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I'll bet on an MB they would not cover it under warranty if they found out you were running it on anything other than 100% highway diesel.
How much would say 10% gasoline in a diesel fuel mix hurt it? Fuels are hydrocarbon mixtures anyway, there is no specific 'diesel' molecule. Just curious if anyone has references.
Absolutely right. It certainly was an old trick to get diesels running in cold weather when diesel fuel would form wax crystals. Modern diesel fuel has a much lower wax-point and this is no longer a problem. The wax is simply refined out, (and is a fairly financially-attractive by-product, as is the suphur removed from fuels).
Modern diesel engines have very tightly toleranced pumps and injection kit that relies on the natural lubricity of the fuel to keep working, (vs virtually nil with gasoline). This, as I understand it, is the crux of the problem although even then it is very seldom an instantly catastrophic event - despite the manfrs claims to the contrary. Still, the answer is simple - don't put gasoline through a modern diesel engine.
As a public service announcement I would also advise against putting gasoline through your GE or RR jet engines; for aviation use anyway. You may not walk away from that one and don't even think about a warranty claim.
Yet, my neighbor never blamed diesel engines but himself for the mistake. :sick:
To each, its own.
Regards,
Jose
Regards,
Jose
Today's high tech autos are not very forgiving on most of the fluids put in. There are people that have had dealers put the wrong fluids in the transmission, engine, & Power steering. Anyone of which can cost thousands down the road.
Putting the wrong fuel or fluid is strictly human error. Has Nothing to do with design. You want an engine you can run about anything in get an old diesel tractor.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
I see your point though, putting gas in a diesel is a mistake I expect happens a lot and so it shouldn't be this involved and expensive to correct. I would expect MB to have designed the fuel tank so gasoline could be easily removed when it does happen. Perhaps some kind of drain at the lowest part of the fuel tank to make it easy to remove all of the fuel without having to remove the fuel tank.
Think of it this way, you saved a ton of money by not starting the car
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
1. Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Better than a Prius in every way except fuel mileage by a tiny amount, and its lower price still gives it the overall cost advantage for decades.
To think that Jetta TDI doesn't make the next emission level requirement Tier-III (in 2011) and Prius makes it by a wide margin, already.
.
The Prius is still far from as clean as CARB is proposing. They want nothing less than ZEV. Even a PHEV Prius will not be close to that. It is all a game of diminishing returns. So enjoy what you consider to be a reasonable vehicle while you can.
10 MPG in the city is nothing to give up for a much finer handling vehicle with higher quality interior and exterior design and materials. Plus Toyota needs to address their runaway acceleration issues before they kill a lot more people.
Make mine diesel!
Get back to us when Prius goes 9500+ miles around the USA covering every one of the 48 states at better than 67.9 MPG. Flat land mileage records are meaningless.
Your post again points out the fact that "no one car is perfect for EVERY situation" and again it promotes the need for a "diesel electric hybrid car" which would give the BEST of BOTH worlds.
Are you listening, VW? Audi? MB?
We want/need a commercially viable diesel/electric 5-passenger hybrid sedan.
We need a diesel hybrid which excels at city AND highway mileage.
Heck, Chrysler did it in a concept car more than 12 years ago - the technology IS available.
But I guess the economics are still questionable.
And we know, it's always about the almighty dollar.
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Could electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids tax our existing power grid to the point of failure? According to Peter Darbee, CEO of the Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation, the answer is yes. As few as 3 EVs in a single neighborhood could "overwhelm the circuits."
According to Darbee, a single vehicle drawing power from a 220-volt outlet is akin to adding another house to the grid. Darbee also expects EV owners to plug in at similar times, especially if they're returning home during typical rush hours.
"You would create a peak load on top of the peak load," he said. "What happens if three to five vehicles show up in one neighborhood? You're going to overwhelm the circuits."
1. Adding a plug-in car to the grid is equal to about a third of a house. And not many people are going to have an "extra" 220 volt plug in the garage - most have 1, and their dryer is using it. Automakers will provide us with 110 V charging cars.
2. Like anything else new, early adopters will have to be "trained" to plug their cars in later in the evening, rather than when they first get home.
3. Automakers are already planning for this: Ford's new vehicle-to-grid software program allows the driver to "to accept a charge only during off-peak hours between midnight and 6 a.m. when electricity rates are cheaper, or when the grid is using only renewable energy such as wind or solar power." So not only could you minimize your electricity costs by charging only when its least expensive, but you could also minimize your CO2 emissions (if you don't already get 100% of your electricity from green power, that is).
4. There already pilot systems in place where the electric cars FEED BACK INTO THE GRID during peak hours, then start re-charging themselves after peak hours.
5. The main thing is that electric cars will NOT "boom" immediately upon the release of the first vehicles. The grid, software, and battery hardware will have time to "catch up" before the number of electric or PHEV cars reaches critical mass in regard to the grid. They are not going to sell a million cars the first year. If they sell 50,000 over the first year or two I would be surprised.
Worry not your pretty little heads about electric cars overwhelming the grid. That ain't gonna happen.
"I got 99 problems and the grid ain't one."
Need more Golf TDI!
...and any vehicle that is not properly backed up by a diligent dealer network (parts) has some significant hurdles whether or not its engineering is good.
http://www.kia-world.net/index.php/2009/09/15/kia-sorento-diesel-hybrid/
Here's a link to one of the articles.
Here's some comparisons :
My '06 Volvo S60 D5 : 199 gm/km (that's a 2.4 Turbodiesel 185bhp)
VW Polo 1.4 TDi Bluemotion ; 99
Smart ForTwo 0.8D : 88
Toyota Yaris 1.4 D-4D : 109
Toyota Prius 1.5 gasser hybrid : 104
Ford Fiesta 1.6 TDCi : 110
Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi (136bhp) : 144
Audi A3 2.0 TDi 170bhp : 148
Audi Q7 3.0 TDi : 260
BMW 335D : 177 (282bhp)
BMW 330i gasser : 173 (268bhp)
BMW 120D : 128
Jaguar XF 3.0D : 179
Lexus IS 220D : 148
Vauxhall/Opel Astra 1.9 CDTi : 149
Cadillac CTS 3.6 gasser : 264
Corvette ZO6 : 350 (not exactly a surprise !)
MINI Cooper 1.6D : 109
Rolls Royce Phantom : 377 :shades: not bad considering..............
So, 119gm/km for a small diesel hybrid is just not that exciting.
pre-reg 1974 2.25 1.0
CA Tier1 2003 0.37278 0.049704
Euro4 2005 0.25 0.025
Euro5 2008 0.2 0.005
CA ULEV 2003 0.18639 0.024852
Japan 2005 2005 0.14 0.013
Tier2Bin8 2006 0.125 0.0125
Japan'09&Euro6 2009 0.08 0.005
Tier2Bin5 2008 0.043491 0.006213
I'm sorry, I couldn't get this to format at all. The comparison is NOx and PM in grams per mile. These are the only two of the regulated emissions where diesels are not superior to gasoline engines (HC, CO, etc. are already better for the diesel). Tier2Bin5 is federal, but corresponds to one of the CA levels, basically 'price of entry' into the CA market, and the 'me too' states. Any of these recent regs are a order of magnitude improvement from where we were in the '70s. The differences between recent Euro, Japan, US regs are peanuts compared to where we came from (plot them out x-y, include the pre-regulation values, and the need for US regs to differ from Europe's looks very silly). Japan wisely commonizes with Euro regs; Japan '09 and Euro 6. Our Tier2Bin5 is still more strict on NOx than Euro6 (comes out in 2012?), so: no diesels for you!
Already 20 years of TDI, wow!
Hybrids as we know them today will slowly go away. New forms like the Volt and pure electric and higher-tech diesels will own the roads in a decade or so.
Hydrogen? Doubtful that it will ever be a huge player. Technology needs to make huge jumps to get hydrogen into the affordable realm.
The concept of pure electric is intriguing but the range is still too short, the cost too high, and long term durability is still an issue. Plug-in and pure electric are a lovely thought but as long as we still mostly use fossil fuels to make electricity, then the carbon footprint of these vehicles will still be a problem.
Cap and trade will double the cost of electricity in 2-4 years, so a diesel or even a small gasser will be cheaper to drive than a plug-in. How's that for "hope and change" ?
The more alternative powertrains the better, bring them on!
I'd love to see more natural gas, hybrid, gas and diesel offerings. We need choices.
Regarding diesel, the best thing that could happen would be U.S.A. and Europe adopting equivalent emissions and safety regulations. With all the talk about free trade and global companies, the mismatched regulations show the talk is just a bunch of hot air. Heck, the Chicken Tax tariff is still in effect!
Here in the UK it retails for £95k and up...........circa $150k ??? :surprise:
I agree with you that the V12 diesel is pretty impressive, and that much $$ for a Q7 is just outrageous.
Amen to that. Here's some numbers :
A8 4.2 V8 FSi ; 345bhp, 324lbft, 0-62mph = 6.1 secs, 25.9mpg combined EU.
A8 4.2 V8 TDi : 322, 480, 6.1, 30.1 that's a lot of torquey things.
The Tdi sells for circa £3k more.
Bit of a no-brainer, really. :shades:
My neighbour has recently taken delivery of an A5, (S5), 4.2 V8 FSi that shows these numbers : 349, 324, 5.1, 22.8 and sounds glorious. It's a company car and replaces his A6 3.0 TDi. Guess he's not too concerned about economy as he's not paying the bills - but his tax bill must be pretty scary.