A few questions for diesel owners...

ok can asnwer some of ur q's .......
A to Q 1)...I dont use additives ..never have

You said its hard to keep tank full on a tight budget, Not quite correct...sooner or later u put fuel in it, so why not sooner than later. I keep mine full all time 145 ltrs. When i do a trip i run it to as close as empty as i can then fill it up again.

When im home, i fill it, run to work and back, usually takes me 3 to 4 weeks to get down to 1/4 or empty, fill it again and wait another month before the next service station fill.

But getting back to ur comment....fill it up, and instead of waiting for it to empty out, keep filling it when the needle starts to move off full. Its the same thing as ur doing now...only difference is, you keep it full rather than wait for it to empty. Only down side to that is..if its stolen, they havea full tank to drive around with.

I run aftermarket fuel filter on mine. I get approx 50,000 to 60,00 kms between filter changes and i always hacksaw the old filter before i toss it out to see whats in there. Worst ive ever had is discoulouring on the filter paper. So that tells me the bulk of my fuel purchase is from a reliable source (my local caltex). Never had an issue with fuel in both my GQ's to date.
Ange

Wouldn't worry too much about it Bware. I have a long history with diesels and have many friends who run diesels both privately and commercially and have not even heard of the alleged problem. I can tell you that algae will not grow without light so the folk with the alleged algae problem must have clear tanks!!

Hi Bware
Firstly let me state that I am not a Diesel "Mac" or profess to know about the intricate workings of such machines ??
"BUT" what I do know, is that over the past 25 years I have never had a problem with my Diesel any of my vechicles or boat and I have travelled this land extensibly by 4x4,and sailed the coast of Aus in my yacht without any problems
As you could imagine I would of obtained fuel along the journeys from some jubious places ???
All I can say is that I have always subscribed to the theory of keeping tanks full at all times and making sure I have best quality filters changed regulary
When I first bought my yacht I inspected the fuel tank and it did have a growth in the tank I cleaned it out and subscribed to the above and havn't had a problem since.
In regards to filling tanks on a budget, I know exactly where you are coming from
I own a 100series cruiser with 2 big tanks, when money permits fill both tanks,
I run around on the aux tank most times costs less to fill !! every couple of weeks I use the main tank to keep fuel fresh, at the end of the day it is relative to how much you use it costs the same if you fill up weekly or fortnightly ??
I have never used an additive based on my experience I don't see a need for it
If you keep up with the servicing and use quality filters, I subscribe to the theory that you get what you pay for - cut corners and you "WILL" pay the price
I am very saftey conscious with my sailing you can't afford for something to go wrong when you are miles out to sea as with my 4x4 in outback Aussie
I think that sometimes people get caught up in all the rumors that fly around and get confused about the facts
This is my thoughts about my experiences
Barry

Hello Bware,

The problem you refer to is not algae which does require sunlight to grow as stated below. The problem is microbes which grow in the fuel/water interface, warmer weather or tanks with heaters in them naturally encourage these microbes to grow. The problem can be treated with a biocide or removal of water, IE no interface no microbes. If microbes are present they can block filters & it goes without saying that once killed the microbes generally end up in the filters.

Keeping tanks full does reduce the chances of contamination as does regularly turning over stocks of fuel.

Hope this helps

Just in addition, its worth purchasing diesel from the truck stops as they turn over a lot more fuel than the average suburban servo. Less likely to have water and algae.

I add Chemtech which has a biocide whenever my vehicle is likely to be sitting around for a few months with not much use. Its cheap insurance. I do my own maintenance and I've never found anything significant in the fuel filters.

Slightly off thread (cars) I know, but we had a problem in some of our aircraft that were fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks.

We were running around with the aux tanks bone dry. For some reason it caused quite significant problems with critters growing in the aux tanks. The engineers used some sort of biocide to try to stop it, but with limited success.

Now we operate with a small quantity of fuel in the aux tanks, and have very few problems, apparently.

Jet-A is similar to diesel. ie bugs grow in it...

I have a lot of trouble not filling both tanks whenever I am at a servo - I've gone to all the trouble of stopping etc so i figure I may as well get as much in as possible. half filling to save on 30 odd kilo in weight etc would be false economy - any savings with this less weight would be tiny, compared with an extra stop and start if only half filling (IMO).

Was reading in a boat mag the other day that Petrol has pretty odinary shelf life now that it's better for the environment, whereas diesel has a lot longer shelf life.

Cheers Andrew

Algae wouldn't stand a chance in my tanks - it gets burnt too quick!!!

I to am one of the lucky ones who have never had the misfortune of finding algae in my diesel.
I have a Landcruiser BJ42 as a second vehicle that i have owned for 12 years, have never taken it to a mechanic, change the filters and oil every 10,000 klms myself and it sits outside in the weather for up to 12 months without being started.
When needing to use it I re-charge the battery and it starts first time, I can then drive it wherever I need to and it doesn't miss a beat, (520 klms round trip from home to town and back). obviously i haven't come into contact with any contaminated fuel ever and the algae obviously cannot appear/grow in my tank on its own.
I have a Lone Ranger long range tank fitted (total fuel capacity in vehicle of 145 litres) and haven't refueled this tank for 26 months.
To answer your question I never think about it and never have but do recognise it as a problem as I have witnessed it in my employment in earthmoving equipment and due to the extremely limited occurrence's of it we never use any additives until it strikes, we then completely clean all lines, filters and drop the tank from the machine, give it a thorough flush, re-assemble every thing and add 2 litres approx of any additive that we can get from the local servo/auto parts store and run it through, we then wait for the next occurrence.
I have only ever witnessed the algae on 2 occasions over 12 years in the mining industry and they occurred close together due to a batch of contaminated fuel.
Maybe I and the company have just been lucky.