Biodiesel and running issues

[Acerforestry]

Is anyone else having problems with pump diesel currently, if this has been covered apologies upfront-my old Hilux is messing about occasionally now, engine management light coming on and cutting out. She starts straight up again after a minute but a work colleague said yesterday it's rife in the Weald area of Kent and has completely knackered some cars, apparently it's the new diesel they are using is affecting some cars 

[ditchman]

i posted a problem about this 10 years ago...the bio-desiel melted the diaphram in my injector pump.....the seals were ok but the diaphram was not ...and caused the enjine to "run away".......

[Stephen-H]

Veg oil / bio diesel corrodes certain types of plastic pipes & o rings 

When I ran my old Mercedes on veg oil I had to replace the o rings with viton o rings as the old ones had corroded with the veg oil / bio diesel / age causing a air leak & poor starting 

Also worth changing you're fuel filter as it cleans the fuel tank out of years of **** that builds up 

Ive found certain four courts diesel to have a certain amount of water in it at times 

The fuel filter housings that used to have a drain at the base of the filter were the best to find out if you had water in the fuel systems as it collects there 

Edited Wednesday at 11:57 by Stephen-H

[JKD]

1 hour ago, Acerforestry said:

Is anyone else having problems with pump diesel currently, if this has been covered apologies upfront-my old Hilux is messing about occasionally now, engine management light coming on and cutting out. She starts straight up again after a minute but a work colleague said yesterday it's rife in the Weald area of Kent and has completely knackered some cars, apparently it's the new diesel they are using is affecting some cars 

Now you've mentioned it 🤔

My works van just had a new clutch fitted,,,, first day of using it again I filled up with diesel [Shell] and next trip "CHECK INJECTION" warning came up.

3 days of using a hire van while new clutch was fitted, had to put £10 in to keep it at about a quarter tank full [Shell diesel], and next morning "ENGINE WARNING" message came up. Different fuel stations, but both Shell,,,, makes you wonder ? 😕

[Acerforestry]

There doesn't seem to be any doubt down here, too many people have mentioned it to be coincidental 

[udderlyoffroad]

There are real mechanics on here; but what you describe sounds like a local petrol station's tank has had water ingress and contaminated the fuel, rather than increased ethanol in the fuel.

Have you checked your fuel filter and drained it to see if water's coming out?

[Rewulf]

5 minutes ago, udderlyoffroad said:

There are real mechanics on here; but what you describe sounds like a local petrol station's tank has had water ingress and contaminated the fuel, rather than increased ethanol in the fuel.

Have you checked your fuel filter and drained it to see if water's coming out?

This.

[oowee]

I put 200 litres of red in a tank in July and 20l into a new container. I added diesel bug treatment to both. This week I poured the 20l into the main tank through a sieve and the bottom of the funnel was lined with jelly diesel bug. 

[Acerforestry]

Like Stephen-H I'm familiar with the issues shall we say, "alternative" fuels can cause the filters as I used to use veg / bio too so, new filter was ordered Monday and should be here tomorrow. I realise it could be water contamination I'm more curious why this seems to be occurring so much to a number of people. Is contamination that common?

[oowee]

6 minutes ago, Acerforestry said:

Like Stephen-H I'm familiar with the issues shall we say, "alternative" fuels can cause the filters as I used to use veg / bio too so, new filter was ordered Monday and should be here tomorrow. I realise it could be water contamination I'm more curious why this seems to be occurring so much to a number of people. Is contamination that common?

I think it's a big issue. We are adding bug killer at every fill. Over winter I am installing a fuel polisher on the diesel tank this winter. Even the petrol outboard is run with the fuel valve off until it stops to empty fuel from the carb. 

Edited Wednesday at 19:56 by oowee

[Dave-G]

Wonder if all the rain UK has has anything to do with water contamination.

[JohnfromUK]

Lots of older vehicles (tractors, LandRovers etc.) used to have a glass bowl 'sediment' trap in the fuel line between the tank and injection pump/carburettor.  The glass bowl could be checked for water (which fell to the bottom and could be seen) and emptied out.

Water in diesel and boiler oil fuel when it used to be stored in above ground single skin steel tanks (farms, heating oil etc.) was common from condensation.  Bowls such as above were fitted on boiler feed lines, but the fast flow 'refuelling' outlets relied on the filter being on the vehicle because (presumably) the fast rate of flow needed to fill a tank couldn'd be met by this type of sediment trap.

I think it is less common in underground tanks or plastic bunded tanks as there is less change of temperature

[bornfree]

We put bug killer in our main diesel tank at work every month. Not sure how well it works because we get loads of filter trouble with modern tractors with common rail injection. Older machinery doesn't seem affected at all. I think modern stuff has much finer filtration.