Diesel with short trips lately, is it bad for the car and environment?
 

I have a opel combo with the 1.7L turbodiesel engine (y17dtl)

My commute shortened from 30 to 20 kilometers and there's some short trips mainly driving the kids to school in bad weather. School is 3kms from home.

Thing is, i do quite a bit some longer trips (50-350kms)where the diesel car is at its best.

Am i killing my car with short trips and polluting excessively?

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No...


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Yes depending on how long it takes to reach thermostat opening and peak engine efficiency. If it's up to temp at the start, the low temp enrichments are off. My F250 in the winter has no defrost heat for 4 miles because it's trying to warm 8 gallons of coolant with reduced btu fuel and it barely generates enough heat at idle to dewax the fuel

My antique NA diesel did tons of short trips in -20F without issue through 438,000 miles

My fathers TDI had to have the intake and egr decoked all the time

Short trips on a turbo in cold weather result in new maintenance requirements

You will need to do frequent longer trips or the DPF will clog up eventualy.
The local trick to clean a DPF is very bad for your fuel efficiency as it involves driving over 200 km/h for an extended period of time to get the EGTs up and burn the filter free.

Luckily no DPF.
Every time i get a chance to go longer trips i do some "italian tuneup" - driving to clean stuff up.
In warm weather the car gets up to normal temps during the commute but anything below 10°C and the meter stays down. That's what got me into thinking this can't be good.

Edit:guess it is time to sell this car and go for a petrol car.

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Curious.

Do you like, or enjoy your current vehicle ?

Does it meet your needs ?


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If your main concern is getting to its optimum temperature, a partial grille block won't hurt. As long as the glowplugs and the thermostat are OK, there won't be too much to worry about cold startings.

Well, yes. Lots of room and smallish consumption. Maybe a little underpowered for trailer towing.

Two words: engine preheat.

There are advantages a diesel can have over a gasoline engine in short trips. During startup, both diesel and gasoline engines will have more unburned fuel during the combustion and exhaust strokes. In a gasoline engine the extra fuel washes the cylinders of oil and causes premature wear. In a diesel the fuel acts as a lubricant, so less cylinder wear.

But then there's the DPF as others have mentioned. Of course you did mention that you didn't have a DPF, so maybe a diesel car would be the best short trip option.

An engine block heater will help, but a lot only help so much. Most only keep the engine a bit warmer than ambient and are really just there to keep the coolant from freezing in artic conditions. When it's -60⁰F my OEM block heater only keeps the engine at about -30⁰F. A 1,000W or great block heater would be the way to go on either gasoline or diesel, even during the summer.

Diesel emissions equipment also work better if you wrap up the exhaust system with heat tape.

Of course the king of short trips is the BEV, as well as they plugin hybrid. Or a bicycle.

With the electronic engine management, fuel washing oil from the cylinder walls don't seem to go the same extent as in an older one with full-mechanical injection.


Is is that 75hp version?

I use the block heater when it's 5°C or below but doesn't seem to make much of a difference. (bad/broken heater?)
I get warm air to the cabin cuick enough though.

Rooster:This is the 65hp version without an intercooler.

These are all good points :thumbup:
I would gladly drive an EV or hybrid but they are waaay out of my price range at the moment. We use bikes for short trips as much as possible. Not so much i would like to, though.

We use recirculating engine heaters for the snow plow trucks here. I made a fairing for my bike to cover from my shoulders to the knees. For me a short strip is 10 miles. Temperature affects battery output.

Do you keep it parked outside overnight?


I don't remember actually having seen such engine without the intercooler. Not that it was much of a strong seller in the regional export markets supplied from Brazil as its IDI naturally-aspirated predecessor used to be...

Yes, it's under a roof at home. In the winter sometimes in the warm garage when available.

At work it's not under a roof but i can use the block heater in there.

It's a bit odd IMO that an turbodiesel engine is only 65hp...why add an another part needing maintenance for basicly nothing? :D
Surely you could get the same amount of power out of a n/a engine.

I had an N/A 1.6L VW diesel that produced 53hp at sea level. There turbo version would have produced 69hp.

However, at my altitude N/A vehicles lose about 1/3 their horsepower. So my diesel was probably around 35hp. Anyhow, it sure felt like 35hp. I even got pulled over because the officer was concerned I was going so slow and producing so much smoke as I had it wound up in low gear climbing an 8% grade.

Used to have 3 different 1.6 diesel vw caddys...after two n/a versions the turbodiesel was like warp drive :D

I think one thing is being missed here: while shorter trips are more polluting and damaging per mile (or kilometer) traveled, every long trip starts as a short trip and pollutes/wears the same until the engine warms up. Driving less is almost always a net win, even if your tank averages go down.

Admittedly there are some maintenance items associated with the engine not getting as warm, but there are probably equally many (or more) from driving a total greater distance.

Besides the altitude compensation already mentioned, it's also worth noticing a turbocharger may render the parameters for emissions control more predictable for the engineering.