I have a beautiful Furby vRS. I plan to stick to the service schedule for the time I own it. I had a "pub conversation" with a mate of mine who has an Audi A3 TDI. We started discussing how long I have kept cars in the past and its not more than two years. I do around 20k a year.

But I love this car and the conversation got round to how many miles this engine would do before things go wrong etc.

Assuming I dont redline it every day What do people expect from their TDI engines? Taxi drivers etc please chip in opinions valued.

When things start to go wrong even due to wear and tear what usually goes?

Cheers folks.

If they are looked after and treated with a bit of respect.. youll get hundreds of thousands out of them..

ive driven a passat that still drove sweet with 150k on the clock. theres some taxi drivers with more than that.

if you rag the nuts off it from cold etc then it wont last as long

If kept standard, and not driven to the redline constantly, it will probably last up to 500,000 miles and maybe beyond. The main things to worry about would be the same as other engines I'd guess... timing belts, and other things caused by general wear and tear. The MAF will probably die quite regularly though.

I intend to keep mine (driving school) for four years, that will equate to about 150,000 miles.... I would expect it to last that long without too many worries......

I dont push it when cold, but when its warmed up i often drive it pretty hard (dont pass 3500 rpm) change castrol 505.01 every 5000 miles(i drive it 90% in city and have very dirty fuel) and i expect it to last at least 200 000 miles(my golf2 1.6td lasted 180 000).

Turbo may pack it in at some stage too

At my Skoda Dealers they have 2 taxis that they service, One has Just under 300K on the the clock, the other is over 350K

Regulary serviced and givening no serioius probs

Sort of made my mind up about getting one!

Hmm, 350k eh? At my now adjusted prediction of 7k per year, minus the 35k already done, looks like my Fabia could be going for another 45 years!

- mine will mainly depend on whether I continue commuting a lot or whether I start working from home a bit more For reasons of cost, working from home is sounding great

Taxis always seem to do bigger mileages because their engines stay close to operating temperature for long periods (thats why airlines keep the jet engines running even when the plane is not due to be used for a while - it prelongs their life).

I know of a Ford Mondeo diesel in Leeds that did 750,000 miles without even so much as the top end off, just regularly serviced.

Simmering the engine after a fast run is also a good idea to prelong the life of the engine and the turbo in particular as it helps cool the turbo bearings and thereby stops the oil from carbonising.

Treated with moderate respect and in standard trim I would expect a minimum of 250,000 miles before anything major developed.

Simmering the engine after a fast run is also a good idea to prelong the life of the engine and the turbo in particular as it helps cool the turbo bearings and thereby stops the oil from carbonising.

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I try so hard to remember this tip.Like a pillock I always pull up,turn the engine off....... and then remember

Simmering the engine after a fast run is also a good idea to prelong the life of the engine and the turbo in particular as it helps cool the turbo bearings and thereby stops the oil from carbonising.

I always did this with the Fabia when I had it, and out of habit, I've done it with the Golf, but I never thought it was neccesary unless the car has a turbo?

I try so hard to remember this tip.Like a pillock I always pull up,turn the engine off....... and then remember

Me too!! And for the record, how long is a good 'simmering down' period? As when I do remember I still feel like a pillock sitting in my car on the drive staring at the house for ages

I had a ride in a 54 plate octavia TDI taxi down in exeter and it had just ticked over 200,000 miles in just over one year with no problems. It is in a family and is on the road 24 hours per day... Quite impressive really.

I expect 300,000 + from one modern engine. petrol or diesel. diesels should easily make that (except clutch etc) as they are less fragile than petrols.

My dads Rover 218 diesel just clicked over 200k before the head gasket went. My dad is not a car friendly person and will only serivce them when they "need it" what ever that means? So a new engine that is looked after should reach even more

So how long would a car driven hard from cold day in & out last, if it were remapped and just followed the normal skoda service interval?

So how long would a car driven hard from cold day in & out last, if it were remapped and just followed the normal skoda service interval?

Isn't that question a bit like how long is a piece of string?

No idea will be long gone by that stage

Drive it like ya stole it, is my moto

Isn't that question a bit like how long is a piece of string?

And like other people's comments aren't? I don't believe you can accurately guess an engines life, hence people's approximations on what they believe is achievable on past experiences or knowledge, and prehaps someone may of had this experience which I am referring to

I would say driving hard from cold is only a small part of engine life. perhaps a 5 minute ragging might knock 100 miles off the ultimate engine life, if that. The engine's warm quite quick, so its probably only 2 minutes when bad damage could be done

I don't believe a remap will shorten engine life, unless its full power is used a lot more often. I'd say that I use above my normal 100hp for only around 5% of my driving time in the car, if that. The rest is cruising/normal driving which I can do without a remap.

In my case, my PD100 is lasting about 64500 miles only, and I'm having to get it replaced. :(

The vRS will last a long time if looked after - that is, properly warmed and cooled, oil levels maintained properly, properly serviced... and will do so regardless of it being remapped. The remapped ones are quick enough that you shouldnt have to thrash them all the time anyway.

Golf GTI petrol engines are said to last over quarter of a million miles, I'd expect the diesels to last more than that, tuned or not.

Drive it like ya stole it' date=' is my moto [/quote']

Across some fields and then set fire to it when you run out of fuel? :confused:

Some one at work has a VW Bora TDI (90bhp) X-reg that is apporaching 300k. He's had no problems apart from the thermostat kept sticking shut.

The engine's warm quite quick, so its probably only 2 minutes when bad damage could be done

Pretty sure the diesel takes longer than a petrol to get up to temperature as diesel engines are more thermally efficient, so I'd reckon on at least 10-15 mins before the oil is up to temp.

As Hellfire says, engine life is hard to predict as there are so many factors, especially on an engine which is tuned and running outside the factory recommended and tested parameters. Running more boost will add extra stress to the turbo and overfuelling (causing the temp in the cylinders to be hotter than normal) may lead to premature wear.

I don't know who has the highest mileage remapped vRS, but they well be the guinea pig for answering this question

Chris

What's the highest mileage vRS at any rate? I've not been to meets (yet?) but I'd be interested to see what peeps have got up to so far

I dont push it when cold, but when its warmed up i often drive it pretty hard (dont pass 3500 rpm) change castrol 505.01 every 5000 miles(i drive it 90% in city and have very dirty fuel) and i expect it to last at least 200 000 miles(my golf2 1.6td lasted 180 000).

Although using the correct oil, and changing it regularly will help the engine have a nice long life, even city driving won't kill it, as long as you ensure that the runs aren't too short (like in the aeroplane / taxi engine bit elsewhere on this thread). I'd want to do a 3500rpm+ blast every now and again, though, as you say yourself you use dirty fuel and using high reves will help self-clean the fuel injectors, which while not necessarily helping to prolong the life of the engine itself, will reduce the amount of maintenance required (can't imagine servicing the fuel injection on a PD engine would be cheap... :( )

Simmering the engine after a fast run is also a good idea to prelong the life of the engine and the turbo in particular as it helps cool the turbo bearings and thereby stops the oil from carbonising.

Cooking the oil in the bearings was only a problem in turbos ages ago, as they used oil to cool the bearings. Nowadays, the bearings are water cooled, so it's not so much of a problem. Still doesn't hurt to let the turbo spool down for a little while, however, just to avoid 'thermal shock' from cutting the cooling to it while it's still hot (although the 2 minutes quoted in the manual may be a bit excessive for normal driving)