what's the difference?

What can I say?

If it had been a Nissan you wouldn't be able to pick the difference cause Nissan Diesels don't blow smoke............................

Seriously though if you can smell it when your following it, petrol or diesel, toyota, nissan or anything else, it's got problems and should be fixed.

Duncs

I love my petrol.

More powerful, more responsive, more torque and cheaper to own in the overall scheme of things. And it's not the first petrol I've owned.

Still, there are a lot of people who swear by diesels.

Maybe I'm missing something.

Like everything, personal choice.

Cheers,

Jim.

Smelt ULP exhaust lately ... give me an oil burner any day.

I know very little about mechanics and engines - but we choose diesels because my husband can handle minor mechanical problems on diesels - get stuck with modern computerised petrol motors and you need expert help and equipment. Also understand motors generally last longer in diesels. ULP rotten egg smell certainly worse than diesel fumes - but try and avoid both. Not into high speed stuff and just feel more comfortable with diesels.

Hi I was quite surprised by what your wife said, I am in the proces of buying a cruiser for my son ( he is paying for it ) and the conclusion we came up with is the larger amount of later model 4x4s are petrol and they are automatics , we are chasing a t/diesel under 100000 ks and of course a manual at a fair price now there is a few about but I would not say they were cheap , I guess we will just have to keep on looking cheers Catchy snr

Well from someone who's hadboth diesel and petrol 4WD's (currently petrol GU) this is mine and my husbands observations:
* In modern 4WD's there is little to pick in performance between D or P. Yeah you get differences in torque etc but there are generally quite a few models to chose from so if you pick a suitable model for your needs, whether it be D or P, I seriously doubt you'll ever find yourself in a 4WD situation saying "Oh damn, I wouldn't have got bogged just now if I'd only chosen a diesel instead!"
* Yes, D's are more economical to run, BUT diesel 4WD cost significantly more to buy and diesel fuel is nearly always more expensive to buy (and not insignificant at times). Long-term I doubt there'd be any significant $ saving in chosing D over P.
* One of the biggest things in favour of D is their history of the engine generally keeping going far longer than a P engine. eg. You probably expect to get 200,000km's out of P before having to spend some $ on the engine, whereas a D is more likely to be 400,000km's. Having said that, we don't believe it is so cut and dried these days. The simple, honest diesel engine in modern 4WD's is a thing of the past as things like turbo's and electronics have come into vogue. Also, advances in P engines mean that we are seeing greater longevity in them. In summary, the gap between D and P isn't as significant as it once was.
* It is a common belief that D engines are easier for a bush mechanic to fix than P. This is probably true for an older D, but a modern D with all its gadgetry will be just a baffling as a modern P (these comments from our diesel mechanic mate).
* One indisputable advantage of diesels is that they get better range and you can buy diesel fuel almost anywhere, so they're great for really remote area travel. However, with a bit of forward planning you can take a petrol 4WD anywhere a diesel can go. How much this factor effects your decision making re: buying D or P, will probably depend on how much truly remote travelling you intend to do.

Anyway, that just our summary of the D vs. P debate. I'm sure there are some who won't agree...The D vs. P thing is kinda like LC vs. Patrol, Engel vs. Waeko/Evakool etc.

:o) Melissa

"The wife says what's that horrible smell. "
on the kurnell road that could be the Shi+farm, the gas works, weeny bay at low tide, the refinery, cont carbon, the swamp, the landfill, unleaded cars if theres any new cars out there, with a minor chance of the smell of diesel getting thru.. LMAO

Well the debate continues! If you want greater reliability & an easier machine to fix
with far less chance of a breakdown in rough conditions it seems you need an older low tech type diesel. The electronic gadgetry gets results but is unlikely to be fixable when it takes a holiday in remote places whereas the mechanical systems
rarely stop.

You sitting on the side of the road at grafton after just filling up in the petrol cruiser and the cuts out .You try in vain to start it and you running out of room on the road and speed. "Stuff it" you think as you throw it off the road in to a deep ditch .the "b" double rumbles bye "he was't going to slow down".

You pop the bonnet and crank the car.....pop...pop.....It wants to idle but it wont.

"Great" you think sunday after noon got to be in brissie tomorrow at 10 am to meet removalist. you try again ...pop...pop.......fuel pump? fuel computer? ptu? tps? broken pin on the pick sensor...

well one thing is for sure. the bloody car wont get you there.the battery flat and you havent fixed the mixure on the lpg system...

that was the end for me and my second lpg landcruiser. 3 weeks later I back loaded it when I went through and had some spare space ....trying to find a 3 tonne forklift was a bit hard but I got it in to the tauntliner.turned out to be the fuel computer .....I could have bypassed it If I had my tool kit with me.

I've gone back to smelly nosiey diesal thankyou....

shadow

Hi guys,

Just to chuck a spanner in the works. The hubby and I own a Petrol/LPG 92 80 series. We were told we should always run petrol when we in 4WD action but the other day after coming of a nice boggy beach we noticed that we had been playing in LPG not petrol so proving ( to me anyways)that there is no noticable difference in performance between the fuels we are running. Because of the price of petrol (unleaded) at the moment we run on LPG 6 out of 7 days a week otherwise we couldn't afford to run our 4by.

Regards Sasha