35d Winter Heat

[ron_jeremy]

I too would be interested to hear from our Nordic friends who have experience with BMW diesels. It is one thing to have a pre heater system, but if you are at a movie and the car is at the end of the parking lot, if you are out of range for the remote control, you could have a very cold ride home unless BMW has a system to get heat to the cabin until the engine warms up. In addition, the engine needs to be able to stay warm while driving and especially while idling. Diesels will actually cool down while at idle.

Well, living in Norway and using a BMW diesel myself, i see where your coming from.

I've a 01 530Dat right now, and this model is not very good when it comes to heating in extreme low temperatures.
But the newer BMW diesels are far better, i suggest you try one, on a really cold day, i think you'll be positive suprised reagrding heat and the enigine itself.
The engine you are talking about is very often mapped to 330hk and 730Nm.
Wait until the next version of this engine comes, it'll have 3 turbo's and even more power.
Should come first in F01 though, but later it should end up in the X6 also.

[grover432]

Originally Posted by ron_jeremy

Well, living in Norway and using a BMW diesel myself, i see where your coming from.

I've a 01 530Dat right now, and this model is not very good when it comes to heating in extreme low temperatures.
But the newer BMW diesels are far better, i suggest you try one, on a really cold day, i think you'll be positive suprised reagrding heat and the enigine itself.
The engine you are talking about is very often mapped to 330hk and 730Nm.
Wait until the next version of this engine comes, it'll have 3 turbo's and even more power.
Should come first in F01 though, but later it should end up in the X6 also.

Thanks Ron, I think your idea to try before I buy is good advice. The dealers here won't have the first vehicles until December at which point the overnight lows can dip to -20C or colder. A morning start should tell the story. I didn't need to plug my diesel truck in until the temps dropped to -25C or colder.

As to the earlier post about diesel fuel gelling in the winter; we get winter grade diesel fuel in Canada. I have driven a diesel in -35C weather and never had any problems starting running the engine in that temperature. I'm sure BMW has done it's homework in that regard.

grover

[JCL]

Originally Posted by grover432

As to the earlier post about diesel fuel gelling in the winter; we get winter grade diesel fuel in Canada. I have driven a diesel in -35C weather and never had any problems starting running the engine in that temperature. I'm sure BMW has done it's homework in that regard.

Agree, the distributor will move to winter grade diesel fuel. I have used and sold winter grade diesel, and have run test engines on it for certification purposes. My point was that the winter grade diesel that we get does not necessarily have the same properties as summer diesel. It is often thinner, it has less energy (heat content), and it is not as oily (technically, it has less lubricity). It depends on how the distributor is blending the winter fuel.

With less heat content your mileage will suffer, often significantly. That is because you are purchasing your fuel by volume, not energy content. The lubricity can be compensated for with additives by the fuel distributor. The question was whether those additives provide sufficient lubricity for the high tech injectors used on modern BMW diesels. I would love to hear that there have been no problems with BMW diesels in extreme cold. I have just had lots of service experience with other diesels in extreme cold (Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, Northern BC and Northern Alberta).