L

lynall

Well-Known Member
Full Member
I have not had diesel wax in my cars for the best part of 15 odd years now.
Hop in my car parked in the middle of a large open car park, crank it over starts well as usual bit wont move, flummoxed look at the gauges and realise its only doing 4/500 rpm and hunting a little, it took a good minute or two before the returning diesel thawed out the filter and away we went.
Tank was only a 1/4 full so that most likely didnt help.
I never looked at the dash temp today, but yesterday it was showing -9 and it ran perfectly so gawd knows what the temps were this morning?

So top tip of the day is fuel up as its meant to get bad tonight!
 
How do you know it waxed up? Did you actually see it?
I ask because where I am is fairly high,very exposed and was bout same temp last night and my td5 started fine today,and I am on fumes too lol
 
lynall said:
I have not had diesel wax in my cars for the best part of 15 odd years now.
Hop in my car parked in the middle of a large open car park, crank it over starts well as usual bit wont move, flummoxed look at the gauges and realise its only doing 4/500 rpm and hunting a little, it took a good minute or two before the returning diesel thawed out the filter and away we went.
Tank was only a 1/4 full so that most likely didnt help.
I never looked at the dash temp today, but yesterday it was showing -9 and it ran perfectly so gawd knows what the temps were this morning?

So top tip of the day is fuel up as its meant to get bad tonight!
Click to expand...

Did you not set your FBH?
 
andy85 said:
How do you know it waxed up? Did you actually see it?
I ask because where I am is fairly high,very exposed and was bout same temp last night and my td5 started fine today,and I am on fumes too lol
Click to expand...


No I didnt actually see the fuel, like I said its rare but has happened before, Mr Morrisons has a lot to answer for!
All I was thinking was crap its a 5 mile walk home, its minus something bloody bitter and Im wearing kin shorts:D
 
If you’re referring to “supermarket” fuel by mr Morrison then there’s no difference and this is widely documented on the web.
I would put a strong case together for it being something else,my Astra even started first time at -17 on my drive back in 2010 so I do doubt waxing,I’d be looking at glow plugs maybe.
Shorts? You must be hard as nails haha balls to that in this weather!?
 
lynall said:
I have not had diesel wax in my cars for the best part of 15 odd years now.
Hop in my car parked in the middle of a large open car park, crank it over starts well as usual bit wont move, flummoxed look at the gauges and realise its only doing 4/500 rpm and hunting a little, it took a good minute or two before the returning diesel thawed out the filter and away we went.
Tank was only a 1/4 full so that most likely didnt help.
I never looked at the dash temp today, but yesterday it was showing -9 and it ran perfectly so gawd knows what the temps were this morning?

So top tip of the day is fuel up as its meant to get bad tonight!
Click to expand...

don’t know how much it compares , when i useto work on oil boilers and they had red diesel ( 35 second vecosity ) it would wax at minus 8 , ice would also form in the filter , but know on the D3 they have the water sensor warning

wasnt adding some of the super diesel a way of preventing the waxing due to the extra additives added ??

is urs ok now , must admit i stay away from supermarket fuel, especially when they filled up all the tanks with the wrong fuel
 
Hi guys,
My previous Car Audi A4 B5 on a VE diesel never had problems in winter even on 100% bio diesel. Always used to add a small amount of mineral 2 stroke to the tank too. Not sure it would be good for common rail.

Have you changed the fuel filter recently?
Maybe try leaving the ignition in 2 for 10 seconds after the glow plugs have gone out, turn over the engine for 10 seconds then turn off. Leave for a minute and retry. Gives chance for the fuel to be drawn in the pipes. You'll may see a puff of white smoke on start up due to unspent fuel on cranking.
 
Gavsterh1975 said:
Hi guys,
My previous Car Audi A4 B5 on a VE diesel never had problems in winter even on 100% bio diesel. Always used to add a small amount of mineral 2 stroke to the tank too. Not sure it would be good for common rail.

Have you changed the fuel filter recently?
Maybe try leaving the ignition in 2 for 10 seconds after the glow plugs have gone out, turn over the engine for 10 seconds then turn off. Leave for a minute and retry. Gives chance for the fuel to be drawn in the pipes. You'll may see a puff of white smoke on start up due to unspent fuel on cranking.
Click to expand...

personally i replace my filter every 2 x years and dont think my engine will run on bio fuel , never added 2 x stoke into any engine

in the winter i normally use a few tanks of super diesel between normal diesel , know there’s also a water sensor on the filters fitted on the engine of @lynall and mine as we have the same engine
 
Modern diesel seems to wax at around -14C to-16C. Wind chill may well take it that low and cause problems.
We had six weeks of temps around the -20C mark about 8 years back but found that adding 10% petrol to the tank takes the waxing point down to about -26C. Certainly doesn't cause problems with the older engines, but not sure if the super-sensitive modern ones might throw a hissy-fit.
Carry a spare filter so that it can be quickly sorted and get you on your way. :)
 
Beneagles said:
Modern diesel seems to wax at around -14C to-16C. Wind chill may well take it that low and cause problems.
Click to expand...
IIRC wind chill only reduces non living things to the air temp a bit quicker. It affects us because it continues to draw heat energy away from our skin. This rapid loss of heat energy gives us the impression that it is colder than it actually is. Hence the wind chill giving 'feels like' temperatures.
 
I can't say that I'm an expert on the subject of diesel fuel oils waxing, I would presume that the oil companies might add some kind of magic anti-waxing ingredient to winter fuels, much like they sometimes add anti-foaming agents. It's the people like a neighbour of mine who goes to the local supermarket and buys up gallons of vegetable oil and pours it neat into his fuel tank might have more trouble with the phenomena.
He's often just tinkering with his Pajero 'cos it doesn't always start properly.
 
andy85 said:
How do you know it waxed up? Did you actually see it?
I ask because where I am is fairly high,very exposed and was bout same temp last night and my td5 started fine today,and I am on fumes too lol
Click to expand...
If a diesel is waxed/gelled it won't start/run.
 
Well treated the old girl to a tank of premium diesel last night and now the weather has bloody warmed up!
Speaking to a few of the other guys and their diesels also would not rev as well, so could well be waxing.
Some others said they had a misfire from cold but thats going to be glowplugs.
 
Gavsterh1975 said:
Hi guys,
My previous Car Audi A4 B5 on a VE diesel never had problems in winter even on 100% bio diesel. Always used to add a small amount of mineral 2 stroke to the tank too. Not sure it would be good for common rail.

Have you changed the fuel filter recently?
Maybe try leaving the ignition in 2 for 10 seconds after the glow plugs have gone out, turn over the engine for 10 seconds then turn off. Leave for a minute and retry. Gives chance for the fuel to be drawn in the pipes. You'll may see a puff of white smoke on start up due to unspent fuel on cranking.
Click to expand...


Ay it gets proper spolit, oil every 5k and a new fuel filter annually and now I only do about 7k per year?
Tbh a niccan micra would suit me more now for what i use it for!
 
Diesel fuel in the UK has to be good legally down to minus 15C.
I add some 2SO each time i full up and only use Esso/Shell/BP
Also a tip i was given, when the Gloplug light goes out wait for a few seconds as they are still warming up.
In extremely cold times i have used the gloplugs twice before trying to start.
 
janderson41 said:
Diesel fuel in the UK has to be good legally down to minus 15C.
I add some 2SO each time i full up and only use Esso/Shell/BP
Also a tip i was given, when the Gloplug light goes out wait for a few seconds as they are still warming up.
In extremely cold times i have used the gloplugs twice before trying to start.
Click to expand...

funny enough i was generally reading about glow plugs etc in my Landy and came across this , there was me thinking it was a simple operation, lol

The engine coolant temperature sensor is located in the top hose at the coolant manifold junction. The ECT sensor
provides the ECM and the instrument cluster with engine coolant temperature status.
The ECM uses the temperature information for the following functions:
Fueling calculations
Limit engine operation if engine coolant temperature becomes too high
Cooling fan operation
Glow plug activation time.
The instrument cluster uses the temperature information for temperature gauge operation. The engine coolant temperature signal is also transmitted on the CAN bus by the instrument cluster for use by other systems.

The ECMECT sensor circuit consists of an internal voltage divider circuit which incorporates an NTC thermistor. As the coolant temperature rises the resistance through the sensor decreases and vice versa.

The output from the sensor is the change in voltage as the thermistor allows more current to pass to earth relative to the temperature of the coolant.
The ECM compares the signal voltage to stored values and adjusts fuel delivery to ensure optimum driveability at all
times.

The engine will require more fuel when it is cold to overcome fuel condensing on the cold metal surfaces inside the combustion chamber. To achieve a richer air/fuel ratio, the ECM extends the injector opening time. As the engine warms up the air/fuel ratio is leaned off.
 
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