Biodiesel

mschuyler · June 11, 2007

There is a single biodiesel station in my county, about three miles from where I live. The fuel is the same cost as regular gas, $3.40 gallon. It is B-99.9. In the winter they use B-70. Here's the deal. For $250 they will install a 275 gallon tank at your house, complete with pump, gauge, hose, everything you need. they want you to fill it up the first time to make it worth their while (275 x $3.40. Yikes!) Then they show up whenever you call them to fill it back up again. So you could call them when you were half empty. That way you would always have a surplus supply in case we had another gas crunch. Road taxes and all that are included, so it's a legal purchase. I know there is a warranty issue if you go past B-5, but other than warranty, any comments?

DiegoYJ · July 4, 2007

I run bio in my 2002 Jetta TDI. I had to swap in some new filters after the first tank but now it runs great.

The one bio-diesel station in San Diego is offering "BioWillie" for less than the cost of regular diesel in hopes of selling enough to make it cost effective but unfortunately, using it in my Silverado will void the warranty, which is somthing I can't afford to do after I just spend close to $50k on the truck so I guess I am stuck using regular ole dino fuel for now. I really can't understand why using bio would cause severe damage but I guess the engineers at GM know more than I do, or maybe their legal dept. is just afraid of liability issues. Hard to say at this point.

Anyway, I can say I have had good experiences with bio but not with the dmax, yet....

mallthus · October 29, 2007

unfortunately, using it in my Silverado will void the warranty, which is somthing I can't afford to do after I just spend close to $50k on the truck so I guess I am stuck using regular ole dino fuel for now. I really can't understand why using bio would cause severe damage but I guess the engineers at GM know more than I do, or maybe their legal dept. is just afraid of liability issues. Hard to say at this point.

Not hard to say. It's all about the legal department. The issue, historically, has been that until VERY recently, there wasn't an agreed upon standard that fuels labeled as "biodiesel" needed to meet. Before manufacturers will approve a fuel for use (any fuel, even gasoline), it needs to meet certain specified chemical attributes.

Now, in reality, as long as you're using bio-diesel that meets the new agreed upon standard, you're probably fine. GM can't even legally deny your warranty claim unless they can prove that it was directly caused by your use of a non-approved fuel. It's the same law that says that they can't deny you warranty coverage because you put a Taiwanese fender on your car, unless the fender directly causes the defect you need repaired.

Their real fear is that you'll gunk things up using home brewed biodiesel that has impurities in it.

Actually, GM have approved B-5 in 2006 and newer Duramax and, since there's no changes in fuel system components between 2004.5 and 2006 engines, you're likely to be OK even if you have a problem (very unlikely).

I used mostly B-100 in my 2004 Duramax Silverado with NO issues at all from the 2nd tank through to when I sold it with 40K on the spinner.