Mystery British car breakdowns may lead to diesel price rise

[super jumbe]

* Hundreds of cars broke down due to suspected diesel quality issues
* Incidents linked to biodiesel, Russian imports

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - Britain is investigating a wave of mystery winter car breakdowns possibly linked to biodiesel or imports of diesel from Russia that clogged up filters and could now lead to supply disruptions and ultimately higher motor fuel prices.

Hundreds of diesel-fueled cars broke down late last year mainly in northeast England and Scotland as a result of gel-like substance blocking their engine filters and leading vehicle recovery services and the refining industry to suspect fuel quality issues related to cold weather.

The British Standard Institute launched an investigation and members of the UK Petroleum Industry Association (UKPIA) - BP , Essar, Esso (Berlin: EH8.BE - news) , Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) , Phillipps 66 , Total (NYSE: TOT - news) and Valero - began screening diesel for "filter blocking tendency" (FBT).

UKPIA said in an internal memo last week it was examining all possibilities "including quality of biodiesel (FAME), base hydrocarbon fuel, how the product is blended and any other additives used."

The FBT tests will remain in place until April 15, after which the results will be assessed, it said.

Ultra low sulphur diesel, or ULSD, in Britain is required to meet the European Union standard, known as EN590, which has anti-freezing agents added to it in winter.

While the origin and exact cause of the breakdowns remain a mystery, biodiesel has been singled out as a possible culprit.

"One of the areas receiving closest scrutiny is the up to 7 percent biofuel content which by EU law has to be added to all road diesel," British car breakdown recovery service RAC said in a statement in December.

Another possible source for the incidents is Russian diesel after tests on some cargoes of diesel originating from the Russian port of Primorsk in the Baltic Sea showed high FBT levels, according to several industry sources.

However, pinpointing the exact source of the irregular level is hard as fuels from different sources are blended at the port prior to being loaded onto tankers, they said. Others dismissed the idea, saying no similar issues had been reported in other European countries which rely heavily on Russian diesel.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/mystery-british-car-breakdowns-may-141903346.html

[GastonJ]

Britain is investigating a wave of mystery winter car breakdowns possibly linked to biodiesel or imports of diesel from Russia that clogged up filters and could now lead to supply disruptions and ultimately higher motor fuel prices.

So the UK motorist is going to be expected to pay more for fuel that won't ck up their engines, when previously we'd been paying the same companies for diesel fuel that did ck up engines from the same bunch of robbing basseds? This will be offset by the compensation that's going to be paid to people they've been ripping off with cheap fuel?..... like ck, it'll mean that the same old cash cow motorist will pay for the profits of companies who previously sold substandard fuel *shrug* Time the motorists got organised and refused to buy fuel in any garage in the UK on the same day once a week, see how they like their regular income being cked up for one day a week. No income for fuel companies, no duty, no tax for the government one day every week, see how they like it.

[M T Glass]

There's something odd with that diesel for sure.
Engine manufacturers of lawn mower (petrol) engines recommend you drain the tank over the winter period to avoid fuel turning gel like and though I never have done so, I also never experienced problems with fuel the following spring, even after the winter of 2010.
This diesel may have come from Russia where winters are more severe so, surely their diesel or petrol would have proper additives to compensate for this.
Unless that a load of dodgy surplus fuel was dumped on Britain,

[super jumbe]

Russia exported very cheap gas and diesel to western countries and is now threaten to put the price up or it may cut the flow altogether and this has nothing to do with quality of biodiesel just the tabloid ratting again.

[Meat-Head]

There been a rumor floating around for years, there is algie fossil dead animals, turns to black snot

as for biodiesel lots of modern cards vw etc warranty void if used, but got to have the shit by law in the diesel!

[super jumbe]

Good now we have proff can go tell dealer car no start diesel dead animal fat, do job no money ask govt for $$$$$$$$ any chance to get any thing????

[gopher7]

Just a scare story so they can rack up the price of fuel again.

[bobwill]

If you look on any farming or plant forums you will see hundreds of reports about diesel going into a gel
if left in machine for a few months like combines etc,it has cost some farms thousands of pounds to replace
filters and fuel injection pumps
I have got a diesel generator which I used last year no problems went to use it on christmas day
when electric went off found injector where blocked and could not start it had to have injector repaired .
Lucky electric was only off for 2 hours I have since been putting in an additive in to my diesel to stop it gelling up

http://www.biopowered.co.uk/wiki/Eff...ection_systems

[Meat-Head]

Where did your diesel come from?

started to syphoon a punters tank looked like apple juice