A question for you diesel guys....

[Craig]

Originally Posted by DSE

You have great self-restraint if your car is in and you haven't taken it. Have you at least seen it yet, or taken a test drive in a diesel yet? I look forward to a report from someone with a U.S. spec diesel.

I'm purchasing the car out of town. I'm going there tomorrow to see it. I'm also going to drop off my hard wire kit for my Valentine One. The local dealer has a couple, but since I couldn't make a deal with them, I haven't asked for a test drive. The dealer does have a demo and I might ask for a test drive tomorrow. If I take delivery before January 2nd, I will end up with about a $1400.00 personal property tax bill for 2009. I only have about 1.5 weeks to go. They have an underground parking garage, so it's not sitting out in the weather...

I've waited two years for the diesel, so what's a couple weeks...

Craig

[Craig]

Originally Posted by genew

You buying your wheels from Baron or are you closer to St Louis? Baron sells a lot of units and as far as I can tell performs good service.

St. Louis/Plaza Motors... I live in Columbia, It's about the same distance in either direction.

Craig

[jwscfa]

I have had my X-5 diesel for almost two weeks and it is a great car. Having driven the Mercedes diesel for the last year this car is head and shoulders above the GL 320 but mechanically and technically. The acceleration is great and the car sounds just like a gas version from the inside. There is diesel clatter outside the car but inside is no different from another X-5. I have just over 500 miles on the car and it is hard to keep below the 3500 rpm for break in purposes. I think this car will kill the 4.8 for the price and the performance. It is only slower 0-60 by 1/2 second and costs about $3K less. So far I am averaging 21 MPG in city driving but have not taken it on a highway trip yet. So far this is the perfect SUV for cargo capacity, fun to drive and excellent mileage.

[soldmystang]

1/2 second might as well be an hour when you are racing for pinks.

good news on the diesel, enjoy.

[Craig]

I went to the dealer and saw my diesel X5. I can't wait to take delivery next Friday. St. Louis had freezing rain today, so I didn't ask for a test drive. I did have my Valentine One hard wired.

Now, I need to find out where to purchase premium diesel fuel... All I think we have here is regular #2 diesel fuel...

Craig

[Penguin]

> premium diesel fuel

There is no premium diesel fuel. Just standard low-sulfur diesel.

[soldmystang]

www.thedieselstop.com they get a little frosty if they think you drive a Chebby or a Dudge, so be discreet. however i think the info should be there for you.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by genew

came across some interesting news..was talking with a long time guy that is in diesel additive sales. He said the diesel that comes up to the middle of the US has different refinery specs than northern US or Canada. Our diesel comes from the Southern US via pipelines ( most of it ) and has more pariffin because there is not a problem in the south with that spec. When the cold snap hit here additives did no good in helping the gelling. We actually had trucks that used additives and had a 50/50 blend of 1 and 2 and still gelled. I guess that answered my original question that most everything up here using diesel was screwed unless the fuel came direct from a refinery instead of thru a pipeline from the south.

I used to work for a fuel distributor, many years ago. Our diesel at the pumps here was #2, same as home heating oil. Winter diesel has additives to prevent gelling, as you note. We generally cut the #2 with #1 to handle lower temperatures. Problem with that is that is that you sell it by volume, and some customers note that their mileage has dropped significantly due to the lower energy content.

We generally didn't have trouble with vehicles in cold weather, as we don't often get very cold in Vancouver and vehicles have small tanks so they are getting fresh fuel regularly. There was a significant exception. If it got below -12C, we had lots of problems since many customers had not used up their summer diesel, and it gelled. That tended to happen with home heating oil customers who had above-ground tanks, and with those that kept private tanks for diesel (such as the truck or contractor fleets) and didn't go through enough fuel to use up the summer fuel in time.

Further north, we use heat tracing on all diesel fuel lines to keep it flowing, but that is in much colder climates.

[grover432]

This is an interesting discussion about diesel fuel, gelling and plugging in. Here is my take. I drove a 3/4 ton Dodge Ram pick up with a Cummins diesel for several years. I plugged it in in the winter, but even unplugged, it started easily until the temperatures were below -30C. I never had a problem with fuel gelling, even at -40C (which is -40F).

My more recent BMW's have had synthetic oil and no block heater. The purpose of the block heater is to warm the oil enough to allow lower cranking resistance, so the engine will turn easily enough to start. The oil could be warmed with an oil heater, but more commonly the water in the block is warmed and heat is transferred to the oil.The synthetic oil takes away the thick cold oil/slow cranking problem (in my experience).

As for cabin heat, we'll have to wait until Canadian customers take delivery of their 35d's, but I expect the ceramic heater will provide a quick cabin warm up. I'm testing one next week (daytime high today is -25C) and can report back for those who are interested in my assessment of heater performance.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Penguin

> premium diesel fuel

There is no premium diesel fuel. Just standard low-sulfur diesel.

The shop foreman told me about premium diesel. He said, it's available in
Chicago now and some other large cities. The dealer is in St. Louis, so I asked him where to find it and he didn't know. He said BP is going to start producing premium diesel in the first quarter of 2009. I tried to contact BP today, but their offices are closed. I will try and find out what he's talking about. BMW has some rating number for diesel, but so far, I haven't been able to find the fuel. All we have is regular ultra low sulfur #2 diesel here.

Craig