diesel owners. read it and weep

Of course we do. My response to bloose's post was dripping with it. I'm glad bloose took it in stride.

 

It's well documented that levels of diesel pollution (particulate matter--> extended exposure in children greatly increases the chances of developing asthma and other respiratory problems along with lung cancer later in life) in schoolbuses is much higher than in the ambient air or the cabins of other cars on the road.

I understand that most folks here don't like anything that looks like environmental regulation, but do you really want your children riding to school in bus filled with it's own exhaust?

 

^^^ usually--except for kinder--without seat belts.

 

No, it is the same price for a smog at our shop, 60 dollars, gas or diesel, makes no difference. I realize you can get a smog done for much less. We use the smog machine for our existing customers and cars that have failed elsewhere and been referred to us for repair.

 

Well here is the shitty part.... school busses are still exempt.... so it wont matter there.



I finally handled a deisel smog..... its a friggin visual inspection, and type in the numbers.... no tail pipe, no actual test on what comingout.............. Plug in the machine that talks to the pcm, visual inspection under the hood, your judgement on how much "smoke" it makes......... Its retarded.

 

Doesn't take much testing to find a modified exhaust and snapping the throttle...........

 

That's a pretty lame test. So what happens if you actually fail a vehicle?

 

I can't believe the amount of videos like this on YouTube, where people think this is somehow cool#-o

 

Same thing if you fail a gas motor.... You cannot register the vehicle.

 

Very true, Want to hear something even more scary..... Did you guys know its actually Illeagal in the state of California to modify your exhaust in anyways shape or form. Not illeagal smog wize, thats what carb numbers are for, but for vehicle code. Be it a larger pipe, different manifold, different muffler...... doesnt matter, there is actualyl a code teh sherrif can write you a ticket for... Period..... Shitty part is this, not only can they ticket you, but also whoever sold you the parts, installed the parts, anyone who touched it at all.

BUT I will add, all of my sherrif friends tell me the same thing, its a bullshit law, but its on teh books, if you piss them off, they willt tag you with it just to rub it in. Kinda like writing a ticket for going next to someone to make a right when there isnt a marked lane..... technically its illeagal, but if you piss them off, they will add it on.

 

Another question is, what about the diesels that have been converted to bio-diesel or vegetable oil? Their systems have been modified.

 

See thats the thing..... New deisels you just fillem up and dont modify a thing. Only reason you need any conversion done on teh vehicle is if someone did a shitty job prepping the fuel. Gotta remember teh deisel engine was actually intended to be running off soy oil to begin with, just so happened that deisel was a nice by product we had and it worked too.

 

just out of curiosity, since the subject of kids keeps coming up. in europe, the vast majority of cars are diesel powered. it has been like this as far as i can remember. by this logic, the instance of respiratory problems must be much higher than the united states right? is this true or not?

 

Excellent point...... Bottom line is with all of it is..... Bio Deisel and ethanol are going to be the fuels of the future, specially seeing how we can produce them without fossil fuels.

 

Good question. I'm not sure it's true or not, as searching for statistics is nearly impossible due to the many factors causing asthma. For example, The United Kingdom has one of the highest asthma rates per capita in the world and also a growing number of diesel powered cars. It also has a lot of smokers and a fairly cold, damp climate, all of which could contribute to asthma statistics. Belgium also has lots of diesels, smokers and a similar climate. but has a lower rate per capita than here. I did find out that asthma is generally on the rise world-wide, diesel powered cars or not and that rates may be due to lifestyles, genetics, diet and other factors including visits to chlorinated swimming pools.
What I do know is that clean diesel has been on sale in Europe for a relatively long time and diesels have been growing in popularity over the last 10 years or so. Also that the concept of most European diesels is somewhat different to here, in that most European diesels cars have small engines ( typically 1 to 2 liters) and therefore get quite phenomenal gas mileage. The concept of 5 and 6 liter diesel trucks for personal use is almost unheard of.
My father has a 1.4 liter Citroen that gets about 55mpg (US gallon) running on ULSD.

 

Underlined the part that stood out to me....... Seriously, WTF do people need such big ass trucks for as a daily driver. Even teh big gas engines are friggin stupid. Duallies piss me off even more..... Seriously there should be some size regulations put into place. No reason someone should be driving a ten MPG dually to get groceries.

 

here's the thing. everyone wants to hate on diesels when they get way better gas mileage and produce less co2 than equivalent gas motors. if every motor was currently replaced with an equivalent diesel motor in the united states, i've read that you'd instantly use 30% less oil. that is huge. have any of you even driven the new crop of clean diesels? i test drove a new tdi wagon, and you couldnt even tell it was a diesel. it was super quiet, no smoke, no diesel smell. from what i read on the forums, after the motors break in, they get real world gas mileage numbers around 50mpg.

however, because of people that have misconceptions of diesels, legislation is pushed based on politics, not science, that makes it a poor business decision for car manufacturers to invest in diesel motors. that is why only mercedes and vw are really pushing diesels.

 

I heard about it years ago.. But those that didn't see it coming.. OPEN YOUR EYES.

 

Well for me I also use it (gas 8.1L engine) to pull trailers. My wife drives it too. I feel for the small amount she drives we would cause a larger enviro footprint to produce a new car for her. And I would still need the 'burban too. Also when I look at it out of pocket cost wise. It's paid for and the gas savings wouldn't come close to offsetting a car payment.

 

Which is fine.... when your using it for what its intended for. Pulling a large trailer, loading it down, the occasional trip to the store, the ones that get me are the Bros and bro ho's that have to have trucks like this purely as a daily driver