Burning the vegetables!

[meatychi]

Its been a while!

I thought I would provide an update. The motorway monster has been running 33% during the winter months and still running absolutely fine, in fact, possibly slightly better than when i first got her.

Some say that you should change the oil every 6000 miles but I have stuck to the standard 10k and all is good!

Now that it is all legal - that's great news for everyone!

Anyone else dared to take the vegetable challenge?

 

[Niknak]

I have just contacted these guys to get the low down and at 75p per litre, I hope all is good, especially as my local Shell is charging 116.9 ppl ouch!
http://www.biofueluk.co.uk/

 

[daviet2872]

http://www.biofueluk.co.uk/
They are selling fuel at 92 p a litre

 

[Rev-head]

I have been driving my A4 on a 40% mix now for a while ..works ok for me ..a bit sluggish to start in the mornings but apart from that ok..mine has 244,000 miles on the clock so well worn in engine

Will be going to costco for my oil as i am paying £16 for 20L..and i am in the trade

 

[meatychi]

Supplies are a nightmare - compared to June last year Veggy oil prices have risen from just short of a tenner to nearly seventeen pounds for 20l

Rev-head What year is your A4? Have you had to modify in any way?

 

[Rev-head]

1998 B5 A4 ...No mods as such i have the injection pump adjusted to raise BHP but thats it and the oil does not affect the performance actually feels faster sometimes

 

[quattrojames]

Thanks for the update. I was thinking about your experiment the other day after filling up my car for 99p a litre.

Oh the good old days eh

 

[meatychi]

So i treated my car to a full tank of diesel and it blew me back when the total came to 90 big ones!

Now my mind is asking whether or not to consider scaling down the motor for a smaller 1.9 A3 or dare I say, GOLF?.

Here are some figures I have put together with regards to running my motor:

Car Model CC TAX MPG Diesel SVO Capacity (gallons) Cost Cost per mile
Audi A6 Avant 2.5 F 34 70 15.4185022 88.9 0.169582353
Audi A6 Avant 2.5 F 34 50 20 15.4185022 80.5 0.153558824
Audi A6 Avant 2.5 F 34 40 30 15.4185022 76.3 0.145547059
Audi A6 Avant 2.5 F 34 30 40 15.4185022 72.1 0.137535294
Audi A6 Avant 2.5 F 34 20 50 15.4185022 67.9 0.129523529

Would anyone be able to tell me the size of the tanks in Golfs?

 

[SiliconS]

I can't help with your question about Golfs, but the cost of fuel has slowed me down on the roads so that I'm getting much better fuel economy. I used to cruise at 75-80mpg and get 35mpg but I've just run a whole tank through on motorway/long journeys with the cruise control set at about 60mph, and I got 611 miles out of a full tank, at a measured average mpg of 41.5 (39.5mpg indicated). Driving home to Sussex from Nottingham yesterday I did 200 miles at an indicated average of 45mpg, which will probably be a measured average of about 47mpg despite carrying a heavy load and being stuck in traffic a lot on the M1 and M25.

I'm very happy - fuel consumption that good will save me about £20 per tank of fuel.

Lots of people seem to be slowing down to save fuel. Soon the speed camera partnerships will be out of business

 

[meatychi]

Interesting findings!

The figures I reported were a little out so I have amended as follows:

1. my current usage/cost
2. compared to your findings based on motorway travel resticted to 60mph - Total possible savings £18.33 per tank if I reduced my speed!
3. Total possible savings £32.38 per tank if I reduced my speed and use 30litres of SVO per tank!

Make Model CC TAX Litres MPT SVO Gallons MPG Cost/Tank Cost/mile

1. Audi A6 Avant 2.5 F 70 500 0 15.4185022 32.42857143 88.9 0.1778

2. Audi A6 Avant 2.5 F 70 611 0 15.4185022 39.62771429 88.9 0.145499182

3. Audi A6 Avant 2.5 F 40 611 30 15.4185022 39.62771429 76.3 0.12487725

Hmmmm - maybe I should slow myself down!

 

[meatychi]

After reading your post SiliconS I decided to give the lighter right foot experiment a go.

On a full tank of pure diesel costing me just short of 90 nicker!

I completed 5 return commutes, 1.5 of them at my normal 80-85 speeds and the latter at 70 max! It was quite difficult adjusting my speeds due to the motorway monster just wanting to go faster, however I managed to refrain from travelling over 70mph on the motorways and found that I managed to complete a further 120 miles per tank and still had just under a 1/4 of a tank showing.

So where usually I would complete 430 miles before my light came on I completed 550 and the light hadn't come on yet. What about the time it took, you may ask? Well the decrease in speed didn't affect my total journey time at all.

Can I keep it up? Well I think i am going to have to with this ****** credit crunch going on. I'm going to repeat the test running on 40% veggy to see if the figures still match, they should do as i didn't experience any change before I reduced my speeds.

 

[Macduff]

Interesting results.

I'm tempted to run our 2004 A4 130PD on a mix but not too sure how the engine will cope. I'm getting different information depending on who you talk to.

So, anyone running a late 1.9PD on SVO mix? If so, what percentage?

 

[meatychi]

Well this is the difficult thing - There doesn't appear to be any concrete evidence whether it is good or bad for you engine. So many variables to consider, I was in communication with a chap who had an a3 and he was quoting 70k on anything from a 60 - 100% I just recently emailing a chap from eisbach and they dont do a conversion for my motor due to the special injectors it has, he wouldnt tell me anything else! or whther it was a good or a bad thing! Grrrrr!

Well I maybe in the market for an A3 myself - get those communting costs back down!

 

[PUP]

I haven't got any news to report, but my car's now due a service and I'll get them to change the gearbox oil at the same time to see whether that has any effect. Haven't had the problem recur since driving back from the garage. It's very rare.

I've switched away from supermarket fuels to using only Shell at the moment, and I'm now getting 500 miles out of every tank, at an average (measured) of 36 mpg. (With supermarket fuels it was 400-450 miles at an average of 32 mpg.)

I work with a guy that used to work at a fuel depo (the one that blew up). Apparently the fuel stock is all the same, the supermarkets just add the minimum legal required detergents to the fuel whereas esso, shell etc add the performance enchancing addatives as well. so you should get better milage for shell etc.

 

[meatychi]

So - Has anyone else had a go?

 

[dieselfitter251]

I reckon fuel will be coming down soon as nobody cab afford to buy it i.e. less demand = less cost. I get 50mpg cruising at 70 on the dot, I can get more but I always seem to be in just tooo much of a hurry! I don't think I'll be giving the veggie stuff a go however.. in view to dropping fuel prices I'm going to give Shell V-power a go. 'They' reckon that every 3rd tank should be enough to boost economy and performance.... I'm looking forward to finding out.

 

[olds_cool]

You still around? I've been running my 2000 X-reg 90bhp polo saloon on Vegi with no mods for around 6000 miles till the cam belt went (no connection!!!) No running a 1.9 1998 a4 tdi (110 AFN engine) i run anything upto 90% svo with the only issue being starting her up takes a bit longer. Just invested £80 on a pre heater and some injector heaters for the winter!! Done abou 1200 miles so far like this but only got it last month!

 

[adamss24]

You still around? I've been running my 2000 X-reg 90bhp polo saloon on Vegi with no mods for around 6000 miles till the cam belt went (no connection!!!) No running a 1.9 1998 a4 tdi (110 AFN engine) i run anything upto 90% svo with the only issue being starting her up takes a bit longer. Just invested £80 on a pre heater and some injector heaters for the winter!! Done abou 1200 miles so far like this but only got it last month!

Be preppared to replace the fuel filter a bit more often than ussual. I ran me old fiesta courier van on SVO for nearly 4 years and 60+k when it was cheap but i had trouble with oil gelling and replaced injectors, fitted a heavy duty starter and a big battery. It was still running as good as the day i got-it when i sold it at 210k... I have noticed less mpg and more smoke when running on SVO but i loved the smell of chips behind !