VEG OIL- DIESEL MIX

[wornelly]

Due to the rise in fuel costs and the fact I do about 15,000 miles per year, am thinking of going bk to my veg-diesel mix, or full bio, I used to run this in my disco which worked perfectly, but am unsure about the xantia having any probs with this, am a bit of a planet saving nut which is why I drive diesel cars only, I have my bike for fun and sometimes wish that were diesel, so I could do the same lol, any advice would be appreciated.

[Chlorate]

If it's a Xantia TD (with Bosch injection pump) then it'll run quite happily on Veggie oil - up to 100% in the summer 50:50ish in the winter.
If it's an HDi on the other hand, you'll need to find a source of proper biodiesel, as far as I'm aware using vegetable oil in common rail injection diesels is a rather bad idea.

-Alex

[robert_e_smart]

Breach of rules removed

[Chlorate]

You get quite a slap on the wrist if you get caught running on red diesel though.

[wornelly]

Err no, lol, would like to keep my car lol, so red is outta the question, ino some gypos that sell stolen normal diesel, but the price is too high, they worse than the taxman, and ino veg oil better for the enviroment, and 100% veggie sounds gd too me, but how do I no which diesel pump my car has
??

[Pleiades]

To put red diesel in would be a bit foolish to say the least.

If or when you get caught, the police job is only to report you to Inland Revenue Customs and Excise, this is where the fun starts, these guys have so much power it's unbelivable, they can look through all of your financial affairs and I would guess even bum search you if they felt the urge.

They can assume that after discovering red in your tank, that you have been using red since you got the car, they will work out how many miles you have done per year and can charge you for the revenue lost to them.

In reality, you would just get a fine and possibly have the car taken and crushed for coke cans but I would not take the gamble.

There is a lot of vans going around checking now especialy as the government need the tax cash, using red deisel is tax avoidence like it or not.

Regards
Martin

[evilally]

Breach of rules removed

Oh really, I've been fooling around with all this vegetable oil for the last 34,000 miles without issue, when I could just be illegally filling up with red diesel, silly me! Thanks for the tip!

[Peter.N.]

You could get a diesel bike, there are some good ones about, have a look on 'you tube'. Personally I would not use veggie oil, you can buy a lot of fuel for the cost of overhauling a pump

Peter

[Xaccers]

A new set of seals for a pump aren't that much.

What happens with veg is it works into the cracks in the seals (by now they're old and hard) and when it cools it gels and expands increasing the size of the cracks until they start to leak.
The concentration of veg you use depends on how quickly this will happen, as does the state of the seals in the first place.
Cassy took several years to start leaking, and that was on 100% veg most of the time.

So what do you do?
Well, pick up a second hand pump for around £20 and refurbish it at your leisure, when it's time, swap them over, sell your leaky pipe to someone else to refurbish, or refurbish it and sell it.

If you've got a Xantia 1.9TD, then you've got a bosch pump and can just pour new veg into the tank, or if you've got a reputable waste veg supplier in your area that dries and filters the veg properly then you can use that and save even more.
Local costco does 20L for £20 so it's gone up quite a bit recently (usually it's around 70ppl), but compared to derv at £1.35L it's still saving a hell of a lot.

[Peter.N.]

Excellent - if you are up to doing the job yourself, very expensive otherwise. That should possibly be the determining factor.

Peter

[robert_e_smart]

Local costco does 20L for £20

Right, so its the same price I can buy WHITE diesel from the Rep Of Ireland after reclaiming the VAT. Good for my pocket and my fuel pump!

[Gregg1100]

My old dear of an Xantia- de-catted, is averaging 44+ mpg---why bother with chip oil. 1.9TD. How much more does one expect ?

[Xaccers]

Excellent - if you are up to doing the job yourself, very expensive otherwise. That should possibly be the determining factor.

Peter

There are plenty of guides on here as to how to do it, and plenty of people I'm sure would be willing to help in return for a few beer tokens/biscuits.

As I said, Cassy took over 2 years running on 100% veg to even start leaking, and another 2 years before it got bad enough to need the seals replacing.

When you can pick up a 2nd hand pump for £20, you could just swap it over and run on that pump until it starts leaking, then do the same again, so no need to replace seals when they go.

[evilally]

My understanding is that you can now get bio compatible seal kits, so this job should only need doing once. Since buying the 405 I've saved over £3,000 in fuel and the pump is still going. Any labour charges associated with eventual pump refurbishment are dwarfed by that saving. It's not unusual for older cars to need new pump seals anyway, regardless of what fuel they've been running on.

[Xaccers]

My understanding is that you can now get bio compatible seal kits, so this job should only need doing once. Since buying the 405 I've saved over £3,000 in fuel and the pump is still going. Any labour charges associated with eventual pump refurbishment are dwarfed by that saving. It's not unusual for older cars to need new pump seals anyway, regardless of what fuel they've been running on.

This is it, after 10 years most o-rings in the car are hard and compressed, look at the hydraulic pump's seals for instance, or the ones on the heater matrix pipes.