Oh no - HDi is ill - wax in fuel??

[steve_earwig]

Hi guys, looks like I might be having trouble: I got the car out the shed this morning and left it running for 10 minutes while I got my boots on. Came out and it wasn't running any more (that's funny...) started it up again and went to open the gates - the idle was going chuff chuff chuff, slower and slower, then it stalled. Tried starting it again, nothing. Turned the key to listen to the lift pump - it just made a "bonk" but wasn't running. The I left it for 5 minutes, tried again & it started, then I got the dreaded "ANTIPOLUTION FAULT" on the MFD, then it was doing the chuffing again (chuffing car ) so I revved it a few times, the antipollution went off and it settled down. It seems to be going now but I'm getting a lot of squawking from the filter head.

I'm guessing this is wax in the fuel (at only -9?) I don't know any place that does Polskipug's fuel additive here ( I checked) so I'm thinking about dumping some petrol in there. The question is how much? Not enough so it doesn't do anything or too much so it kills the pump(s)?

[StevieboyTD]

5L of petrol to a full tank is safe enough. Can't believe your fuel suppliers don't have additives to cope with the weather they're selling their product in.

[steve_earwig]

You think they care? I0ve been Googling but not come up with much, apart from don't

Crap, I guess that means I need to fill up (I have no idea how much I have left in it due to the almost useless fuel gauge), will it make it to the gas station I wonder

[steve_earwig]

I just started it up again, it all sounds ok but I'm still getting the dreaded antipollution fault, plus the engine light up on the dash. So I'm not sure if it was wax & the code's not clearing or it's something more serious. Meanwhile I spotted a cheap high miler petrol D9 estate in the paper...

[jamjar1383]

can you get Kerosene over there, thats what i'd put in it

[jasper5]

Strange you should mention this, it's -9 here this morning, my wife went out to go to do her daily horsey stuff....the 407 didn't do it's usual first turn of key starting then spluttered and farted....started it again and all was well.
I decided to start my Expert van because I hadn't since friday....took 6 attempts to start it....it's been fine since I fitted new glow plugs.
When it started it ran really badly until it warmed up a little.....no lights on though.

[StevieboyTD]

I just started it up again, it all sounds ok but I'm still getting the dreaded antipollution fault, plus the engine light up on the dash. So I'm not sure if it was wax & the code's not clearing or it's something more serious. Meanwhile I spotted a cheap high miler petrol D9 estate in the paper...

Might take a while to clear the wax in the filter housing, it's not heated on the hdi engines. If you've got a 5L/tank mix running though, it's plenty to deal with the wax in the tank, but the filter will be a lump of snot until things warm up basically.

[steve_earwig]

Crisis over It warmed up a little (-8) so I started it again & took it for a drive, the eml went out before I'd gone 100 yards. I drove it up & down the high road, then went to fill up as a prelude to dumping 5 litres of petrol in there. While I was in the gas station and as they weren't too busy I asked (as best I could) if they had anything against waxing... here you go, that'll be 2 quid Last year they didn't this year they do. It's called ZI-DI-GO and it says poboljšava tečenje dizelskog goriva i ekstra lakog loživog ulja kroz vodove i filtere - "improves the flow of diesel fuel and extra light fuel oil through the lines and filters". No mention of wax anywhere. And my mate who works in the garage finally rang me, he was a bit busy earlier because THIS HAPPENED TO EVERYONE! Oooh, I feel such a fool

[r1150gsclark]

Found this on Ask Jeeves you might find useful,
"Diesel Fuel (DERV) in its basic form starts to have trouble at -9.5 degrees C. If it's minus 10 Celsius all night, you might have a bit of trouble getting the engine to start, but then again, maybe not, depending on what TYPE of diesel fuel you've got."

[steve_earwig]

And how reluctant the suppliers are to put the right additives in it for winter use... Was -14 early this morning so I suspect the diesel was still somewhere down there. I've driven in lower here but I reckon the fuel this year was even worse than usual. All ok now though, I've been to see a mate & on the way there passed a couple of abandoned cars, plus one with its bonnet up and people standing around - Pussat TDi

[Welly]

-9 here this morn.......

I think your area has been supplied with a duff batch of diesel "it happened to everyone" screams a localised problem. As you say you've had worse conditions and been ok

Panic over though I guess, and a good job too, I bet you fair sh*t yourself didn't you?

'that light' on the dash used to put the fear of god into me

[steve_earwig]

The recommendation is use Euro Diesel (i.e. the expensive stuff ) And there I was driving past the local cop shop's car park when I spied a škoda cop car with its bonnet up. Yes, they're all diesels

And then I got done for speeding But there's no bluddy signs! Ah, if there's no signs then the speed limit is 50kmh. Never mind the last sign I passed miles, sorry, kilometers back said 70 and the next one a few miles further on says the same, just there we're supposed to know by the lack of signage. Pissed, me? Of course

[legoless]

Glad its sorted Steve
Just something else to consider in this cold snap is the possibility of a small amout of water in the filter housing which may freeze occaisionally (my workamate`s 1.9 xzara was playing up after the cold weekend yesterday) pulled out the fuel filter expecting some waxing but it was a small amount of ice that was causing the problems).

[sirwiggum]

Put £20 of BP Ultimate in last night hoping this would help with starting.

This morning, -11 degrees in Belfast, the HDi just turned and turned. Pumped the pedal and got it started eventually.

Reminded me of the old XUD when the glow plugs were going. I thought the HDi was meant to be better in the cold?

[Welly]

At these silly temperatures everything conspires against your freezing engine firing up! it's a miracle that it does fire to be honest. I think the lowest I ever saw when starting my HDi was about -6 and it started keenly but was missing a bit and a puffed out some blue schmoke.

I would be tempted to crank the engine for a few turns, leave it, do some defrosting, then try again, and repeat rather than keep cranking the thing into life - in case you 'wet' the glowplugs (if they're working that is).