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Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

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Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#111

Post by morkalork »

moltar wrote: post #68
physix wrote: post #57

When I lived in Germany, in the 90s, I regularly sat in diesel Mercedes Benz taxis with over a million kms under the hood. Private drivers usually. Many had giant mileages. We used to say (tongue in cheek) that after 250k, the MB diesel engine was broken in. I don't think MB makes them like they used to anymore.

Same in Canada but in specially made taxi grade Crown Vics (85B) Someone I knew had it and they drove it 24/7 in 3 shifts and it had over a million kilometers on it. Visually looked fine and ran fine.

I remember someone from the prairies telling me that used Crown Vics were the ideal first car for teenagers and were highly sought after in the 90s/2000s.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#112

Post by sharkweek »

63 wrote: post #104

Kind of a nothing story if everything has been replaced. My car could make it to 1.2M km too if I replaced the engine every time it gave out. Seems like a huge time and money sink for no good reason. Not to judge the man for having a hobby of course, let him have fun, but the news article is misleading.

A much better example is the Toyota Tundra that made it to 1m miles with only a transmission replacement at the ~800k mile mark

https://www.motortrend.com/features/million-mile-tundra-the-...

Toyota gave the guy a new truck so they could study the one he had.

As a Toyota fan boy myself (still driving a 2000 4Runner into the ground), those 2000s builds were such a great era of engineering. That being said, I think they’ve lost a step over the last decade (don’t get my started on the new v4/v6 turbo blocks they’re building…).

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#113

Post by epolanski »

hbs18 wrote: post #74
eptcyka wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubt there’s a BMW enthusiast that will go out of their way to repair a 2010s diesel.

You're blowing it out of proportion. A repair like that costs between 1-2k euros. Even non-enthusiasts are repairing that, at least those outside of wealthy western Europe.

No, you need to change the whole engine if you get chain timing issues. And a new engine is more than the car itself.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#114

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

Aurornis wrote: post #81
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anything with mechanical moving parts is going to last that long, with regular usage, and have original parts. The fact that the owner can keep it going is a testament to the maintainability of combustion engines that don't have high tech computers in them.

> The fact that the owner can keep it going is a testament to the maintainability of combustion engines that don't have high tech computers in them. New engines with modern ECUs are every bit as maintainable. The ECU doesn’t make an engine less maintainable. Modern engines would have more moving pieces such as variable valve timing but otherwise they’re very similar in concept and maintenance.

One part of maintainability is cost. And a simpler mechanical engine without proprietary ECUs is going to be cheaper to maintain, provided parts are available.

If someone encounters issues with an ECU and it needs replacement at $1k-2k they might just consider the costs and that being a down payment on a new vehicle vs. repairing. Labor costs more than parts for complicated electrical/computer/engine problems. Electrical issues in modern vehicles don't appear to be easy to troubleshoot, sometimes require proprietary tools. A simpler mechanical engine could be DIY repaired and running, check out the "low-buck garage" youtube channel and the $2 Jeep series as an example.

I'm not advocating something like going back to computer-less, inefficient, stinky, loud cars, just pointing out that when we add computers to things, it makes them less maintainable to the average person.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#115

Post by unethical_ban »

63 wrote: post #104

Kind of a nothing story if everything has been replaced. My car could make it to 1.2M km too if I replaced the engine every time it gave out. Seems like a huge time and money sink for no good reason. Not to judge the man for having a hobby of course, let him have fun, but the news article is misleading.

It becomes a human story, yes. He maintained a durable system rather then junk the whole thing after ten years.

Would he have been better off buying four new cars in the meantime?

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#116

Post by cperciva »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #99
formerly_proven wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even then, a EURO5 diesel still makes quite a stink. Of course, even an EU6+OPF gasoline car still puts out air akin to a dying dog's fart. ICE vehicles just can't go away quickly enough (and we should aggressively get stinky vehicles like everything pre-EU5 and loud vehicles like motorcycles and scooters off the road first). I'm not huge on regulation, but if anything MIV is underregulated. Even in the EU anything t…

I can’t wait for tiny engines like on things like weed eaters and leaf blowers to go extinct. Noisy, smelly as hell, generally awful.

A lot of cities have banned them now, at least for personal use. (Last time this was debated in my area, some businesses had justifications for why they couldn't just use electric tools, but none of those applied to regular homeowners.)

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#117

Post by jcgrillo »

physix wrote: post #57

When I lived in Germany, in the 90s, I regularly sat in diesel Mercedes Benz taxis with over a million kms under the hood. Private drivers usually. Many had giant mileages. We used to say (tongue in cheek) that after 250k, the MB diesel engine was broken in. I don't think MB makes them like they used to anymore.

I had a 1984 W123 300TD Turbodiesel I bought with 356k miles on the odometer (which was broken, total mileage unknown). I drove it for over 100k more miles before I sold it. It had no blowby and no perceptible oil consumption between changes. The OM617 with MW pump was a fantastic engine. The Garrett turbo had something to be desired though so I replaced it with a much more efficient Holset HX-30 which worked great with the pump maxed out. I estimated from 0-60 times it was putting out around 150HP, up from 120HP stock. The 722.3 transmission didn't give me too much trouble either but I did rebuild the valve body with a shift kit to make it shift better. The one major issue I ran into was the rear hydraulic self leveling suspension. The hydraulic struts were NLA so I pored over a bunch of parts manuals and eventually found a Lesjofors spring that was the right height and spring rate--I believe from a later model S600--which worked perfectly with Bilstein HDs from a W123 sedan. Should never have sold that car.

I currently own a W210 E300 Turbodiesel. I bought it with 49.5k miles, it currently has 120k. Overall it's been a decent car, the OM606/722.6 drivetrain is great. The rest of it is pretty miserable though. I would like someday to swap this drivetrain into a W124 wagon, with a standalone transmission controller and the injection pump from an OM603 to make the engine fully mechanical.

In the meantime, I'm working on rebuilding a 2.65 rear diff from an SL class car to swap in. I have a TCU from another car that had this final drive ratio so hopefully it'll work. The stock 3.07 ratio is no good for US highways. In 5th gear at 2250rpm (bsfc minimum) the speed is about 100kph (62mph). With the 2.65 rear it'll be more like 77mph which is where I usually set my cruise control. Should get a lot better fuel economy and less noise.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#118

Post by caminanteblanco »

mitkebes wrote: post #107

There's a Tesla that has driven about 2 million Km (1.2 million miles) as of last year. https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-s-1-2-million-miles-10...

Wow, with 13 motor replacements, that's got to be $80,000-110,000 in replacement costs just for that part.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#119

Post by _fat_santa »

physix wrote: post #57

When I lived in Germany, in the 90s, I regularly sat in diesel Mercedes Benz taxis with over a million kms under the hood. Private drivers usually. Many had giant mileages. We used to say (tongue in cheek) that after 250k, the MB diesel engine was broken in. I don't think MB makes them like they used to anymore.

I remember one day I took my car to the mechanic and saw they were doing a head job on a Toyota Sienna (the minivan) that was used as a Taxi. Took a peek inside and realized the car had something like 450k miles.

Now a proud 4Runner owner, I see on forums all the time guys bragging about hitting 300k, 400k and as high as 600k in their 4Runners.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#120

Post by i_am_proteus »

physix wrote: post #57

When I lived in Germany, in the 90s, I regularly sat in diesel Mercedes Benz taxis with over a million kms under the hood. Private drivers usually. Many had giant mileages. We used to say (tongue in cheek) that after 250k, the MB diesel engine was broken in. I don't think MB makes them like they used to anymore.

I recall a Greek 240D that had exceeded 4M kM (i.e. 4 GM). Regular motor and transmission rebuilds at intervals that would shame a contemporary dealer's service department.
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