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  1. #91

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Yeah, Servicing has become one of the primary considerations when we buy household stuff, just like with the vehicles. Not so much the expense, but just being able to get it done by somebody who`s OK.

  2. #92

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    You know, that throwing parts at things, at least until they are NLA, I like to think that the majority is just planned obsolescence. One of the things I love about the VW forums is the amount of ingenuity some of those guys have. Nothing is unrepairable, really. The issue is time vs money vs the desire for newness. Sometimes your want just needs that little push to justify getting rid of the old.
    Subaru forums as well. When I owned a 90`s vintage Outback it was amazing what some owners would do to keep those things running. It doesn`t hurt that Subaru hasn`t changed the drive train in their vehicles much for nearly 20 years and there are common parts are found in almost all their vehicles. Can`t find a part for your Legacy or Outback? It`s probably used in a Forester or Impreza too. They are like interchangeable Legos.

    Quote Originally Posted by Accumulator View Post
    Yeah, Servicing has become one of the primary considerations when we buy household stuff, just like with the vehicles. Not so much the expense, but just being able to get it done by somebody who`s OK.
    This is pushing me to take the gamble and get a warranty more often. Recently we had a dishwasher go belly-up after only a year. The manufacturer recently abandoned the model we owned and no parts were available, so the warranty company bought us a new diswasher of our choosing.

  3. #93
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Having a good, independent mechanic is a must if you don`t work on them your self. Some of the stuff can`t be worked on with out the right equipment. My daily BMW is spending Thanksgiving getting all the fluids replaced, oil pan gasket, o2 sensors, spark plugs and coils and some go fast goodies (should have another 50 - 100 HP depending on my mood). With all that has been done, should be good to go with just oil changes for next couple of years.

  4. #94
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Well... I guess I might be in the minority here. Previously owned an `84 MB 300D, but sold it due to rust issues that were well outside my wheelhouse. I picked up an `02 Golf TDI and I swear that`s the most dead reliable car I`ve ever owned. The only time it let me down was about a month ago when the original battery died. I do all of the maintenance and repair on it myself... and with 136k miles there are little things here and there that need to be fixed.

    That Golf is about to become our 3rd car for the emerging drivers in our house. I found a minty-ish 91 MB 300d with only 112k miles. It needed a couple minor things (flex disc, accy belt tensioner, t-stat) but other than that, she`s a dream to drive.

    My Mom thinks I need to get into a 12-step program for German Car Owners.
    Likes Stokdgs liked this post

  5. #95

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by jatleson View Post
    Having a good, independent mechanic is a must if you don`t work on them your self..
    There just aren`t any independents in my area that I`d let touch my stuff, not since EuroCar Service quit turning wrenches Not many dealerships with competent techs either...

  6. #96
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Well, that wasn`t long. I made it less than a year being German free. Just picked up a 2010 ML350 Diesel.

  7. #97
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    Well, that wasn`t long. I made it less than a year being German free. Just picked up a 2010 ML350 Diesel.
    Nice. I love diesels. It’s a shame VW ruined it for us.

  8. #98
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by rlmccarty2000 View Post
    Nice. I love diesels. It’s a shame VW ruined it for us.
    I love them too but the amount of stuff required to make them meet emissions regulations makes them a maintenance challenge most are unwilling to face. The ML350 is no exception. I`m like a fly to crap.

    The way MB diesels purr at idle almost makes it worth it.

  9. #99

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    German cars just out-do all of the others, they are always at the forefront of technology, that`s why they are so expensive to maintain. Not to mention that they drive the best. With detailing an Indy since last May, I have learned so much more about the German cars than I had previously known. You are really paying the premium that they demand, however it is because of the technology that is going into the cars, not the quality or build materials of the parts that they are comprised of.

  10. #100
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    I love them too but the amount of stuff required to make them meet emissions regulations makes them a maintenance challenge most are unwilling to face. The ML350 is no exception. I`m like a fly to crap.

    The way MB diesels purr at idle almost makes it worth it.
    I’ve got a BMW 335d and the torque is just fun. Going from 50 to 80 is a blast. The emissions is a pain and I may be making some adjustments to mine to cut down on the carbon buildup problem. We have no emissions testing where I live. I’m torn on which way to go but BMW quoted me $3k plus to clean the carbon. There is a guy in N. Georgia that specializes in diesels and he will do it for much less, it’s just a long haul to get to his shop.


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  11. #101

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by rlmccarty2000 View Post
    I’ve got a BMW 335d and the torque is just fun. Going from 50 to 80 is a blast. The emissions is a pain and I may be making some adjustments to mine to cut down on the carbon buildup problem. We have no emissions testing where I live. I’m torn on which way to go but BMW quoted me $3k plus to clean the carbon. There is a guy in N. Georgia that specializes in diesels and he will do it for much less, it’s just a long haul to get to his shop.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
    Is it where the fuel injectors is that you have carbon build up?

    I would look for a good and well known tuning company to get the most effective tuning for your motor. The dieselgate has made the certified service places for the different manufactures to install new mapping program to the motor. And often not in a good way since you get a less effective motor after a service. While if you have an early car modell and you service it you can get a better and more effective mapping program from a later year modell of the car installed. There is tuning boxes that is quite good too. One that does them for many different car modells and is at a good price is Racechip dot com. The entry level box I have in mind to get for my Kia cee`d with a turbo diesel. Think that I have seen them available in the US. But from a tuning company you can get a service from them. And not only DIY it with a box from for an example Racechip. They often get your engine to run better with more HP and torque and mpg. It`s very common to let a tuning company tune in your diesel engine to run better here in Sweden. Just a thought.

    /Tony

  12. #102
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by SWETM View Post
    Is it where the fuel injectors is that you have carbon build up?

    I would look for a good and well known tuning company to get the most effective tuning for your motor. The dieselgate has made the certified service places for the different manufactures to install new mapping program to the motor. And often not in a good way since you get a less effective motor after a service. While if you have an early car modell and you service it you can get a better and more effective mapping program from a later year modell of the car installed. There is tuning boxes that is quite good too. One that does them for many different car modells and is at a good price is Racechip dot com. The entry level box I have in mind to get for my Kia cee`d with a turbo diesel. Think that I have seen them available in the US. But from a tuning company you can get a service from them. And not only DIY it with a box from for an example Racechip. They often get your engine to run better with more HP and torque and mpg. It`s very common to let a tuning company tune in your diesel engine to run better here in Sweden. Just a thought.

    /Tony
    It’s more than just the fuel injectors. I’m not a mechanic so I won’t even try to go into details on the 335d. Take a look at any of the BMW forums and they can explain it much better, but it starts with the EGR valve. There is also a problem with our quality of diesel fuel and that the car needs to be driven at Autobahn speeds to keep the carbon buildup down.

    The guy up in N. GA is AARodrigues and he also remaps/tunes the ECU to get more power out of the car. He offers several stages of tuning even to where you need upgraded fuel pumps. I just want a little more performance and less carbon buildup. I really don’t want to increase pollution, but I want to be able to drive the car. I’m probably going to leave the urea injection alone and also the filter, but the EGR system will have to be deleted.


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    Likes SWETM liked this post

  13. #103

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by rlmccarty2000 View Post
    It’s more than just the fuel injectors. I’m not a mechanic so I won’t even try to go into details on the 335d. Take a look at any of the BMW forums and they can explain it much better, but it starts with the EGR valve. There is also a problem with our quality of diesel fuel and that the car needs to be driven at Autobahn speeds to keep the carbon buildup down.

    The guy up in N. GA is AARodrigues and he also remaps/tunes the ECU to get more power out of the car. He offers several stages of tuning even to where you need upgraded fuel pumps. I just want a little more performance and less carbon buildup. I really don’t want to increase pollution, but I want to be able to drive the car. I’m probably going to leave the urea injection alone and also the filter, but the EGR system will have to be deleted.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
    Using more of your "go" pedal will help reduce carbon build up, the engine needs higher load and more than 3k rpms. Like every time you drive the car, go full throttle accelerating to highway speeds when merging. The more load and rpms that the engine sees, the less carbon build up. Shoot, if there is any way that the car could be detuned safely, I`d do that. Just so that I can go higher load acceleration without getting into as much trouble with the law. Granted I drive a GS300 that has the 2JZ in it, she purrs like a kitten and runs as smooth as silk. That engine regularly sees high load and high rpm situations, and granted is also port injected, however the Toyota motors are known for consuming more oil than the majority of other engines, nonetheless, the engine runs as smooth as silk with 165K miles on the clock and with seeing 20k miles (my ownership) of high load and high rpm driving, she runs better than when I bought her.

    Often, with my co-workers, we get into conversations about how much horsepower is the perfect amount for the street and they always agree between themselves that 500 is the magic number while I always come in around the 300 mark. With 300hp on a reliable engine, the engine will be able to withstand being flogged all day long, thus increasing engine temps to the point where soft carbon deposits are being burned off. Burning off carbon deposits in a 500hp motor is much more difficult because the throttle input required to get engine temps to the point of soft carbon burning, result in very illegal speeds. Whereas in the 300hp motor, I can burn soft carbon all day long and get pulled over for doing 14mph over, instead of 34mph over in the 500hp motor.

    Here in the states, our infrastructure just isn`t conducive to owning and driving German cars in the ways of which they were designed to be driven. The majority of german cars barely see 50% throttle application in day to day driving, when they were designed to see 50%+. Now, not all of the carbon build up problems are related to driving styles, BMW and other Germans have not been doing their best design work when it comes to building the engines. There is a lot of cost cutting by way of material use like plastics, for example using plastic parts on the hot side of engines instead of metal. At work, we recently had a customer who had been turning down the servicing of the EGR system on their F15 X5 35d and the EGR valve ended up getting clogged, over heating the EGR cooler, and together melting holes in the plastic intake. As their trade-in value was next to rock bottom, combined with the fact that no one wants a `14 X5 35d with 85K miles on the clock, the customer decided to bite the bullet and fix the X5. The bill was about $4k in parts and labor. Since the fix, the X5 has been in for other minor services and I have noticed that the owners have started to neglect keeping the exterior and interior in as good of condition as when I first saw it.

    Long story short, give liberal amounts of acceleration up to posted limits, do plenty of walnut shell blastings, and take care of the car. And when going on short drives, like running errands, get the car up to temp and plan some extra time to do a few full throttle pulls onto your local highway or service roads

  14. #104
    rlmccarty2000's Avatar
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by TheMeanGreen View Post
    Using more of your "go" pedal will help reduce carbon build up, the engine needs higher load and more than 3k rpms. Like every time you drive the car, go full throttle accelerating to highway speeds when merging. The more load and rpms that the engine sees, the less carbon build up. Shoot, if there is any way that the car could be detuned safely, I`d do that. Just so that I can go higher load acceleration without getting into as much trouble with the law. Granted I drive a GS300 that has the 2JZ in it, she purrs like a kitten and runs as smooth as silk. That engine regularly sees high load and high rpm situations, and granted is also port injected, however the Toyota motors are known for consuming more oil than the majority of other engines, nonetheless, the engine runs as smooth as silk with 165K miles on the clock and with seeing 20k miles (my ownership) of high load and high rpm driving, she runs better than when I bought her.

    Often, with my co-workers, we get into conversations about how much horsepower is the perfect amount for the street and they always agree between themselves that 500 is the magic number while I always come in around the 300 mark. With 300hp on a reliable engine, the engine will be able to withstand being flogged all day long, thus increasing engine temps to the point where soft carbon deposits are being burned off. Burning off carbon deposits in a 500hp motor is much more difficult because the throttle input required to get engine temps to the point of soft carbon burning, result in very illegal speeds. Whereas in the 300hp motor, I can burn soft carbon all day long and get pulled over for doing 14mph over, instead of 34mph over in the 500hp motor.

    Here in the states, our infrastructure just isn`t conducive to owning and driving German cars in the ways of which they were designed to be driven. The majority of german cars barely see 50% throttle application in day to day driving, when they were designed to see 50%+. Now, not all of the carbon build up problems are related to driving styles, BMW and other Germans have not been doing their best design work when it comes to building the engines. There is a lot of cost cutting by way of material use like plastics, for example using plastic parts on the hot side of engines instead of metal. At work, we recently had a customer who had been turning down the servicing of the EGR system on their F15 X5 35d and the EGR valve ended up getting clogged, over heating the EGR cooler, and together melting holes in the plastic intake. As their trade-in value was next to rock bottom, combined with the fact that no one wants a `14 X5 35d with 85K miles on the clock, the customer decided to bite the bullet and fix the X5. The bill was about $4k in parts and labor. Since the fix, the X5 has been in for other minor services and I have noticed that the owners have started to neglect keeping the exterior and interior in as good of condition as when I first saw it.

    Long story short, give liberal amounts of acceleration up to posted limits, do plenty of walnut shell blastings, and take care of the car. And when going on short drives, like running errands, get the car up to temp and plan some extra time to do a few full throttle pulls onto your local highway or service roads
    I agree with your assessment of the situation. I put my 335d in sport mode most of the time now to keep the engine speed up to burn off any carbon I can. It affects gas mileage, but I really don’t see any way around it. I limit my around town driving or take the wife’s car. BMW says they have a new Diesel engine that burns cleaner and more efficiently, but I have doubts the US will ever see it. They are still deciding if the new X5 will have a diesel here or not. That ‘14 X5 with 85k miles is just broken in good. I like to buy my cars used after the depreciation has hit hard but the car is still in good shape, that ‘14 is close to what I look for. I bought my 335d with 50k miles just out of warranty. It was $56k new and I got it for $16k, nothing but normal maintenance so far, but I know I have some major work coming up soon. Having a big maintenance bill doesn’t bother me much since I saved on the depreciation side.

    I have the “what is the right amount of horsepower” debate from time to time too but never thought about the carbon problem until you brought it up. I’ve always thought 300hp is enough for anyone, especially if the vehicle has a low weight, but I’ve been thinking more in the 400hp range for my next car. I’m thinking about a used E90 M3 that has 414hp. It will be overkill for me, but it will also be a second car/toy. I think that model, the last of the naturally aspirated 8 cylinder BMWs may be a future collectible. I’m not buying it hoping it goes up in value, but in 20 years people will still be talking about it, where the turbo BMWs will be somewhat forgotten (maybe not the 1M). The horsepower wars are fun but I think I’ll watch from the sidelines as no one needs 700+ horsepower. Of course in 20 years I think the majority of cars sold will be of the electric or hybrid type. 5 years from now I plan to buy a full electric car. The range should be around the 400 mile per charge mark and that will quell my range anxiety problem and infrastructure will be better to support my needs. Oops getting off topic...

  15. #105

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by rlmccarty2000 View Post

    I have the “what is the right amount of horsepower” debate from time to time too but never thought about the carbon problem until you brought it up. I’ve always thought 300hp is enough for anyone, especially if the vehicle has a low weight, but I’ve been thinking more in the 400hp range for my next car. I’m thinking about a used E90 M3 that has 414hp. It will be overkill for me, but it will also be a second car/toy. I think that model, the last of the naturally aspirated 8 cylinder BMWs may be a future collectible. I’m not buying it hoping it goes up in value, but in 20 years people will still be talking about it, where the turbo BMWs will be somewhat forgotten (maybe not the 1M). The horsepower wars are fun but I think I’ll watch from the sidelines as no one needs 700+ horsepower. Of course in 20 years I think the majority of cars sold will be of the electric or hybrid type. 5 years from now I plan to buy a full electric car. The range should be around the 400 mile per charge mark and that will quell my range anxiety problem and infrastructure will be better to support my needs. Oops getting off topic...

    Here is my rant about electric vehicles, posted over in the "What did you do detailing wise today?"

    [Rant ON:

    For all:

    What about the environmental impact that the vehicle manufacture creates when they build the car? Or the batteries, or interior plastics that are comprised of petroleum? What about the environmental impact that all the parts suppliers create? What happens when a family member 600 miles away falls ill and the only way to get there is by driving and it`s the holidays, so all the combustion-engined rental cars are booked? What if the excess capacity that the power plant has is actual plant capacity and not energy stored in reserve batteries that can be released back into the grid? What if that excess capacity is actually the plant running at 40% capacity and the plant wants to run 50% capacity to up keep demand and be slightly more efficient? How is that extra 10% of capacity of increased energy produced, is it by fossil fuels or renewable and sustainable energy like solar, wind, or hydroelectric? If that 10% higher capacity that the power plant produces is via fossil fuel, there is no way on this green earth that a couple hundred EV`s (in ones area of living) will offset the carbon footprint that the 10% extra plant capacity produces. With the US electrical grid in its current form of not keeping reserve energy (on average) and with producing energy by way of fossil fuels, every time a person turns on their kitchen light, a power plant within a XXX miles radius must increase its output to meet the higher demand that that single kitchen lightbulb has created (doesn`t matter whether it is incandescent or LED). Thus increasing the plants own native power consumption and presumably adding to its carbon footprint. As long as the US grid is producing energy on fossil fuels and not storing reserve energy, it doesn`t matter how many electric cars will be sold because the cars will still not be able to counteract the carbon foot print that power plants upstream or downstream are creating. However, it is much easier to control the people than it is to control corporations, especially big ones, forget trying to control governments, of course unless the governed people unite.

    As far as fueling is concerned, gasoline and diesel are the most energy dense forms of fuel per unit volume, diesel more-so than gasoline. There is some very promising technology on the horizon, that should keep the Internal Combustion Engine around, however its shape will change. It is really such a shame that diesel has gotten a bad rap, because it is truly a fuel of the future. Diesels are so much more efficient and when combined in a hybrid system, my goodness the MPG. Check out BMW`s european Diesel-Hybrid concepts, 60+mpg. As automakers continue to strive to meet Fuel Economy and emissions standards, they will realize that they will only be able to go so far before their efforts are deemed too expensive; the efforts should be made in aerodynamics, and lighter weight vehicles, and evolving the ICE with new technology. The biggest downside to batteries is that every time a battery goes through a discharge/recharge cycle, it`s capacity is diminished. Yes there technologies that make the batteries better, but they still loose their capacity every time they are discharged/recharged. The ICE will always have its place because there is simply nothing that can replicate it, and there is no other fuel as energy dense per unit volume that is capable of supporting such a small application as a passenger vehicle, yet. In the auto industry, we are in a transition period where the push is for all electric, but that will come at a cost, especially in the US as we simply do not have the infrastructure to support millions of electric vehicles that will hopefully be on the road by 202X. As the infrastructure currently stands, I don`t see how it will be possible to support that many vehicles without turning the power plants to renewable sources of energy. The people want electric vehicles, but what happens when the EV`s cannot be sold because the infrastructure cannot support them? The automakers will begin to go towards red then the people will want ICE vehicles, starting the cycle over.

    There are so many more topics that I`d like to rant about, relating to EV`s and cars. However, I think this diatribe is enough.

    Rant: OFF.]


 

 
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