Motoring Discussion > engine life Miscellaneous
Thread Author: devonite Replies: 37

 engine life - devonite
Came home in Hospital transport today, (VW Bora diesel, O2 plate) noticed it had 429000 mls on the clock! and it still ran sweet as a nut. I think it's the same 1.9 engine as my Octavia, how much life do you reckon that engine still has in it? - be interested to have an idea how long i've got to run mine into the ground!! ;-) mine has just over 72000.
 engine life - Old Navy
Was it still on its original engine?
 engine life - DP
The guy who looked after our old Golf used to service another similar one with 350k on it, and still running well on its original engine. Ours still went well and didn't use oil with 150k on it. These were both PD 130 units.

The VAG units of this era are incredibly reliable if looked after.
 engine life - devonite
Yep, chap said he's had it from almost new, but changes the oil and filter himself every 5000mls plus full garage service every 18 months.
 engine life - Falkirk Bairn
Same engine?

Maybe a bit like Trigger's brush!

Same engine, but 5 alternators, 6 starter motors, 7 water pumps...............
 engine life - Old Navy
>> Maybe a bit like Trigger's brush!
>>
>> Same engine, but 5 alternators, 6 starter motors, 7 water pumps...............
>>

And a couple of timing belts? :-)

Frequent oil changes were my initial thought.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 15 Dec 16 at 16:22
 engine life - CGNorwich
www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/10675185.Car_clocks_up_507_759_miles/?ref=rss
 engine life - mikeyb
Funnily enough the dealership referred to is where we got our VW Sharan back in 2005. That was the 1.9 PD 130 and never gave any trouble over 120K and 10 years we had it.

Our Viano is nearing 260K - Engine is sweet, but I suspect the auto box is not in tip top condition. The indy that takes care of it tells me he has a vw transporter shuttle on his books that's some way past 500K - not sure but I bet that's also a 1.9 tdi
 engine life - Clk Sec
I remember, as a young lad in the 60s, the advice regarding car buying was to avoid anything with over 70,000 on the clock.
 engine life - Slidingpillar
Design life of the Ford 8/10 HP sidevalve unit of before WW2 was 30000 miles...
 engine life - henry k
>> Design life of the Ford 8/10 HP side valve unit of before WW2 was 30000 miles...
>>
The design life of my Cortina 1600E engine was ?
I had to replace the whole engine at 25K miles
( The replacement full price engine from Ford had done about 90K miles when I sold the car)
 engine life - Boxsterboy
6,000 mile oil changes, see. I doubt it wouldn't have lasted 500,000 if they stuck to VWs service regime.
 engine life - stan10
Some years ago i was in the market for a single car transporter, but on a limited budget, i found a good looking (from the photos on Auto Trader) elderly Transit, with just under 600k on the clock, which the seller stated he had changed the oil etc every 5k since new.
I picked up the phone straight away, only to be told "sorry mate, i sold it within an hour of the advert coming out"

Right now i have 190k+ on my 2.5D (Audi powered) Volvo V70, and it's running sweetly, when new Volvo claimed 44mpg average, i rarely venture far onto motorways nowadays, most of my driving is local, but (when i can be bothered to check) i get 44+ mpg

If i live long enough i expect that the engine will still be running when the rest of the car has dropped to bits around it ("come back you coward, it's only a scratch")

To answer your question, and doing the maths, i reckon that if you look after it, you could still have another 350k+ to go.

Nobody has mentioned "Came home in Hospital transport today", i hope all is well ??
 engine life - The Melting Snowman
Horrid noisy things in my experience. A PSA diesel of that era was light years ahead in terms of refinement.
 engine life - devonite
>>Nobody has mentioned "Came home in Hospital transport today", i hope all is well ??

It is at the moment - just had a Fistula created in my arm ready for when I need to start Dialysis, won't let me drive for three days!

Thanks for asking tho' ;-)
 engine life - TheManWithNoName
>> Came home in Hospital transport today, (VW Bora diesel, O2 plate) noticed it had 429000
>> mls on the clock! and it still ran sweet as a nut.

And of course the odometer reading just shows the distance covered by the vehicle. The actual engine would have covered many more 'miles' whilst idling at traffic lights, junctions, queues etc.

Hats off to him for keeping it well oiled every 6 months.
 engine life - Simon
>> And of course the odometer reading just shows the distance covered by the vehicle. The
>> actual engine would have covered many more 'miles' whilst idling at traffic lights, junctions, >>queues etc.

Surely that's true of every vehicle?
 engine life - TheManWithNoName
Of course. We all look at cars based upon their mileage but in reality the engine runs when the car is standing still (unless stop start) and there is no true 'mileage' indicator for the motor.
Perhaps vehicles should have a revolutions counter.
 engine life - Old Navy
>> Perhaps vehicles should have a revolutions counter.
>>

Or an hours run counter like some industrial engines, tractors, forklifts, etc.
 engine life - Slidingpillar
I specified an engine hours meter for a couple of BBC technical vehicles. We were not sure if using the engine as a generator and pump driver was significant to servicing. Turned out we could ignore it, but as the meters were cheap, no harm done.
 engine life - movilogo
>> an hours run counter

My car has that counter but it can show max 99 hours which I have gone past many times! Should have extended the digits to 4-5 figures.



 engine life - Mapmaker
>>Hats off to him for keeping it well oiled every 6 months.

***weeks*** I think you mean...
 engine life - devonite
I've just googled "how long will fully synth oil last" and am surprised to find that most seem to think that it's between 5-7000 mls! Some makers claim 10-15000 mls. I thought it would be much longer! - so really the Bora owner was only doing a necessary change, and not pampering it! I've done 20000mls on mineral oil in the past, thought synth would outlast that! you live an learn!!!
 engine life - Lygonos
Of course it (the oil) will last almost indefinitely, but the additive pack degrades.

As synthetic oils degrade the viscosity tends to lower slowly (ie a 10W30 becomes more like a 5W20) as the low viscosity is a function of the oil itself.

With part-synth/mineral oil the lower viscosity is created by the additive pack so a 10W40 mineral would slowly become more like a 20W50.

Drivers in the US who send their oil off to Blackstone laboratories to have the chemical/physical properties analysed seem to be advised to have oil changed every 5-9000 miles, with older cars generally 'wearing out' their oil quicker.

 engine life - Armel Coussine
Over time, oil accumulates fine particles of carbon and metal which accelerate engine wear. The oil may still be OK but when it starts to look black it should be changed.

Yes. there's an oil filter. but they don't work perfectly and are often not changed at the recommended intervals.
 engine life - mikeyb
Having driven diesel for a numbe of years it was a surprise to check the oil in the lexus and it still be a golden colour. 6K since last changed and looks as good as new
 engine life - rtj70
Oil in a diesel car will go black quite quickly.
 engine life - Old Navy
As soon as you start the engine, having returned to petrol power I have found that I have to look closely at the dipstick during weekly fluid checks, no more just making sure the end of the dipstick is black!
 engine life - Dog
With cars/engines like this little gem coming into production, I wager many peops will be switching from dastardly diseasals to petrol-engine cars:

www.honestjohn.co.uk/our-cars/peugeot-308/
 engine life - Cliff Pope
>>
>> Yes. there's an oil filter. but they don't work perfectly and are often not changed
>> at the recommended intervals.
>>

You wouldn't want one to work perfectly, it would clog almost immediately and then all the oil would bypass it and be unfiltered.
Oil filters are a compromise, and gradually become more effective at catching particles as they age. It is recommended that if you change the oil very frequently, eg every year in an engine that does a low annual mileage, you should only change the filter at alternate oil changes. The filter is designed to work optimally at a certain stage of dirt accumulation, and is poorer either side of that.

On my classics I change the oil every 3000 miles but the filter every 6000. There's no point in having a filter if you change it too frequently.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Sat 17 Dec 16 at 10:02
 engine life - CGNorwich
Never heard that before. Surely a mechanical filter is a peak efficiency when new. As it clogs with contaminants the flow is gradually restricted. Granted that you might not need to change a filter at every oil change if engine use is low but the filter efficiency must surely deteriorate with use.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Sat 17 Dec 16 at 10:15
 engine life - Cliff Pope
That's on the natural assumption that a filter has a set pore size, and throughout recommended life it either stops or passes everything that arises.
But it's not like that. As it fills up, the effective hole size diminishes, because the accumulated particles themselves add to the filtering medium. So initially it will pass larger particles, and as it fills, the size that can pass will get smaller, until finally of course it blocks completely.
There is an optimum range in the middle.

You see this when filtering home-brew. The first jug passes easily, then it gets slower and slower, until finally you have to discard that paper and replace it.
Oil and beer dregs work like that because the liquid is viscous and you don't agitate the filter to dislodge particles. Filters for thinner liquids, that swirl, or where a sieve is riddled, don't work quite like that because particles are constantly swirled around to present a new un-clogged face.

Filtering efficiency does deteriorate with use - up to a point, it's designed to.

PS. I didn't invent this stuff. It was explained by someone on the Triumph forum who was an oil expert at Perkins diesels.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Sat 17 Dec 16 at 10:45
 engine life - Old Navy
DPF anyone?
 engine life - CGNorwich
"As it fills up, the effective hole size diminishes, because the accumulated particles themselves add to the filtering medium. So initially it will pass larger particles, and as it fills, the size that can pass will get smaller, until finally of course it blocks completely."


Surely what is happening there that initially there are multiple routes that the homebrew can pass throught the filter. As those routes progressively become blocked there are less and less routes for the brew and it simply takes longer and longer. The filter is steadily becoming less efficient not more with the passage of time.

I'm sure you didn't invent the idea but I can't find any oil or filter manufacturer not recommending that you change the filter every time you change the oil
 engine life - Dog
>>It is recommended that if you change the oil very frequently, eg every year in an engine that does a low annual mileage, you should only change the filter at alternate oil changes

S'funny, that's precisely what I do with my Forester - because replacing said filter is a PITA!
 engine life - Dutchie
My little old VW Beetles all did well over 100.000 miles.Still running fine when I sold them for peanuts.Air cooled indestructible little engines.Oil and filter change once a year.

Modern engines with a good quality oil should last a long time.So many people think that a engine ove 50.000 miles is clapped out anyway..:)

 engine life - Bromptonaut
>> Modern engines with a good quality oil should last a long time.So many people think
>> that a engine ove 50.000 miles is clapped out anyway..:)

My last 3 cars, BX, Xantia and Berlingo, all went over 150k. The Berlingo required some attention to it's (shim adjusted) tappets at 150k. Other than that there was no maintenance to the engines themselves. None burned any oil or showed any other sign of age.

BX and Xantia were broken up due wear/tear to other parts. The 'lingo was traded and still going recently. Retaxed last month. MoT however expired a couple of weeks ago.
 engine life - Lygonos
Just checked to see if our old CRV petrol automatic is still alive (traded in for the FRV in mid-2010 with about 85,000 miles)

Last MOT was July 2016 with 172,863 - almost 30,000 more miles than the previous year's test - needed a couple of bulbs and an ARB bush.
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