Hi all, (cross-post)

I am going to be doing about 30,000 miles annually and since my 2.5 petrol is a greedy guzzler I had to consider getting an XType that ran on the devil's juice - diesel!
I found her eventually (so many bad ones out there) and she is a 2007 2.2 Sport, grey with black half leather (such a sacrifice!), cruise control, single owner from new.
I have a couple of questions and observations:

For my first tank ( with all my tools in the boot) mpg was about 38. Is this reasonable? This gets me 512 miles per tank, better than the 300 I get from the 2.5.
When I brake at medium to high speed the steering judders quite badly. Is this because one front tyre is lower than the other 3 or could this be a brake issue?
Could I just replace the CD drive with a new head (for USB) and leave the other controls in place? I would like to keep the radio function.

I will post some pictures over the weekend. Her name is Grace...

Some observations. There are a few differences:

1. Shaking at start and then humming while driving (instead of the sound of a mighty V6)
2. Immense turbo acceleration (including turbo steer!) from the diesel
3. Lots more shifting. Rev counter only runs up to 5000 so I'm going through the 6 (!) gears fairly quickly. My driving is adapting to this new reality...
4. Softer suspension. Though this is also a Sport the bumps are less noticable.
5. Tighter chassis. In the 2.5 petrol the wheels and suspension are taking most of the work of steering and you can corner at high speed. With the 2.2 diesel the body feels stiffer so cornering is almost as good but the suspension is not doing as much.
6. Fuel economy. 2.5 petrol - 300 miles per tank (55 L). 2.2 diesel - 512 miles per tank (61 L) with my heavy foot and load in the boot.

I was really worried about losing the great performance from my 2.5 but the 2.2 diesel pulls like a freight train! The short shifting is the only thing slowing me down really....

Alex

 

Grace sounds very nice.

Shaking when putting on the brakes is not a tire problem as nothing changes in the tire when braking. Most likely it is a warped brake rotor. The only sure what to know the one that is bad is to put a dial indicator on each side and check for run out.

The radio/CD and radio/cassette look like they are two unites, but in fact are one unit. I know of no way to simply add USB function without replacing lots of things ($$$). I went with adding the Blue tooth adapter behind the radio. ($100)

 

Hey Larry,

Thanks for the tips. Getting new front tires did make a difference to the vibration but it is still there. I have a new set of disks and pads so I'l get that done since she's new to me (I have FSH but that doesn't mean she's well looked after).
Power is almost as good (very different) to the 2.5 petrol but handling is in no way the same. It isn't bad, just not as good. Softer suspension does help for long rides though, though the petrol was comfortable your back could get sore after a while.
I'm slowly getting used to the idling sound (quiet tractor?) and the droning during driving (compared to V6!) but I'm probably just being dramatic here. She drives well, I can overtake at serious speed, and she corners solid. What more could you want?

 

Changing all disks and pads fixed the juddering!!!
She drives like a dream now and stops smoothly. Only thing left is the gearbox fluid so that she shifts smoothly as well.