My wife just bought an Audi A-3 TurboDiesel automatic transmission. We got it delivered in Germany (the tour of the Audi factory in Ingolstadt is pretty cool if you get a chance to do it). We drove a few thousand miles there, so its broken in--or not. Now it's at the dock in Houston, ready to come north and meet us in Arkansas. The guy who delivered our car in Germany said we didn't need to do anything special driving the car, so we haven't (other than not revving too high during the break in). I seem to remember that back in the old days, you were supposed to idle turbos before turning them off. The folks at Audi say you don't need to do that anymore. True? And generally, since this is the first turbo or diesel for either of us: any special suggestions for driving turbo diesels to promote efficiency and long engine life? PS. I get to use the 2010 Prius II as my car.
I suggest checking out the Audi and TDiClub.com forums for driving tips. The Audi should be similar enough to the Jetta, Passat and Golf with regards to basic driving that you could learn a lot there. I think they are much like the Prius in that a quick acceleration then maintaining speed is better than loafing up to speed. Congrats on the purchase. My girlfriend really likes the A3 and A4 wagons!
Half the cars here are turbo diesel or even bi turbo. In fact a lot of petrol cars are now becoming turbo too. You don't need to do anything special anymore other than just drive it. Maybe if you've been giving it some welly you might let it idle for 20 seconds or so before switching off, but otherwise there's no need. One sensible suggestion - always change the oil at the specified intervals and use good quality oil of the correct type. I know here the latests diesels use a low ash diesel specific engine oil as this helps the emission control systems. Enjoy the new car and provide feedback on this site (with pictures) so people can see just how different modern diesels are compared to 30 years ago. Keep an eye on the inside of your tailpipe - it will remain virtually clean so good are the newer exhaust filters.
Congrats on the new aquisition. You still have to idle a turbo after driving on the highways and other high revving actions. Rules of thumb: If you stop immediately after driving on the highway, then you have to wait 30 seconds. If you have been racing, you should wait two minutes. You idle the car in order to cool down the turbo. Turning off the car while the turbo is hot causes high wear on the parts. As for driving, the many tips for good fuel economy here on PC are great for diesels as well, but the best tip is to have the engine at a steady speed as this is where the diesel achieves extreme efficiency.
Indeed it can but where does it say to do this routine? I have driven more diesel cars than I can remember and have never, ever let the car idle before switching off. I have only had two turbos blow - one at massive miles and the other was a VW that I was hammering up a hill and I think it had about 80,000+ miles. I had others that never needed a replacement turbo. Modern oils allow you to get sloppy which is why I stressed getting them changed correctly.
Taken directly from the manual of my iQ 1.4 D-4D diesel. I asked the mechanic and he confirmed it. I'm hypermiling the scheit out of this car. I started having problems during the winters because slog gathered in one of the vacuum hoses. The mechanic told me to rev the engine more often in order to blow the system clean. This helped, but damn near caused an accident once I pulled from some kid on a highway ramp and he had to avenge his honour by ploughing his car at full speed into the upcoming construction work zone consisting of merging and narrowing lanes.
Oh heck where do I begin? A gumboot is called a Wellington Boot here for some historic reason and often they are worn by farmers and those working on the land. To give a car "some welly" is a term meaning to 'floor it' in a way only an inbred farmer (wearing his welly's) from the middle of nowhere can do. In other words, floor it with no thought or care for the engine or mechanics whatsoever. Thrashing it, caning it, hammering it are all pretty much the same.
Now that's something different altogether! What you refer to is a common pass time in some remote country parts where the extra wide top of said wellington boot allows one to slip the.....I think you already knew where this was going!
I heard this from a friend from Wales, except he was a bit more direct about what the country boy was doing with the Wellies.... What's the difference between being seen doing what a country boy does with wide top Wellingtons and driving a Lada? You would be embarrassed if your neighbors saw you driving a Lada.
lol, Probably not far off the mark with that one. You might have to think twice lol. The Lada, blimey that's a blast from the past. I'm guessing you never got them in the USA? The stopped selling them here about 1995 as it couldn't even pass the basic Euro emissions of the time, but imagine the Yugo from the late 1980's, well at the same time we also got Eastern Europes finest, the Lada Riva! It was so basic it made the Yugo look positively refined, but it was cheap and bought by old blokes who wanted a new car but didn't have any money. In the mid 1990s they all disappeared back to Russia as there was a demand for our old ones there even though they were RHD. I remember their newspapers adverts drawing attention to such luxury sellings points such as Halogen headlights! lol. Quite a rarity here now - thankfully. Can't talk about Lada's without a few Lada jokes to compliment yours; How do you double the value of a Lada? Fill the petrol tank. A man goes into a service-station and asks "Can I have a windscreen-wiper for my Lada?" "Okay" replied the man in the garage, "it seems a fair swap". Want to buy the new 16-valve Lada? 8 in the engine, and 8 in the radio. What do you call a Lada driver who says he has a speeding ticket? A liar. Ad nauseum
A TC'd diesel is just like any other car in terms of fuel efficient driving. Get a scangauge or similar, that's the easiest way to help out with fuel efficient driving. Turbos can coke up (oil deposits from stopping with the turbo really hot), so it wouldn't hurt to let the turbo cool off a bit prior to shutoff if you've just stop driving at high load, eg you hit a rest stop after driving down the highway uphill at 85mph. If you get off the freeway, and you idle a bit stopped at lights/stop signs before you get home, I don't think there's any need to let the car idle since all that low load driving will accomplish the same thing as idling for all intents and purposes.
