All diesel has some biodiesel in it - currently at 5% I believe.
Why drag up and old thread? Makes me wonder if you'll be plugging a product soon :-)
Too much biodiesel in most UK diesel cars can cause major problems. For new ones under warranty that could be costly. But as I say all diesel has about 5% bio-diesel in it at the moment and that will rise.
I remember the handbook of my Mondeo TDCi 2003 car saying do not use any bio-diesel.
EDIT: And if using home made biodiesel for modern Common Rail injection diesels with/without DPF.... think before doing anything.... you may save nothing.
Edited by rtj70 on 24/05/2009 at 00:10
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All diesel has some biodiesel in it - currently at 5% I believe.
Not true, I emailed Shell technical services after reading this previously on here and they do not put biodiesel in any of their diesel fuels.I remember the handbook of my Mondeo TDCi 2003 car saying do not use any bio-diesel.
Not true again, both my previous Mk3 Mondeo handbooks, 2001 & 2005 said the same thing (as does my current Mk4), up to 5% biodiesel is ok.
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So what do Shell sell in France where everything has 5%?
And modern diesels are common, and generally not stopped at the side of the road with the bonnet up.
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went on a run to manchester on 31st may 09 back to edin on 2nd june.done a 50/50 mix and all went very well.ps i make my own bio diesel and make it well as i get good advice of a friend that makes it.
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ok,i have just put 12 litres of diesel in the car and then put in 20 litres of biodiesel to increase the percentage of biodiesel on 3/8/09.the car is running fine.
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ok everyone out there,i have on 16/9/2009 put 10 litres of diesel and mixed it with 25 litres of bio diesel and car seems fine.
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ok lads,i am still running on biodiesel and had a 70 percent bio mix with diesel and all went well.this was in october 2009.
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ok everyone,went away in the caravan on 13/11/2009 for 4 days,yes the weather was wet,anywayhad about 15 pound diesel in the car and added 25 litres of bio diesel and all went fine.before coming home the tank was near empty so put 10 pound diesel in with 25 litre bio diesel,got home and car was fine on tuesday 17th november 2009.used the car on18/11/2009 and on the way back limp mode,glow plug light flashing on and off and serious loss of power,i thought trouble.got the car home and the next day i started it up and reved it to 4000 revs for 2 and a half minutes,turned off engine then started it again and all was fixed with car running fine now.
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I always thought this was an inherent common rail limitation until I saw a common rail Mercedes Sprinter delivery van from a well known supermarket chain the other day proudly claiming to run on biodiesel. A quick check on their website confirmed not only this fact, but the fact they have converted their entire fleet.
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"used the car on18/11/2009 and on the way back limp mode,glow plug light flashing on and off and serious loss of power"
Speedy, When you decide to move it on, can you give us a coded message on this thread so we can all avoid buying it?
;-)
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I have started running bio-diesel in my car since wed 18th nov there was just under a quater of a tank of diesel in it.
Put £20 worth of bio-diesel in it from a company who sell it.
Was running great but now i hear a sort of grinding noise when the car is stationary.
Cant pinpoint on where the noise is coming from i hope its just the fuel filter blocked though i dont seem to be loosing any power from the engine.
Iam going to try to change the fuel filter to find out if that works.
I have a ford focus 2001 tdi.
Any one any ideas on what it could be.
Thanks
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Any one any ideas on what it could be. Thanks
>>
Yes, you are trying to run the car on fuel it was not designed to run on. Hope you haven't done too much damage.
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Just when you thought it was safe to consider a used Diesel car, a thread like this pops up somewhere to scotch that notion;-)
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Makes a shiver run down your spine doesn`t it GB ;-)... a bit like Facebook..
Edited by oilrag on 20/11/2009 at 20:31
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It certainly does Oily i thought things had gone quiet on the bionic fuel front, maybe increasing fuel costs have got some folk experimenting again....handy reminder though my lad's looking for another car to replace their quickly deteriorating Toledo, i'll relay this thread to him.
Never tried Facebook, though a mate of mine has met some 'friendly' types from there...gulp;-)
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GB,
I looked into threads about bio (whatever that is) on other forums a while back and it seemed there is less activity in mid winter. I suspect a penetrating -7c frost with below freezing daytime temperatures would be devastating.
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Its threads like this that remind me why I bought a petrol car this time around...
(opens curtains a crack to peek at the Mazda 3 on the drive. Did I do the right thing, he thinks? Only 40 mpg, and none of that mid-range oomf that the Mondy had? I sure do miss that. And then remembers the disturbing conversation with the chap in the Delphi diesel place, his depiction of interesting failure scenarios he'd seen, and his seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of the ins and outs of car warranty schemes. It only takes a single misfuel, you know... )
40mpg and simplicity will do, I think.
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It only takes a single misfuel you know... )
I'm actually becoming less convinced by this. An unscientific survey among diesel driving colleagues confirms a) how common misfuelling is, and b) how many of these so-called delicate common rail cars have simply been refilled with diesel, and gone on to do in one case, on a Vectra CDTi, 70,000 more miles without a single hiccup. And that car was driven on petrol until it spluttered to a halt.
I wonder if at least some of the tales of huge bills to replace pumps and injectors are little more than garages spotting an opportunity to make a few quid.
I'm not saying misfuelling never ends in disaster, or that it is anything other than a bad thing to do, but I do know that it doesn't necessarily mean curtains for the fuel system.
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This thread is the reason why, buying my first second hand car for 30 years, I went for a petrol unit.
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Yes and it may be good reason to only buy a used diesel from a fleet as they are less likely to have been run on homebrew.
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This is the exact reason I dug deeply into the pocket for a new Octavia diesel, more money than I wanted to spend but guarantees the thing not mis fuelled. Hope to keep it long term so correct fuel imporant. I intend keeping all fuel receipts to prove never misfuelled (bought a fuel angel to stop that). Intend to use Shell with every 4th tank V power to keep system clean.
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ok all you mondeo people,i am still using bio diesel and was running on 80 percent for a while and use 5 pound of garage diesel then put in 25 litres of bio diesel.now that on 27th march 2010 the garage diesel has just recently gone up to £1.15 i will be using bio all the time.
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ok all you mondeo people,i am still using bio diesel and was running on 80 percent for a while and use 5 pound of garage diesel then put in 25 litres of bio diesel.now that on 27th march 2010 the garage diesel has just recently gone up to £1.15 i will be using bio all the time.
No you wont my old fruit. Your mondeo has already coughed you a warning sign in November, your pump wont last the year out.
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I'm with AE on this one, surprised it's lasted this long.
There was me about to change jobs and thinking of a used Diesel.
Glad i caught up with this thread and reminded meself why i won't risk it anymore.
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At some point this year, I may have to more than double my commuting distance, and I was thinking about something thats diesel and eats up the miles. My first thought was Mondeo or Avensis or Accord. I would have to buy high mileage to stay within budget. Then I saw this thread and was reminded like others why a used diesel is a lottery.
Mondeo TDCi - hit and miss, Mondeo 2.0 Petrol - no problems apart from throttle body intake flaps working loose on earlier models.
Avensis D4D - seems OK apart from some head gasket issues, Avensis 1.8 Petrol - No problems, apart from high oil consumption on earlier models.
Accord CDTi - quite a few faults listed on CBCB. Accord 2.0 Petrol - Seems faultless.
My Dads Avensis 1.8 Petrol does 40+ mpg and never breaks down.
So I think petrol wins as a car to buy at high mileage. (The Avensis is a bit dull to drive though!)
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well you said the pump wouldnt last the year,it has and still using bio and its 13th may 2011.and still going fine.
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ok lads who said you cant run on biodiesel,well guess what i,m still running on biodiesel and the car runs better on it.date march 27th 2012
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ok here i am again,and still on biodiesel up untill recently,sircumstances have changed for now so having to start making my own bio now as where i was geting it from has stoped supplying it due to price.tried apple fuels in glasgow but the stuff they supply aint as good as proper bio.so starting to make it myself again.going to make a batch very soon.
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ok have managed to get some biodiesel of my friend again that stoped making it for me,so now on bio again.put 10 pound normal diesel in the tank and 25 litres of biodiesel and 1.5litres petrol to stop the bio freezing up,all seems well.date is 18/12/2010.
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ok have today 23/01/2011 put 25 litres bio in the tank with a bit of diesel and car still runs fine.had to put a litre and a half of petrol in when all the snow was here,with -16 temp in edinburgh.
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ok all you people out there,i,ve not disappeared,and yes i,m still running on biodiesel.
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ok put ten pound diesel in the tank and 50 litres of bio and all fine.
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well yes i,m here again still with the same ford mondeo mk3 and yess its still running on biodiesel,have used 100 percent bio well made stuff in the car and it was fine and been running on bio for a bit over 3 years now.seems more economical on bio as well and noticably.if using bio on any car keep an eye on the fuel filter as it can clog in time,if you get a rattle on hard acceleration then check the fuel filter first.it might be cloging up.
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Thanks for updating us. I'm not well up on biodiesel: I think the VW Group advise against fuelling their cars with it, but presumably Ford are happy with it. Your Mondeo seems to thrive on it!
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vw group probly advise against it due to people not making it properly,some cars genuinly dont like it but you need to make it 100 percent perfect.
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ok still on biodiesel,this is january 10th 2013 and should be diluting the dio with normal diesel about 50/50 mix.
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ok lads yes i,m still using biodiesel.had it up to about 75 percent and still ran fine .on april 2010 using 5 litres diesel and 25 litres of bio.with diesel up in price to 1.20 a litre i,m going to always be using bio every time i get diesel at the pump.not all cars like bio.it needs to be well made.
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