Diesel cars are renowned for their durability, but that doesn't mean they don't need to be taken care of.
Prices for used diesel cars in the West are falling. This is due to the fact that for a long time the volume of sales of new diesel cars was very high and therefore there are now a large number of them on the used car market. New diesel cars are much more expensive than their equivalent gasoline counterparts. In addition, the time has passed when the diesel range familiar to us today was limited to just one model. Today, manufacturers are able to supply the market with diesel engines that meet the highest requirements.
Regrettable countries, if any, in which diesel fuel costs the same as gasoline or even exceeds it. But even then, you will benefit, as diesel cars tend to have a longer service life, but only if you have a high annual mileage. No savings are obtained only with small annual runs. You save on spark plugs, although it is clear that when using spark plugs with a replacement interval of 60 thousand km, the savings on them will be small. At the same time, you will lose out on more frequent oil and filter changes.
What attracts diesel?
Modern diesel cars are attractive due to their ability to develop a lot of traction at low speeds, which is especially good for drivers who do not like to change gears too often. Most manufacturers offer turbocharged diesels to give the owner the opportunity to experience the beauty of a high-end car for himself.
If you are thinking about switching to a diesel, but do not know how to take care of it yourself, then we will say right away that keeping a diesel in good condition is no more difficult than a gasoline engine, despite their differences. We offer you a brief guide to the purchase, operation and maintenance of a diesel engine.
The mechanisms of a gasoline and diesel engine are not much different. Both engines are based on a four-stroke combustion cycle, but they do this in completely different ways.
While gasoline engines ignite the air-fuel mixture with spark plugs, diesel fuel is ignited by very high compression.
When a gasoline engine sucks in air and gasoline on the first stroke, the diesel only sucks in air, which is compressed to such an extent that its temperature rises to 800°C. The hot air ignites diesel fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber of the cylinder shortly before the piston reaches BMT on the compression stroke. Because diesel engines have twice the compression ratio of gasoline engines, the fuel must be injected at very high pressure in order for it to fly into the combustion chamber and keep the fuel jet shaped. Due to the increased requirements for injection, the diesel high-pressure fuel pump is a particularly high-precision manufactured unit.
On older diesel models, high-pressure in-line multi-plunger fuel pumps were usually used. Now most modern diesel engines use more complex rotary pumps with constant fuel supply, as they work better at high engine speeds. Modern diesel engines use electronic fuel metering control systems to achieve close to ideal combustion. Many diesels are even equipped with exhaust gas aftertreatment converters.
There are two types of diesels, and the difference between them is how they burn fuel. Some use direct fuel injection. The name itself indicates the direct direction of the fuel into the cavity of the combustion chamber. Although this injection method is very efficient, its disadvantages are high noise and unevenness. For this reason, direct injection has been preserved only on diesel engines used in trucks. However, advanced diesel designs have largely eliminated these shortcomings, and most car manufacturers offer high-performance direct injection diesels.
In other diesel engines that do not use direct fuel injection, a small additional chamber is created in front of the combustion chamber, into which fuel is injected. This chamber is located on the opposite side from the nozzle installation site and the direction of movement of the fuel injected by it. This constructive technique allows you to increase the engine speed, but you have to pay for this with some loss of power.
Why is diesel noisy?
The well-known rumble of a diesel engine is generated by the ignition of the fuel and the subsequent sharp drop in high pressure in the combustion chamber. The most clearly specific rumble of a diesel engine is heard after starting during the engine warming up at idle.
The diesel does not have an ignition system, but there is a system for pre-heating the combustion chambers of the cylinders using starting candles. In addition, the times of prolonged cranking of the engine by the starter and tedious waiting for the preheating end indicator lamp to go out are long gone. There are already quite a few manufacturers producing quick-start diesels, which take no more than a couple of seconds to start in winter. Some cars even have "starting handle", which can be directly controlled by the high pressure fuel pump to change injection timing, accelerate warm-up and reduce smoke emission at start-up.
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