Dr Dave

your not a very nice person are you.
piercing has nothing to do with intelligence, its a personal choice, its legal, and as you took the time to look at my web site (thank you) you will see that being a doctor, and holding 2 degrees lends me to think that if you have come to a battle of whits, then you are unarmed.

yes i ment you as you said idling is unnecessary...do you turn off your car at traffic lights also? this is a car forum...not greenpeice.

ps? what do you do for a living?

Miikka

Offtopic; some of the European BMWs do turn themselves off in the traffic lights. Pretty impressive and I was quite surprised when it happened the first time for me (it was 1-series). They have actually implemented that one very well and it feels very high-tech. My colleague is really impressed about that one in his new E90.

E60 with automatic transmission doesn't do that in here so my new car won't be doing that one.

Dr Dave

is that true?
i thought it used more fuel/emmissions starting the car than ideling for a minuite? would that also not put more of a strain on the starter motor etc, especially if you live in a city with lots of lights?
also how does it know your waiting at lights??
and how does it know they have turned green?

bad if you have a low battery

BigMike

No turbo problems here -- haven't heard of any actually come to think of it.

calpalmer

I can't say specifically for the 320d or any other BMW diesel of the past but as a blanket statement this isn't true. Exhaust gas temperatures of modern diesels indeed get very hot under load (and that doesn't mean track conditions). A good practice whatever the model is and improvements in materials and lubrication technology is to delay shutdown until the egt's have fallen below 350F. The best practice is a turbo exhaust temp sensor and ignition delay, so that it delays shutdown until safe T's are reached. As noted above, some diesel's come standard or with an option for this feature; I've installed aftermarket turbo temp monitors on my two diesel trucks.

Cal

Dr Dave

hi cal,
it is a well documented fact though that modern turbo diesel engines do not run hot, so much so in fact that my land rover defender (fitted with a mazda 3.5 TDI turbo)does not have a radiator fan, it runs that cool.
if you nedded to let a BMW E60 run on after a spirited run, then BMW would include that a warning information (being as there so carefull on most things)
high performance petrol turbos...then i would say yes, cool down period is very important.

calpalmer

That's nonsense - it only takes 30-60 secs, diesels at idle consume MINISCULE fuel, and what would be a waste is premature failure of an expensive (read high carbon footprint) turbocharger and potentially the engine from a catastrophic compressor assembly failure. If you want the GHG benefits of a turbocharged diesel, it needs to be treated with proper procedure of respect for the temperatures and their implications.

JMHO ric,

Cal

calpalmer

Where? Cites please? I think your statement may belie and misunderstanding of basic diesel combustion cycle chemistry; have you seen the temperatures that are reached? I think you're referring instead to improvements in materials of construction and to some degree cooling and lubricating efficiencies of modern engines.... But who am I to debate a Dr.... do what you like or advise others similarly. You may also rely to whatever degree you like on BMW's recommendations admonitions or lack thereof... these people also inform that many wear components and lubricants are "lifetime" "no maintenance required" .... wow! Unfortunately anymore manufacturers (not just BMW) consider lifetime to be 3-5 years and maybe 100K miles or so. We (American at least) consumers condition them to that marketing Hype and let them get away with it because, indeed, we buy our vehicles and them turn them over with a 3-5 year horizon. Very wasteful. High Carbon Footprint. Unsustainable. Etc. Etc. But again, each to their own and I in no way attempt to influence your behavior,

Cal

Miikka

Yeah, the Efficient Dynamics promoted by BMW, http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/efficient_dynam...rce=nationaltop

The feature is called "Auto Start-Stop" and it is working with the manual transmission. When the car is stationary and in neutral, then it will turn off the engine if the surrounding environment is also meeting the requirements. It has quite many different variables such as the temperature of the engine and outside temperature (and so on, such as fogging situation in the windows inside etc.). It will automatically turn on the engine when you start putting the gear on again, the engine will turn on very rapidly and it is actually quite amazing when you encounter it for the first time.

I think it won't put that much extra strain for the engine and starter, BMW has most likely calculated this one carefully and they are building excellent cars. And naturally, you can switch this feature off if you don't like it.

Dr Dave

thats amazing, i did not know about that feature.
you would have to have a good battery if you lived in london