FWIW- Today on Car Talk A woman named Halle from Rutlage, maybe Michigan? called in with a problem running her Vanagon diesel on "Bio-diesel" fuel. Bio diesel is apparently a fuel made from used vegitable oil combined with or treated with lye. Halle lives on a commune and they share three diesel autos, a Jetta, a Vanagon and something else I can't remember along with a diesel tractor. All the vehicles run fine on the Bio Diesel except the Vanagon. The Vanagon would run for a few minutes then stall. All the woman knew is they took the bus to the dealer who "replaced some hoses" and cleaned or maybe replaced the injectors. The bus ran fine for about two months then started the same symptoms. So Tom and Ray suggested something in the bio diesel was decomposing some of the fuel lines and parts of them were plugging up the injectors. For whatever reason the composition of the fuel lines on the other vehicles spared them from this decomposition, according to Tom and Ray. Solution: drain the biodiesel from the bus and fill with regular diesel and see if the the bus runs normally. They didn't make mention of cleaning or replacing the injectors (?) so I dunno, maybe the fuel would clean them? That's the story to the best of my knowlege and will hopefully offer some insight to those of you who are making enough french fries to warrant mixing up your own bio diesel in the garage. From where I sit you have to have a fair amount of free time just to get where you're going if you drive a Vanagon Diesel. Then to have time to eat all those french fries AND distill your own home-brew fuel. Ahh....c'mon. I'm just ribbin' you. Best O Jeff 83.5 Westy NYC |
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