Which engines generally last longer with correct servicing etc, petrol or diesel??

No particular reason to ask just curious.

I think the general rule used to be that Diesels lasted forever but not sure about the modern turbo's , pd's etc that must be more highly stressed?.

I have had many cars ,both petrol and diesel that have done well over 100,000 miles in 2 - 2 1/2 years without problems the only one that didn't was a diesel peugeot ...at about 100K it was falling apart! but then it was a heap of .....when I got it!

I'd says nothing really in it. Many years ago now in the car press, VW actually used a customer's Passat as evidence of how long a car can last. With servicing and maintainance, this guy has racked up over 250,000 miles.

VW suitably impressed for a diesel to do this, to which the customer replied "it's not, it's a petrol"............

So with regular attention, no reason why a petrol shouldn't last as long as a diesel - or a diesel only last as long as a petrol - mates diesel 306 (P-reg) started to fsll apart two months after he bought it - i think he's had a new braking system, gearbox and suspension by now.........Engine sounds worse than a shoddily maintained routemaster bus and the Body looks rough too

I'd says nothing really in it. Many years ago now in the car press' date=' VW actually used a customer's Passat as evidence of how long a car can last. With servicing and maintainance, this guy has racked up over 250,000 miles.

VW suitably impressed for a diesel to do this, to which the customer replied "it's not, it's a petrol"............

So with regular attention, no reason why a petrol shouldn't last as long as a diesel - or a diesel only last as long as a petrol - mates diesel 306 (P-reg) started to fsll apart two months after he bought it - i think he's had a new braking system, gearbox and suspension by now.........Engine sounds worse than a shoddily maintained routemaster bus and the Body looks rough too[/quote']

in a way,thats reassuring...when i say my 406 was a load of ... people often claim they had a good one and I had started to wonder "is it me?"

Didnt Millers Oils have a 405 that had done 450,000 miles using its oil, and when they stripped it down to check ,there was very minimal engine wear, so they reassembled it and it carried on happily? That was a diesel I know.

A scoobynetter has just bought an early eighties Merc petrol with over 800000 miles on it.

Thats small fry though, there were two brothers who had a diesel Merc with over 3 million miles on. Merc have offered them a new E-Class for the car as they want it for the Merc museum.

Diesel has always been thought as being better for higher milages due to them spending most of their time at much lower rpm than an equivalent petrol. Modern high torque TD's are under far higher stress so not too sure how this will impact on longevity.

Cheers

Lee

Didnt Millers Oils have a 405 that had done 450,000 miles using its oil, and when they stripped it down to check ,there was very minimal engine wear, so they reassembled it and it carried on happily? That was a diesel I know.

I know someone stateside (well, Canada), who has a 405 diesel on 900k km! It's still going strong...

Traditionally diesel engines have been less complex than petrol engines, so there's less to go wrong and they last longer. This probably isn't the case so much these days as diesel engines are getting more complex too...

Rob.

in the 2 years i owned my pug 106 it a had new gearbox fitted at their choice and the drivers door nearly fell of due to shody welding at about 3 months old

in the 2 years i owned my pug 106 it a had new gearbox fitted at their choice and the drivers door nearly fell of due to shody welding at about 3 months old

Their relationship to the engine being?....seeing as this thread is about the longevity of life of petrol or diesel engines and which might last the longest.

In my experience , it isn't usually the engine that causes the car to become no longer roadworthy or economical to use but all the other bits that make up a vehicle so a well maintained engine of either sort will normally outlast the car.

Having said that , diesel engines are lower revving and have noticably thicker engine castings so they should in theory have a longer lifespan