the ALH was unnecessarily complex and trouble-prone when it was launched: now it's considered the standard for diesel reliability.
A couple friends of mine maintain that the best cars made-ever-were built in the 90s. Companies had figured out how to meet safety and emissions standards, they were focused on quality, and many more cars were over-built regardless of cost. The best Mercedes, Toyotas, and BMWs were built in the 90s. And since they were designed and launched in that decade, I'd include MKIV TDIs. Soft-touch plastics notwithstanding (and mine don't look too bad), my MKIV is tighter and feels stronger than my MKVI, despite having more than 10x the miles on it. And whatever goes wrong with it can be fixed at a reasonable cost.
People here are bragging that their MKVII cars are costing what their IVs did over a decade ago. That kind of cost-cutting isn't without consequence. Shorter life may be one.
That is, in part, why I just bought another MKIV. It may replace my MKVI.
This post made me smile. A CJAA TDI is so much more complex than a normally aspirated F150 there's almost no comparison. And Adblue makes TDIs drive better and get better FE. It's dirt cheap to buy and you only have to add it at oil change time, sometimes not even then.The fact that every gas engine that the US auto makers produce now has VVT. I know it's supposed to give better mileage by keeping the engine "on the cam" through its full rpm range. But that's just MORE stuff to go "south" IMO. A friend had the cam phasers and oil solenoids go on his Ford F-150. This is why I went DIESEL. Also glad I bought a left over 2014. No "blue" to have to deal with. So I don't get an extra 10 horses. I can live without it.
If you can't use one, you is one...the owner's incompetence for using these little devices called dipsticks.