Honda N16A (i-DTEC, 1.5 and 1.6)

Honda's 1.6 i-DTEC — an all-aluminium diesel Honda designed to be the lightest in its class, in the European Civic, CR-V and HR-V.

N16 alone does not identify it. BMW uses the same two letters and two digits for a naturally aspirated petrol four in the MINI, and the two engines share nothing at all — not the maker, not the fuel, not the layout. Honda's full designation is N16A, and a search result that does not say which is which is describing one of them at random.

Its faults are the modern diesel's rather than its own. The particulate filter is the thing that decides whether one of these is a good car for its owner: on short urban journeys it cannot complete a regeneration, and the cycle of failed regenerations dilutes the oil with fuel and eventually blocks the filter. A Civic diesel used for a two-mile commute is a maintenance problem the engine cannot solve.

The EGR cooler and valve clog with soot in the ordinary way, producing a loss of power and an emissions code, and the swirl-control equipment in the intake is the other place carbon accumulates. The engine itself has a good reputation, so a running fault is far more often the emissions equipment around it.