Ford Focus (1998 - 2004) - 03 1.8 Biodiesel in Focus

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Tue 22 Apr 2008 19:25
03 1.8 Biodiesel in Focus - Beejy
Hello,

With the cost of diesel at the pumps now at 119.9p and going up weekly if not daily, I'm looking at investigating the biodiesel option.

Can anyone tell me if the Ford 1.8 tdci engine can use biodiesel?

Has anyone any experience of using biodiesel in a Ford Focus?

Look forward to your replies,

Thanks in advance.......
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Tue 22 Apr 2008 19:36
03 1.8 Biodiesel in Focus - Screwloose
Beejy

That one's easy - no.

"Bio-diesel" means many different things now - and is causing nightmares to the repair trade. On most diesel jobs now the first question is - "What's in the tank?"
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Mon 28 Jul 2008 16:57
03 1.8 Biodiesel in Focus - BenG
The official (Ford) line is 5% max., probably just to conform with government stipulations that fuel contains 5% of 'renewable' constitutents.

'Biodiesel' covers a multitude of fuels, from unrefined veggie oil through to stuff that's been run through a manufacturing plant to remove the gummy components of the oil. However, the fine tolerances of common rail injection systems are not apparently very tolerant of thicker fuels and more likely to gum up.

You might get away with it in an old non-turbo Escort van, or maybe even an early turbodiesel Mondeo, but probably not in a common-rail Focus.
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Mon 4 Nov 2013 20:34
03 1.8 Biodiesel in Focus - joey blog

i've run my 1997 pug 306 tdi on neat bio fuel after adding it gradualy, i also run my 2.5 tdi 1991 campervan on neat but i do add about 10% straight diesel to the tank in the winter. i,ve done thousands of miles in both over the last 6 / 7 years with no problem whatso ever. hope this helps

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