Bio Diesel is it safe to use in modern car.

eeeeen

Can anybody advise me, is bio diesel from the local filling station safe to use in a modern car and will i have to put additives in

Pink.

Hi eeeeen,

You should get more help with your query on the Motoring board so I've moved your thread across for you.

Pink

Andy_Hamilton

If it's on the forcourt you should find it is actually 5% biodiesel (95% dino diesel) unless it says B**%. There is loads of hype about it being better for the environment and B100 (100% is good but can clog filters on first use).

In france etc they have 5% as standard to keep the farmers happy plus it saves the petrol companies adding extra lubricants.

I have run a VW bora TDI on 100% biodiesel and 20% mix from local dealer no problems. In fact it actually run smoother and had better acceleration.

Be aware that you could block your fuel filter if it has not been changed to the recommended service schedual.

scbk

Was there not something in the news lately that all forecourt diesel is to be changed to 5% bio?

eeeeen

Andy_Hamilton wrote: »

If it's on the forcourt you should find it is actually 5% biodiesel (95% dino diesel) unless it says B**%. There is loads of hype about it being better for the environment and B100 (100% is good but can clog filters on first use).

In france etc they have 5% as standard to keep the farmers happy plus it saves the petrol companies adding extra lubricants.

I have run a VW bora TDI on 100% biodiesel and 20% mix from local dealer no problems. In fact it actually run smoother and had better acceleration.

Be aware that you could block your fuel filter if it has not been changed to the recommended service schedual.

Thanks for that Andy,sorry for being a bit thick can you just explain what you mean by 20% mix,does it mean if I have a 50ltr tank, 10ltrs of regular diesel off a f/c the rest made up of bio diesel?

Andy_Hamilton

Sorry for not being clear. When forecourts mix it they add it with dinodiesel The normally represent it as B5, B20 or B100 That means 5%, 20% or 100% biodiesel instead of Dinodiesel.
Moving from Dinodiesel to 100% Biodiesel can block fuel filters, this is my expereince of using 100% bio http://www.inmud.co.uk/page27.htm
Moving to 5% will cause no problems! After loads of research I carried out myself I now say B5-B20 is almost as good for your car as the expensive "performance" diesel.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Biodiesel has been known to cause premature failure of fuel seals. Not a big problem on new cars but certainly on older models it can be troublesome.

Andy_Hamilton

I think it was 1992 all manufactures switched to biodiesel proof seals and pipework, even before then it was only a handful of makers who did not.

In the UK, we are well behind all EU countries for bio takeup.

wallacebob

Watch out for some VW 2.0 engines, my 2005 SEAT cannot use bio diesel. Depends on fuel pump apparently, and can be serious. Should tell you in manual, or if it says "no bio-fuel" on fuel flap.

AdrianHi

As Andy says, be aware of 100% bio-diesel causing a blocked fuel filter in the first few hundred miles. It is because the bio-diesel is cleaning out the muck left behind by regular diesel.
Many car manufacturers are saying no (100%) bio-diesel (5% bio-diesel is common place) but this is largely down to no standards and so many private and small business making bio-diesel with insufficient quality control. Manufacturers do not want warranty claims with problems caused by poor quality bio-diesel so they just say no.
Bio-diesel got so popular in Germany the government their started loosing too much tax revenue, so they put the duty up to match regular diesel and the bio-diesel market promptly sank. I'm sure the same would happen here if bio-diesel really took off.

ooo000ooo

We run our 2003 alhambra diesel on b10 biodiesel, no problems so far after a year of cheaper motoring although it smells a bit different on start up