Any drawbacks to an early MOT?

[Harry Bloomfield]

To be honest, I've never had a minute's bother with one, even well beyond 100,000 miles. Very much a "fit and forget" item in my experience. However, the engines do need working hard, periodically. I inherited a 2001 Freelander from my sister. She was going to scrap it, but I needed a tow car. One of the problems was smoke - (boy, did it smoke!) on acceleration. She always hated revving it, never went over 3000, and always drive gently. It has about 150,000 on it at the time. The inlet manifold and EGR were full of oily, sooty gunge, which I scraped out, then washed. It's been fine ever since! Currently being used by my dad, approaching 170,000 miles now.

The very same BMW diesel engine and EGR, as my own and they have always been problematic. Oil from the turbo, is blown up to the EGR, where the very hot exhaust gas, coagulates the oil into a burned on sticky mess, coating the EGR, the manifold and the inlets.

 

[Burnerman]

Its the touch of death for sensors such as the MAP.......I have to reluctantly say that the day of the domestic diesel are now done in my opinion.
I’m sick to death of diesel diagnostics, replacing components only to have the fault come back in a few weeks.
I need to fit new glowplugs to a Fiat multijet soon - I’ve got to remove the turbo to access them.
Great.
John

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Its the touch of death for sensors such as the MAP

What the black oily gunge, from the EGR? You can often clear the hole to the sensor, carefully with a small drill bit. Shaking nuts and bolt around in the manifold, to loosen some of the harder deposits, then a turn in the dishwasher, will help clean the rest (when the other half is not about).

 

[Mottie]

What the black oily gunge, from the EGR? You can often clear the hole to the sensor, carefully with a small drill bit. Shaking nuts and bolt around in the manifold, to loosen some of the harder deposits, then a turn in the dishwasher, will help clean the rest (when the other half is not about).

In the old days of inertia starter motors, when I was replacing a ring gear, I’d cut the old one off, put the flywheel in the freezer and the new ring gear in the oven, on high, and after a couple of hours I could just tap the new gear onto the flywheel. My mum used to go mad though…..

 

[Burnerman]

What the black oily gunge, from the EGR? You can often clear the hole to the sensor, carefully with a small drill bit. Shaking nuts and bolt around in the manifold, to loosen some of the harder deposits, then a turn in the dishwasher, will help clean the rest (when the other half is not about).

I pull the MAP sensor out of the manifold, give it a squirt with brake cleaner and dry it with compressed air.
Back in the manifold, clear the fault code and all is well for a while....and the fault comes back!
So.....it’s a new EGR, clean out the throttle body, off with the manifold for a clean. Hours of filthy work!
Diesels, with Adblue or Eolys fluid.....no thanks. I’ve been fully diesel since 1986 and have owned many but their day is done for me.
French or German makes little difference..... the Japanese seem to have cracked it though.
John