Dud fuel killing new diesel engines

Ssangyong Australia managing director, Keith Timmins, has warned drivers of the latest common rail diesels not to take any chances on diesel fuel quality.

Filling the tank of any new generation common rail diesel model with fuel other than that specified by the latest Australian standard, is inviting damage totaling at least $10,000. For some European imports, the damage bill can top $25,000.

According to Ssangyong, the problem is generating such huge expense that Delphi, the supplier of injection components in many of today's new diesel models, has been forced to analyse the quality of the fuel in a vehicle's tank to determine whether the damage qualifies as a warranty claim.

Ssangyong Australia -- with its specialist vehicle range based almost entirely on the latest diesel technology -- has been able to identify the source and location of the problem faster than most. Its multi-franchise dealers have been able to confirm that the damage is not restricted to any single vehicle manufacturer or engine.

Even in the case of new vehicles, the damage currently showing up is rarely caused by any manufacturing fault or parts failure. This is leaving owners to identify and chase rogue diesel fuel suppliers for repair bills of $10-25,000 -- not always easy when a vehicle's tank can contain fuel from a number of sources.

Injectors typically cost over $1000 each to replace, injector pumps around $3-4,000 and damaged fuel lines, rails, fuel pumps and filters can add thousands more to the final bill.

Keith Timmins' advice is to avoid the problem in the first place by staying with oil company-branded fuel suppliers who are prepared to warranty their fuels as meeting the Australian Standard -- but even this may not be enough.

One of the grey areas in the supply chain is the emergence of biodiesel. Where the standard for diesel fuel is not enforced, it is too easy for regional suppliers and individual outlets to cut high grade diesel fuel with any number of substitute fuels including cooking oil, animal fats and other substitutes -- and then label it as biodiesel.

It is a variation of the old diesel scams that once added heating oil to diesel to avoid excise. In the latest scams, the contaminated fuel is often marketed direct to farms and other high usage operators at a cut price, with the added bonus of helping the environment.

Timmins says that customers may be anxious to do the right thing by the environment, but if they use these contaminated fuels, they can soon reduce engine efficiency and damage expensive injection components.

"Biodiesel makes no sense if it impacts on the efficiency and emissions of a high tech engine," Timmins said.

However, Timmins was careful to distinguish these local backyard brews from the high quality biodiesel sold in Europe.

He also made a point of saying that he did not anticipate any problems with a biodiesel fuel marketed by a mainstream oil company, provided that company could guarantee that the fuel met the current Australian Standard for diesel fuel.

However, he warned that not all fuel outlets with oil company branding sourced their fuels from that oil company -- and that has been adding to the problem. He named Western Australia and Central Victoria as hotspots.

He also warned that the high humidity in North Queensland would cause problems if a fuel outlet didn't adopt best practice by keeping its tanks filled. Diesel fuel absorbs water and will also support fungi in storage tanks.

After remnants of a fungus falls into storage tanks, it can contaminate a vehicle's fuel system, according to Timmins. Both water and fungus will cause similar damage to the latest diesel injection systems. To reduce the risk of such problems, owners also needed to service filters regularly and keep their vehicle's own fuel tank(s) topped-up.

Timmins explained that the latest high pressure common rail turbo diesels exploit fuel pressures of 23-24,000 psi to deliver more accurate and constant fuel delivery via superfine injectors. They rely "on fuel of a quality standard to ensure impurities do not damage the pumps and injectors."

"If bottled water was sold with the level of impurities that many diesel fuels contain, there would be a major outcry and heads would roll," he concluded. 

To comment on this article click here