Bio-Diesel Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDI

[DJ-Daz]

I've just bought some, a new supplier (ex-mechanic) just started supplying to the public. The place is an old vehicle workshop, and all they sell now is bio-diesel.

Price @ morrisons - £1.47
Price @ workshop - £1.05

Price saved - £12.00 on this one tank already.

[Astro]

legal?

[DJ-Daz]

Who cares?
I assume so, they're certified and I have a VAT receipt.

[InfiniteStates]

Either there's been a law change recently, or they have found some loophole, because I thought it was illegal (farmers used to do it)...

http://www.eaem.co.uk/opinions/why-sust ... illegal-uk

[Symonator]

do they mix it in drinks aswell?

[DJ-Daz]

I think they're way of circumventing the law is that they don't fill up the car. They fill up a container and you fill up your car at home, that's what I've done.

[Astro]

do they mix it in drinks aswell?

Like for example or liquid nitrogen.

[Symonator]

mad innit

[YorkshirePud]

DAT NITROGEN LAWLZ

I heard that Bio diesel is better for older diesels than newer common rail diesels as the old diesels are more robust and less funny.

[DJ-Daz]

Update:
I struggled like hell to get the fuel into the car because of an anti-syphon neck. I did manage it and I put about 10 litres in at the time of the post.

But I went to the showroom today to ask how I'm supposed to fuel up from a jerry can, and there's a supplied funnel in the boot. Only I had the wrong one. But they gave me the correct one from a car in the show room so now I can fill up without a problem.

So while I was there, I asked them about bio-diesel and my car... there might be a problem with the fuel and the car!

It could cause the fuel filter to crumple depending on the fuel viscosity and burn out the injector pump. Luckily I erred on the side of caution and mixed the fuel that I already used with regular diesel, and because of the farce I had trying to fill up the first time I hadn't bothered since.

So today I've been busy calling Department For Transport, Ford and the garage that sold me the fuel. The garage obviously say is should be ok. DFT say because it's certified to EN14214 it should be OK, and Ford obviously saying otherwise. So if the Government say it should be fine, aren't Ford supposed to support that type of fuel?

Time to ring Motability and get their input.

[DJ-Daz]

Motability have said no, they say the car should run fine, but the fuel filter and something else that I cannot remember from one minute ago, will need changing twice to three times per year, something that they won't pay for.

So Pud you're right of course, older engines are more robust and will run on just about anything you put into the tank. But this one won't.

I've also read that common rail engines will die a horrible and instantaneous death on bio-diesel.

Diesel engines were designed to run on... peanut oil or so I've been told.

Diesel engines can operate on a variety of different fuels, depending on configuration, though the eponymous diesel fuel derived from crude oil is most common. The engines can work with the full spectrum of crude oil distillates, from natural gas, alcohols, petrol, wood gas to the fuel oils from diesel oil to residual fuels.[53]

The type of fuel used is a combination of service requirements, and fuel costs. Good-quality diesel fuel can be synthesised from vegetable oil and alcohol. Diesel fuel can be made from coal or other carbon base using the Fischer-Tropsch process. Biodiesel is growing in popularity since it can frequently be used in unmodified engines, though production remains limited. Recently, biodiesel from coconut, which can produce a very promising coco methyl ester (CME), has characteristics which enhance lubricity and combustion giving a regular diesel engine without any modification more power, less particulate matter or black smoke, and smoother engine performance. The Philippines pioneers in the research on Coconut based CME with the help of German and American scientists. Petroleum-derived diesel is often called petrodiesel if there is need to distinguish the source of the fuel.

Pure plant oils are increasingly being used as a fuel for cars, trucks and remote combined heat and power generation especially in Germany where hundreds of decentralised small- and medium-sized oil presses cold press oilseed, mainly rapeseed, for fuel. There is a Deutsches Institut für Normung fuel standard for rapeseed oil fuel.

Residual fuels are the "dregs" of the distillation process and are a thicker, heavier oil, or oil with higher viscosity, which are so thick that they are not readily pumpable unless heated. Residual fuel oils are cheaper than clean, refined diesel oil, although they are dirtier. Their main considerations are for use in ships and very large generation sets, due to the cost of the large volume of fuel consumed, frequently amounting to many tonnes per hour. The poorly refined biofuels straight vegetable oil (SVO) and waste vegetable oil (WVO) can fall into this category, but can be viable fuels on non common rail or TDI PD diesels with the simple conversion of fuel heating to 80 to 100 degrees Celsius to reduce viscosity, and adequate filtration to OEM standards. Engines using these heavy oils have to start and shut down on standard diesel fuel, as these fuels will not flow through fuel lines at low temperatures. Moving beyond that, use of low-grade fuels can lead to serious maintenance problems because of their high sulphur and lower lubrication properties. Most diesel engines that power ships like supertankers are built so that the engine can safely use low-grade fuels due to their separate cylinder and crankcase lubrication.

Normal diesel fuel is more difficult to ignite and slower in developing fire than petrol because of its higher flash point, but once burning, a diesel fire can be fierce.

Fuel contaminants such as dirt and water are often more problematic in diesel engines than in petrol engines. Water can cause serious damage, due to corrosion, to the injection pump and injectors; and dirt, even very fine particulate matter, can damage the injection pumps due to the close tolerances that the pumps are machined to. All diesel engines will have a fuel filter (usually much finer than a filter on a petrol engine), and a water trap. The water trap (which is sometimes part of the fuel filter) often has a float connected to a warning light, which warns when there is too much water in the trap, and must be drained before damage to the engine can result. The fuel filter must be replaced much more often on a diesel engine than on a petrol engine, changing the fuel filter every 2-4 oil changes is not uncommon for some vehicles.

[YorkshirePud]

yup this is all stuff ive heard before daz, it seems that the more robuster older diesels can gulp down biodiesel better than newer ones. i know if i threw biodiesel in my TDCI focus it would probably choke to death. so it needs watering down.

clever things though diesels! run on chip fat if you know how

[DJ-Daz]

yup this is all stuff ive heard before daz, it seems that the more robuster older diesels can gulp down biodiesel better than newer ones. i know if i threw biodiesel in my TDCI focus it would probably choke to death. so it needs watering down.

clever things though diesels! run on chip fat if you know how

All true! Just a damn shame mine wont take it.