Check out my new ride!

[christi]

I am no expert on oil.
I use a fully synthetic diesel specific oil made by Miller Oils in the UK. I am sure it is way in excess of what the engine needs, but I tend to run my cars till they die, and the longer that takes, the better, so I by the best that I can get.
I have no idea either how blocked the inlet manifold is. On the 806 it is totally impossible to see it. However the pipe from the EGR valve to the inlet manifold was totally clear when I removed it at 130,000 miles. Now I have no EGR valve at all, just a couple of blanking plates. Mine is the 8v engine though with no EGR cooling.
I had a lot of hassle and expense at 130,000 with injectors though. One of them at least was causing a heavy rattling noise whenever I demanded power, and the reconditioned set that I bought didn't last long. Injectors for common rail diesels are expensive and complicated.
I would say that one of the most important things with these vehicles is to be very, very careful with fuel quality.
Water in the fuel will kill them, and if you ever accidently put petrol in then do not even turn the key, as this fires up the tank pump and pushes petrol around much of the system.
If you lend the vehicle to someone then better that you give it to them with a full tank of fuel...
If you can find a fuel additive that increases lubricity of the fuel then use it. I am talking about additives where you add a small dose at every fill up, not one shot cleaning additives.

If I look at cost of ownership over the last year and factor in cost of new injectors (twice) I would have been better off with the 2.0 petrol. I now need some good reliability for a few years to get my money back. My 806 has 155,000 miles now so how likely is that...

 

[DPM]

Cheapest way to get a manual is on cd- it'll have all the requisite bits, engine, body, wiring, they'd all be seperate paper books.

p/no for the cd for mine is 99560-65D30-015, but it stops at the RHZ. Your dealer should be able to confirm the number for the later model. Probably -020 or -030, I guess. It's about £50 here. If you can't get one, let me know and I'll check over here.

EGR can be disabled if you wish, as can the throttle valve. You'll get a couple of fault codes, but no CEL.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

Thanks for the info guys. Very interesting reading on the engine workings.

DPM, I asked the parts man at the local Suzuki dealer about the manuals. He looked at me like I was about to rob the place and seemed to think it was a tightly-held secret, but eventually said he would "make enquiries." I'll let you know if I need help.

 

[Old Navy]

Have any you guys checked out the Jeep CRD, love it.

 

[DPM]

Too big and certainly far too expensive for me...

 

[Old Navy]

Hummm by US standards it would be a small SUV. Ours was $25830 list US, and is the same price as the gas V6 if you equipped the gasser V6 with same options.

The Suzuki and one or two others are using the VM engines and D/C US will be using the VM's in LX series cars and Jeep Grand Cherokee here in the US next year.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

Yeah, the Jeep Cherokee (Liberty) diesel costs about US$35,000 (renegade) to US$38,500 (limited) here in New Zealand, not too bad for what are marketed as upscale products. The grand cherokee has the D/C V6 diesel also.

But there is a lot of competition if you were just buying it *just* to get a diesel. The new Nissan Pathfinder is priced about the same while the Patrol and Toyota Landcruiser are somewhat more expensive. And all those come in diesel versions. Kia also has a couple of smaller diesel SUV's, sportage and sorento. The Suzuki cost me US$21,000.

Economy and size are issues to me. Fuel is expensive, my driveway is narrow, and I won't need to tow anything. The driving conditions here are different than in the US - narrow roads and much slower - the heavily-enforced national speed limit is only 100 kph (62mph). Most other cars on the road are small - I don't need the bulk to "assert" my position on the road amongst the Ford Expeditions as thankfully we don't have any. Being on an island we don't rack up the high miles, as to some extent there's "no where to go."

Did I mention I got 34 MPG (US) in the Suzuki on my first trip? The curb weight is only 3318 lbs though, pretty light for a 4WD, and 1000 lbs under the Jeep.

 

[Old Navy]

Stopped in down under once 20+ years ago, didn't have time to go where I wanted or chance to visit Zland. I may do it yet one day. It's one of the few places I always wanted to go and never got the chance.

As far a mpg's go, we have a few here in the estern section of the states where speed limit is 65 mph that have reported 30 to 32 mpg from the CRD. At this writing the Jeep is only diesel SUV available in US, and the word from my source at D/C we will get the Grand Cherokee in diesel version next year and they also have plans for a diesel version of the Dakota PU truck.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

30-32 is outstanding for this sort of vehicle. The Nissan Xterra V6 I drove in San Diego never got better than 20 mph in the best conditions (steady 70 mph), probably about the same as the Liberty 3.7 gasser.

If you're into outdoor activities like hiking or fishing, New Zealand is a great place to visit. However as far as living here goes, it's a bit like Hawaii - pretty to look at but in practical daily life you are often reminded that you are on a remote island.

 

[DPM]

Paul, must try harder. Extra urban figure quoted in the sales bumpf is 47.1 imp. I've certainly seen 40mpg (imp) from the automatic, Scangauge tells me that sitting at about 50-55mph on a run would net me AT LEAST the advertised 44mpg imp.

I'm on 225/70 rubber, which seems to make the odo 100% against GPS, and speedo better than 5% out. I'm running a revised program (thanks to our Polish friend Aligator) which dynos about the 130hp mark, and runs about 1.2bar boost at full request. Still the economy is better than it was at 20k miles...

With winter fuel, the last few tanks have been no less than 34mpg, but as high as 37 for a run to Cork last month. That's 450 miles on most tanks. As low as 400 in the dead of winter, and 500 on a gentle summer run.
On economy driving in the GV, using Scangauge to display instant and segment mpgs has helped me tune my driving style to the car. Here's a couple of thoughts:

Economy plummets above 70mph.
The HDI likes having the throttle feathered really light in steady running.
Under load it prefers a heavy boot. Better figures are seen in top gear with the go pedal planted (at say 1700-2k rpm) than by putting it into 4th (2.5k maybe?) and keeping the throttle light. Same applies to my wife's 306HDI.
and finally, injected fuel is- like on a TDI- zero on the overrun. Injection only resumes at very close to idle speed.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

Well, the 40 imp I obtained on my first drive was on partly hilly terrain, avg 50mph, not exceeding 65mph. Hopefully once the engine loosens-up it will get better. Sometimes I forget to shift into 5th as it's so quiet.

Did you get your ScanGauge from a UK distributor, as they don't seem to want to ship outside the US? Along those lines, I assume Vagcom can be used for basic OBD-II info?

Regarding the CD service manuals, the dealer here finally determined he can get them but it's NZ$269 ([FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]£[/FONT]107.)

Still working on the toe-in. Set it down to +1.0mm but it doesn't steer as nicely as it did at +1.8.

 

[DPM]

Cool. What tyre pressures are you running? The recommended 26psi is a touch low for the (hideous in the wet) Duellers, and waay low for any other tyre. That'll tighten the steering somewhat, and reduce the loadingon the outside edge of the tyre too.

Scangauge came from the US via a board member (thanks again, Lito), and whilst it does all necessary diagnostics, I also have a copy of Alex Peper's OBD-tool for the pc, on a generic interface. Vag-com can confirm comms with the ecu, but doesn't do much else, IIRC.

On the manual front, yikes, that's dear. Mine was *exactly* half that price, I wonder if there isn't a specific cd for yours, but rather my cd plus an additional one for the RHW? I'll try to get a chance to check with my own dealer during the coming week.

Or perhaps a copy of my cd would suffice? It covers the facelift models electrically- the new dash and what have you- and the engine is the same as the earlier RHZ in all ways other than the head (which as previously discussed is in the Haynes...)

 

[krakonos]

I had a few weeks in Europe with Detleffs conversion of Fiat Ducato turbodiesel and while driving through Czech republic this CRV was offered for sale on the side of the road near Carlsbad.