Is it likely?

Another silly problem with my Disco where I had managed to stall it while parking (it's OK, you can laugh) and it wouldn't restart. Thinking it may be a fuel flow issue, I left it overnight to calm down and tried again the next day but still no joy.

Passed to my local mechanic and apparently I had drained the tank to the final dregs and muck got sucked up. Clean the pump/filters, add some diesel and Robert is your mother's brother.

Thing is, I had only done 405 miles from brimmed and while I could see winter bringing on higher demand, my normal MPG should have seen me doing 520-530miles before that happened. Can I really have used a whole tank at 20% higher fuel consumption with the same driving I do week in-week out?

On winter diesel maybe.

I'd check for a leak, I know on TD5's the seals on the glow plugs wear down and leak diesel into the oil. So when you pull out the dip stick you see your oil level going up rather than down which normally happens on landy's. not sure this happens with Disco's ?

Disco or Fender, the TD5 engine is the same for both vehicles.
Injector (rather than glow plug) seals are a common service item, i.e. they will need changing at some point!
But this one doesnt sound like seals, as it seems to be running ok now.
Interesting about poss high fuel consumption though, have you been doing more shorter drives than usual?
Certainly cold weather will put up consumption initially, so it would stand out on short trips.
Mark

I've never bought into this business of sucking up dirt and debris when the fuel is low, the pickup point remains the same so in reality anything down at the bottom of the tank is there whether the tank is full or empty.

Peter

listerdiesel said:

I've never bought into this business of sucking up dirt and debris when the fuel is low, the pickup point remains the same so in reality anything down at the bottom of the tank is there whether the tank is full or empty.

Peter

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I'd agree with that - Any crud in the fuel will be heavier than the fuel, ( or it would still be at the refinery ), and thus be sucked up no matter the quantity in the tank....

plus your consumption increase might support a view of crappy diesel - polluted in some way, probably with water. And, though I'd expect your mechanic to have found that in the filter or sedimenter, might be wise to use a different filling station for a while...

Hi All, thanks for the suggestions and I will certainly be a little more careful about where I fill up. When my wife got her diesel Focus the dealer was more than a little scathing about the fuel quality from a certain local supermarket and I know that a lot of them get from the cheapest tanker arriving.
Maybe I will have to start brewing my own - yeah, maybe not if my previous attempts to perform automotive maintenance tasks is anything to go by.

While it's true the pick up pipe stays in the same place whatever the fuel level, when the level is very low sediment is much more disturbed by sloshing.

There's a lot of hearsay about super market fuels that doesn't really stand up to scrutiny as it all comes from the same refineries but the number of problems related here and elsewhere suggest there is sometimes an issue.

I suspect the cause is cleaning and maintenance of the storage tanks

listerdiesel said:

I've never bought into this business of sucking up dirt and debris when the fuel is low, the pickup point remains the same so in reality anything down at the bottom of the tank is there whether the tank is full or empty.

Peter

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Disco1BFG said:

I'd agree with that - Any crud in the fuel will be heavier than the fuel, ( or it would still be at the refinery ), and thus be sucked up no matter the quantity in the tank....

plus your consumption increase might support a view of crappy diesel - polluted in some way, probably with water. And, though I'd expect your mechanic to have found that in the filter or sedimenter, might be wise to use a different filling station for a while...

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blue beasty said:

While it's true the pick up pipe stays in the same place whatever the fuel level, when the level is very low sediment is much more disturbed by sloshing.

There's a lot of hearsay about super market fuels that doesn't really stand up to scrutiny as it all comes from the same refineries but the number of problems related here and elsewhere suggest there is sometimes an issue.

I suspect the cause is cleaning and maintenance of the storage tanks

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With newish and well maintained vehicles I have never seen it. But I have seen it on very old and abused ones, several times.

Landrovers a few times, but mostly plant, amazing what seems to happen on building sites. An old dumper or digger can have a gallon of muddy water, couple of k of gravel, and a few hacksaw blades and rusty nails in the fuel tank. And same in the hydraulic oil.

I use supermarket fuel often, not had any problems. It is the rusty old forecourt tanks I would watch out for.

The only thing I do do is keep the tanks as full as possible. Always over half, except on a run, maybe go down to a third full then, re-fill to the brim. Tractor I fill to brim after every days work.

I agree with turbo man. I seldom go below half tank and then a fill up to the top.
Spent over 50 years in earthmoving plant hire and always instructed operators to fill up every night.
£50/60 a time to top up just isn't,t as bad as £100 a time. All works out.

My BMW wouldn't run very well at all on Msons petrol

janderson41 said:

I agree with turbo man. I seldom go below half tank and then a fill up to the top.
Spent over 50 years in earthmoving plant hire and always instructed operators to fill up every night.
£50/60 a time to top up just isn't,t as bad as £100 a time. All works out.

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One of the first places I worked when I left school was a haulage yard. All the trucks came in, went over to the white diesel pump, filled to the brim, ready to go next morning.
The boss wasnt impressed if he opened a filler cap and no diesel visible.
Habit has stayed with me for life. I almost never get problems.

Grezzer said:

My BMW wouldn't run very well at all on Msons petrol

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Could be a hint to buy British next time!

The fuels are the same where ever you buy from. But they all add different levels and qualities of additives.
If unsure but cheap fuel and add your own extras.