Depends on the brand of diesel too ie. BHP/Petronas is ok while Shell spew out lotsa black smoke per my observation.

On the tuning side, some claimed Burger Motorsport's JBD has less black smoke compared to DTUK after testing both. However, DTUK is known to be the best piggyback among all ie. highest hp/torque produced without triggering the CEL, its the most flexible among all as well, has 28 settings to play around with. In terms of pricing:

JBD - MYR1000 (Single-channel: Fuel rail only)
Vector - MYR1500 (Single-channel: Fuel rail only)
DTUK - MYR1800 (Dual-channel: Fuel rail + boost)
Racechip - +/- MYR2000 (Unsure)

Generally, it's cheaper to maintain a diesel BMW as compared to its petrol siblings.

I need to let my wife drive and ask her to step on it while I follow behind. Always curious if this black smoke thingy is due to the diesel car being old or needs service.

I think at traffic light can do already. Or from a slow speed accelerate the car by stepping on it. I sometimes see those Hilux pickups on the highway and know when they step on the gas to overtake / accelerate by the black smoke the exhaust pipes gives out.

Yup. This has been my argument as well. Small cars, hybrid / petrol is better. No point mucking around with diesel. Larger cars / SUVs, the diesel engine power is worth the clatter / noise / smell for that sweet 400Nm torque.

Yeah but ECU tuning voids warranty.

Still on the first fill of Shell since convenient. The next one will try and remember to fill BHP / Petronas.

Tempting but expensive locally. Anybody tried to buy from the internet since it's virtually plug & play?

Anyway, how to know if it's single / dual channel thingy?

Prices provided earlier are among the best in the market. JBD & DTUK gotta purchase from overseas to get a better deal (JBD-install in SG with free dyno; DTUK-buy directly from website) while Vector has a local distro.

Single or dual-channel can be known by looking at its specifications.

Are you driving a 320d? why some 320d i saw on mudah does not come with i drive? Need to get some info for my dad. Btw, how much is the road tax for a diesel 2.0?

less than rm400

2009-early 2010 ones no iDrive. Roadtax is RM377.50/year.

use to drive my dad's isuzu trooper 3.1 diesel turbo intercooler year 1995.. quite good overall..

I believe we will be happier with euro 4 diesel

went to genting yesterday with my turbo diesel..... effortless climb!!!! could climb easily at low rpm....

Diesel cars are acceptable nowadays in our country. HOWEVER, the supply of diesel is like a gamble. Sometime Ada, sometimes TAK Ada! More often, the supply is scarce when the month ends!

I thought of buying a diesel car because of its great FC but.... Finding diesel has put me off....

I am quite with diesel except most diesel engines are quite noisy. Plus unlike many people, I use my entire petrol powerband.

Diesel engines= always noisy
Petrol engines = noisy when you want it to be =)

Yes, the torque helps a lot, when the roads are wet and slippery it can be very nice to drift through the corners (assuming that your car is RWD).

Yup, that was the case fo me when I drove back from Singapore yesterday. First stop didn't have any diesel pumps, 2nd stop had no more supply of diesel and only 125km later, I managed to get a full batch of BHP diesel. The bad side is that supply may be scarce at times but then again, you hardly need to go to the pumps that frequent

I went down south to Singapore. Easy to hit 160 to 180 whenever I could but traffic was heavy. Consumption was 8L/100km despite cruising at those speeds.

Anyway, power was superb. Carrying 5 adults and 2 kids plus a whole booth of stuff, overtaking and out accelerating 323 and other cars on the highway was super easy.

This was what I found in JB when I wanted to refill at night. Some stations were out of Diesel. Got me worried. Not familiar with place and having to find diesel at night. But luckily JB / Skudai area lots of stations.

Anyway, I guess that was an exception. Perhaps diesel is more in demand in places like JB where there would be long queues of trucks refilling before entry to Singapore or after Singapore.

Yeah, noisy. For small cars I find the diesel noise intrusive and not very elegant. For bigger cars / SUVs, I find the diesel clatter more bearable. But then again, that's my own perception.

Noise insulation inside the cabin is another matter. I found that if I drove my Mazda6 (famous for being dead silent on idle) at 160 or 180km/hr on highway, it is way noisier than if I drive at those speeds with the Santa Fe. The low diesel engine revs helps.

LOL Same here. I found the BHP stations I came across were the smaller ones and therefore did not bother to waste time asking around. That's why I ended up with Petronas.

The noise is mainly there when you idle. Once moving it's rather refined, you won't hear the clatter. Using the entire powerband... not necessary in a diesel. Depends on the car of course, I find VW diesels to be rather... loud and unrefined, Ford is better, sounds more refined. BMW probably much better than that. In terms of driving I might prefer VW diesels though.

I agree with the 7-8 liter jchue73 got... diesels are very impressive on the highway, I managed to get 7-8 liter driving diesel MPVs (VW and Ford) with lots of weight inside the car, driving between 170 and 200. There is no way I could get near to that sort of consumption driving a petrol at those speeds. Not even in smaller, lighter and more aerodynamic cars.

Actually the Ford diesels are quieter compared to the BMW diesel. Both inside the car and outside the vehicle. No joke there, the BMW diesel clatters are quite loud indeed.

I find the short power band of the diesel to be my biggest problem.

Hm, but you do have plenty of torque. Honestly I'm fine with the diesel power band, at least with normal driving.

Is the clatter only there when idling?

when i drive home using diesel car, my neighbours shut all windows & doors
make me feel like second class citizen

The torque runs out very fast, thats why most diesel owners call it the pre-mature ejaculation syndrome. You get the rush of the torque too fast and at the higher rpm you lose out.

Yeah, I notice the few diesel bimmers parked at my office. The clatter is quite obvious. No idea about noise from the inside though. Sat in my friend's E90 320i petrol before and thought the engine noise was quite audible too inside the car under normal driving.



You expect a flat peak on the torque curve all across the rpm range?

I think it dictates a different style of driving. The gears are there for you to keep the engine running at peak torque if you require it.

Anyway, tried using any chip tuning yet?

direct injected petrol engines also sound clattery if you go listen carefully