A TORONTO motor mechanic said local owners of diesel-powered vehicles were making an increasingly common driving mistake that was costing them thousands of dollars in repair bills.
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Craig Wrightson said the expensive problem typically affected the owners of small- to medium-sized diesel vehicles – including small sedans and light commercial vans.
Mr Wrightson said motorists were making the mistake of not driving their vehicles in the manner they were designed to be driven.
“A lot of people who are buying diesel vehicles are just using them as a shopping trolley – for short little drives around town,” Mr Wrightson said.
“Diesels are meant to work. They’ve got to be driven hard. They don’t like bogging around.”
Diesel engines needed to “stretch their legs”, he said, and needed to be worked over longer journeys in order to reach higher engine temperatures.
The failure to do so was causing the intake manifold of the diesel engines to clog with sooty residue.
“And it’s never hundreds of dollars to repair, It’s thousands, unfortunately, for the owners of those cars,” he said.
The problem is a consequence of newer diesel engines changing from diesel injection to common rail fuel injection, he said.
“This big change mechanically has dramatically altered the way diesels have to be driven.
“Unlike the older-model diesel vehicles that you could just putt around town in at low speeds, the newer models with common rail fuel injection fitted with turbo chargers are designed to do long freeway drives, like commuting to and from Sydney, or for carrying heavy loads like towing a caravan,” he said.
Mr Wrightson, a trained diesel mechanic, said diesel-powered vehicles offered excellent fuel economy and torque.
“You can get 1000km or more to a tank of diesel, and they provide a lot of power for the size of their engines,” he said.
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“So I’m not saying they’re bad vehicles. It’s just that sometimes, they’re not being purchased for the right reasons.”
Mr Wrightson said the first signs that a diesel-powered car had a problem with a clogged intake manifold was the blowing of excessive smoke through the exhaust, and a loud rattling or cluttering sound when the vehicle was started.
“It’s becoming more and more common. I’d say we’d have at least one or two cars in here weekly (with clogged intake manifolds) – or at least an inquiry about their diesel being noisy or blowing smoke,” he said.
He recommended that owners of diesel-powered vehicles used only high-cetane diesel – the equivalent of high-octane petrol.
Mr Wrightson has been working on diesel- and petrol-powered vehicles at his business, Craig Wrightson Automotive, in Nicholson Street, for 30 years.