Petrol vs diesel

[anthony1]

My jk is the 3.6. It's good. My wife's car is a wk2 limited with the 3.0 diesel, and that is a great motor. If the wrangler had the 3.0 diesel engine option then i think it would be worth the premium. But i couldn't justify a 5-7k premium for the small older generation diesel. By the way VM is a perfectly fine engine manufacturer, be reasonable.

[Purds]

I bought a 2008 CRD JKU 6 speed 6 months ago and have done almost 30,000km during that time. I run a 2.5" lift, ARB bullbar and a GDE tune on stock 3.21 gearing. It's saved me a truckload of cash on fuel and makes towing a 1.6T caravan an ease. I've done around 12,000km towing the caravan and planning on doing a 3 month trip next year towing the caravan.

Definitely don't regret the CRD so far, especially when i do 8.8L/100km driving to work (~900km on the 80L tank) and averaged 13.2L/100km towing the caravan over 9000km's (was doing around 600km per tank). I towed it back from Melbourne last week and did 11L/100km. The petrol would be no comparison.

I think choosing the engine would mostly depend on the amount of km's you do and what sort of driving you do and you're expectations from the vehicle.

[chris0375]

Originally Posted by Johnboy

Yeah the 3.8 is a slug but it's reliable the 3.6 is a rocket but has its issues and the 2.8 is a VM and Italians make shit engines and cars

Americans aren't exactly known for reliable cars either yet you bought one?

People criticise what they don't understand. Nothing wrong with vm diesels.

[Wooders]

Originally Posted by samft

Ignoring costs, I believe that the diesel is a better engine for a 4wd.

Depends on you type of 4wding. Also these day many diesels are more petrol like and suffer similar weaknesses ie electronics.

Personally I like diesels. I rate the 3.0 very highly. And I can think of several other dieselengine I rate highly..... but VM is not on that list.
Whilst i know a lot of people happy with their 2.5 or 2.8 VM I know nearly as many with nightmare stories. I personally would not want one in my Jeeps.

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[MightyMouse]

So many interesting assumptions.... truck diesels go forever - "i have a diesel therefore it will go forever.

London Taxis go forever and they use VM diesels...... yes... for awhile..... but it was the NISSAN diesel engine that had the long life reputation.

Modern high speed diesel engines are constructed far more like petrol engines... the reason its revs and doesn't weigh six tonnes is that lots of metal has been removed... work out what this means for strength and life - its the electronics that allows it to not put the crankshaft through the sump on its first firing.

If the diesel Rubi had have been available locally I'd very likely have bought one...... but having quite a bit of direct and indirect involvement with the 2.8.... now I think the "no choice - petrol" was the "right choice" FOR ME especially considering its not a DD.

Overall..... and for me - not worth the price premium on purchase for an underspeced vehicle ( non Rubi ) or the cost of repair / replacement / service/ The extra fuel economy would be cool.... but considering the setup of my JK the 3.8 ( blown ) it isn't too bad.

Each to their own.

[Johnboy]

Originally Posted by chris0375

Americans aren't exactly known for reliable cars either yet you bought one?

People criticise what they don't understand. Nothing wrong with vm diesels.

I didn't buy my jeep for reliability I bought it because of its off road ability and because it's big ugly and functional. I expected it to be quirky just like my old CJ7 but the wind in my hair makes it worthwhile. However aside from general maintainence and the clock spring that just died it's been flawless.
Being an earthmoving contractor I have spent the last 20 years owning a lot of different diesel powered vehicles/machines and whilst most have been great VM's have not!!
So what you need to understand is that VM's get criticised because generally they are lacklustre and not regarded worldwide as reliable. There a several threads on this forum outlining the issues with the 2.8 midnightmods is running a successful business just preventing them from self destructing.
So whilst I understand that by owning one you don't want acknowledge that they aren't the ducks nuts you need to accept that the day will come when you need to empty your wallet into the engine bay and it better be full. I don't wish it upon you but it is inevitable.
Price up a set of injectors just for a reality check and they are only a maintainence item. Any money you've saved so far in awesome fuel economy over the v6 just evaporated and some.

[Rickman]

I would just be intetested to know what sort of life you would get out of the V6. I would at a rough guess say around the 150k mark. Probably less if you have given it a hard time. I still belive deisels have double the life. Yes they may cost a bit to get them that far, but if you are happy with your vehicle & you want to keep it over a long period, then diesel is the way to go. If you are changing them every five years then buy a petrol.

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