Cold diesel solution?

-10 and car won't start again.

Would fitting this somewhere help?

Trace Heating Frost Protection - Stop pipes freezing on eBay (end time 21-Dec-10 12:07:35 GMT)

I wondered if I could wrap it around the fuel filter and plug into the mains 1st thing on a mega cold morning?

Daz

just put a few litres of petrol in the diesel to thin it out and help it flow better.

Modern diesel has additives in it to stop it gelling. Your problem is probably something else.

Don't put petrol in, use parafin.
You could try the motorbike heated grips, wrap around your filter, connect to your battery(with a fuse) and switch it on 10 mins before you start up.
Ebay sell 'em, used them years ago with great effect.

landrover11019 said:

Don't put petrol in, use parafin.
You could try the motorbike heated grips, wrap around your filter, connect to your battery(with a fuse) and switch it on 10 mins before you start up.
Ebay sell 'em, used them years ago with great effect.

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nowt wrong with petrol as a thinner and it's legal too, parafin ain't:doh:.

barmatt said:

nowt wrong with petrol as a thinner and it's legal too, parafin ain't:doh:.

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At last some common sense. 10% petrol to diesel works wonders and the revenue gestapo cant touch you for it. Put parafin in your tank and get caught and it will cost you dearly. Also parafin costs more than petrol around my neck of the woods and is not so easy to get hold of.

Shifty1962 said:

At last some common sense. 10% petrol to diesel works wonders and the revenue gestapo cant touch you for it. Put parafin in your tank and get caught and it will cost you dearly. Also parafin costs more than petrol around my neck of the woods and is not so easy to get hold of.

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Parafin (kerosene) is actualy around the same price as red diesel 50-60 pence a litre, we use gallons of the stuff at work, and I really can't see the inland revenue detecting such a small amount of Parafin mixed with your diesel. But having said, that for how much you need just use a few litres of petrol, much easier to get hold of.

Shifty1962 said:

At last some common sense. 10% petrol to diesel works wonders and the revenue gestapo cant touch you for it. Put parafin in your tank and get caught and it will cost you dearly. Also parafin costs more than petrol around my neck of the woods and is not so easy to get hold of.

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Cheers Shifty, it is ****ing me off at the moment how readily people will give out advice like putting paraffin in your tank to thin fuel when ultimately it could cost you a hell of a lot (even your motor) if stopped.

The testing equipment the revenue boys use can detect stuff even after you have run several tankfuls of clean diesel through the system. Many of the alternative fuels we are talking about have secret "chemical" markers added to facilitate this. For instance when checking for "red" diesel they are not looking for colour just a particular chemical marker that can be detected at a few parts per million. If you think about it you could mask the colour of red just by tipping some printer toner in your tank (or used engine oil ).
The only place I have seen parafin for sale around here is in hardware shops and they are charging £1.50 a litre. None of the filling stations carry it anymore.

petrol can be added to diesel to act as a winterizing agent ,somewhere between 5% /10% should be enough in our climate but you can add as much as 30% ,also I run on home made biodiesel all year round ,in winter i add a product called "wintron XC40" ,if i add only 4 ml per litre this will keep my biodiesel liquid down to - 11 deg ,if you live in a extremely cold area of the country say Scotland ,by adding 5 ml per litre this will keep bio liquid at even lower tempreatures ,biodiesel normally solidify's at - 3 ,so if you add wintron XC40 to regular diesel this should solve a lot of problems with freezing fuel.

Biofuel Systems - Online Shop

30% is TOO much! I never recommend more than 10% as its not necessary in the UK. Older diesel engines may run but common rail and TD5 engines will suffer with vapour lock problems.

defenderwayne said:

petrol can be added to diesel to act as a winterizing agent ,somewhere between 5% /10% should be enough in our climate but you can add as much as 30% .......

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hughesy said:

Modern diesel has additives in it to stop it gelling. Your problem is probably something else.

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Correct - however it is only good down to -10°C in the UK - this may change due to current weather but that is the standard at present.

It was -16°C here last week and diesels stopped starting, I had some petrol in mine and it seemed fine.

It is also very important that you drain water out of the filters and sedimenter at this time of the year, the water can freeze and if there is enough of it, it will block the diesel.