nothing to do with the Z but it was on the radio about these "manufacturing plants" buying up red diesel and washing the dye out with a chemical. never thought about this before but does this mean we could be buying it through our pumps? and what chemical do they use? can it damage your engine? im a bit worried because my mate filled up at a local garage for about 6 months and had a loss of power (down from sewing machine to hairdryer) :rolleyes: and high wear on his TDi golf engine. anyone else had this? never thought it could be the diesel till i heard that. :nono:

there are many types of diesel much like petrol and many colours

red or gas oil is only for use as heating or running engines that are not for road use such as plant

blue is marine diesel

green is M.O.D

each fuel is subjected to a differant tax band thus one colour may be cheaper than another

they do not use a chemical to remove the dye. they filter it thru a potery or casting compund called fullers earth it is like a fine powder the dye sticks to the powder in the same fashion that it sticks to the internals of an engine. once filtered the fuel comes out clear, but does contain a residue of powder. after a period of time this will block the fuel filter.

in the industry i work in this is a common way of making money

gas oil £0.209 p.p.l with v.a.t @5% easy to nock it out at £0.50 p.p.l once clear

so basically its cheaper at the expense of your car and falling foul of the law? sounds like someone is making money for nothing. where do i get some? lol

It's no different to regular diesel. The dye is added for the reasons Russ stated. Farmers buy red diesel for their agricultural machines, which they obviously store at the farm until needed. As farming is essential (IE to provide us with food) the diesel is supplied with low (if any) vat/taxes/duties.

 

If you are Jo Farmer and drive, say, a diesel VW golf and Mr Shell charges 80p a litre at the pumps, how tempting would it be to fill the car from the vast supply you kept at the farm?

 

Exactly !! The red dye is added so that ministry testers could check the fuel tanks of private road vehicles owned by those allowed to buy fuel for non-road use, thus ensure they are only using it for farming activities.

 

Richard ;)

I have a Citroen BX turbo diesel as my work car and i tried running it on vegetable oil (rapeseed oil actually, from Morrisson's , about 40p a litre !) after seeing it on Topgear and i was suprised to see that is DOES work !

I put in about 6 litres of veg oil and 2 litres of diesel shuck it up in an old petrol can and put it in ! :cool: :tongue:

and high wear on his TDi golf engine. anyone else had this? never thought it could be the diesel till i heard that. :nono:

 

Leon 110 is on 69000 miles and it's definitely getting a bit loose, and it's starting to feel a bit hesitant even just 1000 miles after an oil change (ok with fresh oil though). Don't tell Mazda though. ;)

 

Is his Golf the 90/110 or the full PD effort? The PD is REALLY FUSSY about oil.

 

It's mostly had Total diesel, although it can end up with anything since it goes all over the country.