Have you damaged your diesel car by using vegetable oil for fuel?

Question

Have you damaged your diesel car by using vegetable oil for fuel?

Answer 1

My buddy tells me that the military has a "multifuel" truck which is claimed to run on any hydrocarbon.  I spoke to him just last week about french fry/used motor oil and he tells me that certain combustion chambers will have a tendency to "coke up" as the flame characteristics are different for whatever fuel you may use,  and combustion chamber/injector nozzle design compensates for that, but in reality, present engine design is for diesel which meets certain narrow specs.  I read a book about someone who escaped the Bataan Death March and motored in a boat all the way to Australia burning coconut oil.

Answer 2

I have a 2006 Jetta TDI that I bought last June brand new. I had it converted to run on vegetable oil about 2 months later. It was a 2 tank system so with a flip of a switch I could run on either diesel or vegetable oil. For months my car was running great and I was getting free fuel at my local sushi restaurant. About 3 months ago after taking a long trip, running on veggie oil the whole way, my car starting spewing black smoke from the exhaust and handling very poorly. I took it to a local repair shop that specialized in TDI's hoping it was something simple. After having it for 2 weeks the repair man could not figure out what was wrong with the car. I then took it to a different repair shop further from my house that was familiar with conversions and TDI's. He could not figure it out either. So I spent $1200 to get the car back in "stock" condition so I could take it to the VW dealership. I knew that if they saw or new of the conversion I would void my warranty. I fibbed a little bit and they took the car in for servicing. However 2 days later I got a call from the dealership asking me a million questions and basically telling me they new I had been running something other than diesel or biodiesel in my car. I came clean once they told me they had taken pictures of all of the suspicious areas of my car and sent them to the headquarters in Germany. They finally fixed my car and found the problem to be a very clogged EGR valve. Of course I completely voided my warranty and had to pay $1200 for this. So 2 months and $2400 later I have my car back. To make a long story short I do not recommend converting cars newer than 2004. I have seen many converted diesels that work great. However, newer VW's are fine tuned so precisely that conversions simply do not work. The fuel vicosity must be exact or problems will likely occur. Older vehicles, especially early 80's Mercedes are perfect for conversions and you will never experience problems so long as the conversion is done correctly.

Hope this helps anyone out there who is interested in running their vehicle on vegetable oil!

Answer 3

i dont know. i've seen a few different car tech shows on Tv usually all they add is a filter for used cooking oil.

Answer 4

Diesel engines are much stronger than petrol/gasoline engines. Using vegetable oil will do less harm than using a 50/50 mix of diesel/gasoline.  In very severe winters the military use up to 10% mix to keep diesel fluid. The main part of a conversion to vegetable oil is a heating device in the fuel line as vegetable oil has a higher viscosity.

Answer 5

Do not put vegetable oil in you car if it is supposed to be diesel!!!!! Your car could possibally BLOW UP!!!!! I've seen it happen. Even if your car doesn't blow up it will have a lot of damage from not using good fuel and it will cost you a lot to repair it. They make diesel cars for diesel gas and they make bio-diesel cars for vegetable oil and stuff.

Answer 6

I understand that modern diesels have problems with the vegetable oil.  Diesels from the 90's are earlier are ok with it.