Doctor Diesel – More Winter’s Tales

A friend of mine with a Citroën C-Crosser has been suffering very badly with the car going into limp home mode. When he telephoned his dealer, they said it was very likely that winter grade diesel was causing the problem and, sure enough when he took it in, they had to clean the oil lines […]

Yorkshire Golf ee by gummed up?

I have a January 2010 Golf 1.6 TDI Bluemotion Estate, which has done 61,000 miles. Until recently it has been trouble free, always started first time and always had good performance. Last Friday it started misfiring in traffic at low speed. Since then it has misfired in the traffic at various speeds. Yesterday it was […]

Old Smoker

I have a 2003 Peugeot 307 D Turbo with the eight-valve 2.0-litre HDi 110 engine that has covered 97,000 miles with relatively few problems, apart from the dual-mass flywheel failing at 48,000 miles. It has been mainly dealer serviced from new, and I have a good relationship with my local dealer. However, over recent years, […]

Short odds on solving this one…

Dear Doc, Last November, my wife’s Yaris 1.4 D-4D started to emit rather more black smoke than one would consider normal, as a consequence we booked it into the local Toyota dealer. The diagnosis was that it required an EGR system clean, at a cost of £300, plus a good run to get the engine […]

Soapbox – London Air Pollution

Diesel cars have been getting a bad reputation recently, but what you read in the national press is inevitably sensationalised and only a selective part of the big picture. EC limits for two key air pollutants are undeniably being exceeded regularly in certain locations of London, as in other British cities and many similar highly […]