Agri Diesel Question.

Vote 4 Pedro

Hi,
The wife brought the car home the other night completely empty of fuel, I don't even know how she got it home without running out. She had no money with her and only just made it home,
anyway we live way out of town and there are no filling stations anywhere near us that would be open and we needed to get to work early next morning and I was panicking about the fuel situation so all I could think of was walking down the road to a neighbour who has a farm and so he would have some agri diesel, I told him the story and he gave us about 9 or 10 litres of so we could get to work, (I took a 10l jerry can and he almost filled it)
Next day I filled the car up to the brim with road diesel at lunch time and that should be that I hope.
I have never used agri diesel before as I have a nearly new car and it would not be worth the risk.

My question is how long does the trace of the farm diesel stay in the tank, am I at risk if I was to get dipped by the customs,
they seem to be checking diesel and have the road blocks quite a lot lately, and would they believe my stupid story.
Kinda wish I hadn't done it now but I couldn't think of any thing else at the time.
I might be over thinking things here but it's playing on my mind.
Thanks

Eric Cartman

run the tank down to almost the limit of the red light and fill it right up with road diesel again , do this 2-3 times and it'll pretty much all be gone.

After this tank is empty and you fill another with road diesel the concentration should be so low that you won't have to worry.

CIP4

If you want to be paranoid about it the green diesel has probably permanently stained the fuel filter with the dye and revenue has the right too and have done in the passed removed fuel filter elements to inspect then if they suspect you. Now realistically the chances of that happening are thing. But if you want to be 100% safe from ever been caught you should change the fuel filter.

colm_mcm

I'd be inclined to change the filter either way.

Del2005

Eric Cartman wrote: »

run the tank down to almost the limit of the red light and fill it right up with road diesel again , do this 2-3 times and it'll pretty much all be gone.

After this tank is empty and you fill another with road diesel the concentration should be so low that you won't have to worry.

I always thought that once the marker reacts then they consider it driving with "Marked gas oil", what concentration does the marker stop reacting?

The only way to be sure is to completely drain the tank, to remove the last few contaminated litres, and then change the fuel filters. Throw in a few litres to purge the last out of the pipes. Then change the filter again.

Eric Cartman

Del2005 wrote: »

I always thought that once the marker reacts then they consider it driving with "Marked gas oil", what concentration does the marker stop reacting?

The only way to be sure is to completely drain the tank, to remove the last few contaminated litres, and then change the fuel filters. Throw in a few litres to purge the last out of the pipes. Then change the filter again.

while true , they pull a sample from the tank , assuming its a 60 litre tank

remaining 1 litre
add 10 litres of green - 100% contaminated
fill 55 litres of road - about 8% contaminated
run to 5 litres and fill another 55 litres - 0.6~ % contaminated
run to 5 litres and fill another 55 litres - 0.04~%

(these are rough maths done in my head before anyone gets the calculator out)

the marker would need a certain concentration to react, if a tanker delivering the fuel was used to deliver green then filled with road diesel its not inconceivable that it would have a 0.5-1% concentration so there is probably a check in it.

even if the marker flagged and customs went to take a look, the report would state the concentration was less than 1% and you'd be hard pushed to find a judge who could make a call on that , maybe you got some contaminated or washed diesel a few fills ago , maybe you used the same jerry can as you do for your agri stuff, it would be such a hard one to call.

as above changing the fuel filter is a good idea, but id run through 2-3 fills before changing it so the tank and lines are clear. Customs are not fans of people using green but 10 litres of the stuff which has probably already been burned is hardly the super offence they want to catch, especially if you've kept your receipts for road diesel that you filled up on.

orm0nd

after 2 fills it is very highly unlikely that a sample would detect marked gas oil (at least a raodside visible inspection )

green diesel doesn't colour stain but it may be wise to change the filter in case of dirt particles

5W30

CIP4 wrote: »

If you want to be paranoid about it the green diesel has probably permanently stained the fuel filter with the dye and revenue has the right too and have done in the passed removed fuel filter elements to inspect then if they suspect you. Now realistically the chances of that happening are thing. But if you want to be 100% safe from ever been caught you should change the fuel filter.

I wish them luck checking the fuel filter on my Focus. Good luck starting it after there is air in the system. There is no hand primer on it so you would need a vacuum pump.

I'd be claiming neck injuries no bother hai.

CIP4

5W30 wrote: »

I wish them luck checking the fuel filter on my Focus. Good luck starting it after there is air in the system. There is no hand primer on it so you would need a vacuum pump.

I'd be claiming neck injuries no bother hai.

Oh I'd say they only do that to handy ones there not going to give themselves too much hardship over it.

5W30

CIP4 wrote: »

Oh I'd say they only do that to handy ones there not going to give themselves too much hardship over it.

Regardless I'd be requesting they fit a new seal to the filter housing. Absolutely ridiculous that they can just begin ripping a diesel car apart when I'm trying to get to somewhere.

Maybe they shouldn't allow dodgy folk to sell it to normal people in the first place?

IMO if they caught someone with green they should be trying to find out where they got it and then fine the seller, not the user.

mickdw

5W30 wrote: »

Regardless I'd be requesting they fit a new seal to the filter housing. Absolutely ridiculous that they can just begin ripping a diesel car apart when I'm trying to get to somewhere.

Maybe they shouldn't allow dodgy folk to sell it to normal people in the first place?

IMO if they caught someone with green they should be trying to find out where they got it and then fine the seller, not the user.

The are no restrictions on the sale of green diesel. You turn up with a drum and get your green diesel.
I don't see how you can fine the seller for selling a fuel that is widely available.
They could get rid of the dye system and charge full price to all and give a rebate via tax return to legit businesses and farmers who are entitled to it. It would be very hard to control this though. You would have businesses buying more than needed, claiming rebate on all, claiming it all as expense then selling off to the black economy operators cheaply. Likewise every small farmer would be claiming for some of his car diesel too.

Atlantic Dawn

It's a believable story like been locked up with 10 girls of the night in a monastry telling them tales of The Ginger Bread Man.