A question for you diesel guys....
 

Am looking for an answer from you diesel guys in cold climates. How does the BMW diesel do in cold weather?? Does it come with a cold package that includes a fuel heater of some kind?? Last week we had temps below zero and almost every over the road truck was down with gelled fuel. I don't think it was that people weren't prepared as there was even a rumor that UPS had almost 500 trucks down because of this problem. I wonder if the BMW would have been down beside the road somewhere under the same conditions. Some people say it is the result of the new lower sulfur fuel.:dunno:

I guess I'm going to find out in less than two weeks. My diesel is at the dealer now, but I'm not taking delivery until Jan. 2nd. We have about the same weather you have. It's 6 degrees here now with wind chill of -15.

Craig

Haven't had an problems in the UK. We automatically get winter diesel when we fill up during the winter months which contains something to stop the diesel conjealing.

How cold does it get in Scotland? Those temperatures mentioned are Fahrenheit, not Celsius, e.g., when we say "below zero," we're talking more than 18 below zero Celsius.

gelled diesel? i could be completely wrong on this, but i do believe a tank of 22 -25 gallons isn't going to gel. my F350 has seen 20 degree temps and colder without any issue. 38 gallon tank.

should it become an issue, there are plenty of additives available to avoid this. biggest issue i see would be a block heater. does the BMW diesel have a block heater?

I don't think you will see any problems with starting and/or drivability in cold weather. Winter diesel does the trick. As for interior heat; BMW uses an electric ceramic heater to get the heat going as soon as you start the engine. I haven't tried it yet (later this week), but I'm told you get warm air faster than in a gas version.

while the the added advantage of a block heater is quick interior heat, the purpose of the option is to keep the water in the block from freezing as i understand it.

so again i pose the question, does the new BMW diesel come with a block heater?

Isn't a block heater more for keeping the oil warmer for quicker lubrication to moving parts? As a side benefit, you may get a warmer antifreezer quicker - hence interior heat quicker?

makes more sense since anti-freeze would keep the water from freezing. when it gets temperate 'round here i just plug the truck up.

but the question still remains, does the new BMW diesel have a block heater?

Yeah, I knew that. That's specifically why I said I was in Scotland.

No.

If you are from NC I doubt if you know what gelled diesel is. If you are driving a diesel and don't have problems with below 0 temps just grin.

:D :D :D

The old trick her in the UK if it gets that cold is to put either a drop of petrol ot parafin into a full tank of derv. The gell you talk about is parafin wax, normaly the oil companies put adatives in to counter this, does your oil for your oil heatingt freeze from the tank to the boiler? if it does not then adative will have been added.

Around here, they use a winter blend of diesel. I will find out January 2nd when I take delivery of my diesel...

Craig

The 2009 owners manual for the 3.5d that I have had for two weeks says nothing about an engine block heater. It does reference to a longer start time below 32 degrees for the glow plugs and does mention the use of winter diesel on page 245. Hope this helps.

update...
 

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.

We have #2 diesel here.



Craig

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.

Hey Craig..
 

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.

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

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

Craig

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.

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

good news on the diesel, enjoy. :thumbup:

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

> premium diesel fuel

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

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.

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.

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.

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

BMW says to use a Cetane rating of 50, but no one around here can tell me what the cetane rating is. Here is a link about premium diesel.

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?...tentId=7037038

Craig

oh that
this isn't 'premium diesel' in the same sense of 'premium unleaded' gasoline where the name typically denotes the octane rating - it's just BP saying their diesel is better than other diesels.

http://www.bpfuelexperts.com.au/i/tr...transcript.pdf

I did a search on Google and found this Q&A about premium diesel...

Craig

all righty then. here is the scuttlebutt as i see it. first, change the oil in the vehicle religiously every 5k miles. diesels run on oil pressure. secondly, keep your fuel free of water. does the BMW diesel have a release valve for water on its fuel filter or is there a service interval on fuel filters? given the current "free" 4 year 50k mile dealer maintennance, i would think splitting the intervals in half would be appropriate.

diesels are a pain in the ass in that if you let the upkeep slip, they run poorly. however, stay on top of the fluid changes and they run forever. add to that some BMW goobly goo and they might run to forever and back.

i really do not believe any one needs to be searching out premium diesel fuel. good luck with that one, i say. buy your diesel fuel from a station that sells its diesel fuel regularly. the clue will be the stains on the concrete. diesel fuel that sits at the bottom of a service station's tanks condensates. as they say over at www.dieselstop.com go where the truckers go. just watch out for the lot-lizards.

I'm pretty sure most stations carry cetane level 50 diesel fuel.

Thanks, I'm going to check with a local oil distributor and see what they say as well. No one at the stations know anything.

Craig

Your distributor will also know the cetane of the fuel. If you don't find the distrubutor before you get your wheels, your best bet is to fuel at a truck stop that does a lot of business as you know the fuel will be good as you can get in the area. One other idea is to contact a local service company that has diesel pickups that need to go on a daily basis. They will need a supply of good fuel and they may have a local fueling stop closer to where you live or drive by on a daily basis. Just a couple of ideas! Good luck and keep us posted. :thumbup:

Thanks Gene, there are a lot of stations around here with diesel. The truck stop is out of my way for fuel. I will ask the airport shuttle company where they get their fuel. All their vans are diesel and I'm using them for a ride to St. Louis to pick up my X5. I will keep everyone posted... Next Friday, I will have my X5.

Craig

BMW will pay for an oil change once a year, or every 11,000 miles. The Urea fluid also gets flushed once a year.

Craig

i don't think i would let it go 11k miles. were it me i would have one done between the freebies.

That's what I'm going to do... They couldn't tell me what kind of oil it uses. When I pick up my car, he told me, there is a sticker under the hood. They don't have any of the oil in stock, but do have the Ad Blue fluid. He did say it takes a different oil than the regular X5.


Craig

diesel oils carry a CH or CHI rating. my Ford uses CHI-4. Rotella is what i use. the CH / CHI rating is to cut down on soot.

grover432: Did you try out the ceramic heater? I am waiting for the temperatures to drop here in Switzerland. -5C is not a very big challenge for any car (we had -30C during Christmas in Sweden but drove an X5 E53 3.0D with Webasto heater - worked perfect, a lot faster cabin heating than my previous petrol cars).
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2009 X6 xDrive35d

The heater works very well in the diesel... You get instant heat.

Craig