Do engines loose BHP with age/milage?

[schnipps]

It seems the Leon is becoming a very popular car.

Is that 150bhp engine the one out of the 1.9 Golf GT TDi?

Yes its the same 150 engine as the golf, its a different engine to the 130's though as said above, the 150 has a different turbo i beleive and some othe rparts i wont pretend to know about. I had mine remapped to 190bhp but my clutch slipped, so i had the remap removed, tbh i could hardly tell the difference anyway. Its kind of known that after a few thousand on certain 150 's they MAY push 160 anyway so noticing an extra 20bhp is hard. They do pull nicely though.

 

[CypherPunk]

My Xantia V6 had 192 HP when it left the factory, 9 years later it managed 185 HP on PowerStation’s rolling road. It’s lost 0.4% per year, or in real terms, practically nothing.

 

[Stanford]

Do they loose power with age? No, but they lose it.

 

[Matt82]

my 96 golf came out the factory with 150bhp. after fixing up a handful of probs last year and doing some very very minor mods it showed 174bhp at stealth racing.

it has done 160k miles lol

 

[chipperhead]

Didn't Top Gear do a test with a new Golf VR6 against one with something like 80k miles and the high mileage one was quicker?

 

[pedrochop]

youll probably find that the cars didnt leave the factory with the claimed horse power in the first place.

seems it was italian and british cars that commonly did that

I agree with you, but the difference is never significant

 

[NickXX]

BMW's have software embedded in their ECU's to ensure peak performance is retained as the miles pile on.

BMW call their software "adaptation", Audi have similar code in their ECU's.

Didn't know this! Good to know though.

 

[Matt82]

I agree with you, but the difference is never significant

jag's 400bhp s'charged v8 was engine dyno'd by an american car mag years ago, they averaged about 330bhp.

i think one ferrari owner took ferrari to court because his 360 never made the power it was claimed to lol

german horses always appear to be the largest

 

[MagicBoy]

Didn't Top Gear do a test with a new Golf VR6 against one with something like 80k miles and the high mileage one was quicker?

If it's the one I think you're on about it was that Quentin bloke in the late 80s with a pair of Mk2 Golf GTIs. 8 valvers IIRC.

On the Leon thing - the only real difference between the 130 and 150 are the turbo and the small side mount intercooler is swapped for a larger front mount, also obviously the ECU. The main components and injectors on later engines are identical. I don't have the link anymore but someone on UKMKIVs checked the part numbers.

 

[GFX707]

If it's the one I think you're on about it was that Quentin bloke in the late 80s with a pair of Mk2 Golf GTIs. 8 valvers IIRC.

Nah, it was fairly recent, they put the new Golf up against the 80s one....and the 80s one was quicker.

 

[Matt82]

that was when they compared the old car to the heavy modern counter part.

they compared a mk1 or mk2 gti against a 2.0 mk4 'gti'... a car which is known to move slower than glaciers.

 

[Mikebert4]

There was a Top Gear not too long ago when they took 1980's supercars and held a competition of sorts.

most dropped ~80-100bhp from when they were new.

factor in that a supercar's engine is more maintanance intensive and you've perhaps got a drop of 20~30bhp over 20 years...

Thats is you can still find a standard model thats up and running after 20 years... :s

 

[MagicBoy]

Ahhh, that one. Not exactly a fair comparison was it. Didn't Clarkson do another one where he mullered a Mk4 Anni in a PD140 Skoda Octavia in one of his Christmas DVDs?

Top Gear did an article around 1989/90 where Quentin Willson was extolling the virtues of the Mk2 GTI. There was a drag race with a used 80k+ car against a newish one with about 10k on it. The pre-enjoyed car mullered the new one, and had around a 5mph faster top speed.

Makes you think - a mate of mine just traded in his Ibiza because it was too old and would become unreliable. It's 22 months old with 14k on the clock.

 

[Matt82]

they were more 70s i thought in that test, but were italian so basically never left the factory with quoted power in the first place!

there is a site called 200club or something like that, for cars with over 200bhp. one guy has a early 80s porsche 928. they are rated at 300bhp.

his consistently makes 299-301bhp at the wheels lol

basically german cars are the best.

 

[Alibaba99]

jag's 400bhp s'charged v8 was engine dyno'd by an american car mag years ago, they averaged about 330bhp.

i think one ferrari owner took ferrari to court because his 360 never made the power it was claimed to lol

german horses always appear to be the largest

So they are comparing the quoted flywheel figure with a measurement at the wheels. Being an auto there is no way that they can do a coastdown test either.

 

[Matt82]

they had the engines out of the car and on a bench

 

[laissez-faire]

Well if my 1998 golf only has 90bhp I find it hard to believe it will do 124mph. I assumed the speedo was over-reading a lot until I got nicked... then I got it GPS verified. I am sure it must have a wee bit more than 90 and certainly not lost any.

 

[Matt82]

german horses are the largest

124mph? you were nicked at 124? crumbs lol

well in mine, according to the gearing etc, 6k in top is 132. when ive been to 6k in top, the needle is spot on 130. pretty clever