A few weeks ago l inherited a 1.4 52 plate diesel Yaris from my elderly step mother who has given up driving. Its a lovely little well cared for and maintained low mileage little car, that l was planning to use as a local run around, as it does around 70mpg, only costs £30 a year to tax, and as a second car, with my full no claims bonus, is also very cheap to insure.
The long term plan is to hand this car over to our daughter once she has passed her driving test as her first car.
Anyway, we found that the car was often switching to 'safe mode' before finally stopping dead. After a few mins, it was able to be restarted and carry on a few miles more, but the distance between stops, and the fact that it always happened going up hill, made us book it into the local town garage for diagnostics. The verdict was that it needed a new fuel pump at a cost of around £1000 + vat, more than the car was actually worth. I was gutted, and even more upset to have to tell my daughter that this was not the car for her.
My Dad was fairly angry also, he had always made sure that this car was main Toyota dealer serviced and maintained since new, and at 60k on the clock, he felt the fuel pump should have lasted longer, and the one time the car had broken down on him, he had taken it for a service at the usual dealership, and been told that they could not find anything wrong at the time to cause this. So not to be one to let people fob him off, he rang the main dealer to complain, and they agreed to run the diagnostics checks again on the Yaris for free. Im so glad they did, yes they found a fault on the fuel line, but it wasnt the fuel pump, the in tank filters were clogged up with slime and the fuel tank was full of algae and mould, the car had been infected by what is commonly known as 'Diesel Bug', a growth of bacteria that lives in stale diesel fuel, this can be due to poor maintainance at the fuel station, low turn over, old leaking storage tanks ect, or simply because the fuel in the car has stood in the tank for several months without being used up and a fresh supply purchased. In the Yaris's case, it was a bit of both. The local garage where it got its diesel fill every couple of months was a rural one with very little trade and elderly pumps/storage tanks. The very low mileage of around 2k a year recently ment that some of the diesel in the fuel system had turned to slime and was possibly over a year old. It was suffering from Diesel Bug.
So a good clean out of the fuel lines, tank empty and wash out, discard of all the old Diesel, new fuel filters, and a bill of £198, which included a new tank full of diesel, and our little Yaris is again sweet to drive, and no more rest breaks going up hill, she can now climb steep hills with ease, and is so easy to park in places where the CRV would struggle for space to turn around, l have quite fallen in love with her!
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
bio diesel has bacteria in it and the fuel that gets returned to the tank when engine is running is warm, the bacteria multiplies and eventually clogs filters, high milage vehicles never have an issue, most problems seem to be low milage vehicles.most motor factors sell a product from wynns called fuel biocide which you put in fuel tank and it kills the bacteria. problem solved.
Ages ago, we even had to start putting it into the diesel tank of our combine harvester, for when it would be stood over the winter and spring months before being used again.
And that was with red diesel too, so we weren't immune to it either.
But not now for some reason....
Your Yaris must have had ancient diesel in it...
As I think the problem as a whole has now been addressed....
Indeed it was quite possible that the tank had never been run down below half full for the entire life of the car, my Dad thought he was doing the right thing keeping it filled to the top 'incase of any fuel shortages'.
He also kept a few Jerry cans full of Diesel in his garage which he sometimes used to top up the cars tank in winter, when it was too slippery underfoot to call in at the village garage.
Im just trying to persuade him to dispose of this canned fuel stock before he goes and tips it into someone elses car and causes them some car problems, some of it could be over 5yrs old, hes a bit of an hoarder, he regularly gives us tinned foodstuffs that are out of date by several years!
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
The problem is wide spread and I dealt with issues from it in the 1980s.
Here is an easy read link:
http://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp-country/en_au/media/fuel-news/microbes-in-fuel.pdf
What is needed is water; without that things can't develop, so fuel stored in a sealed container presents no hazard.
A partly filled or near empty vehicle tank presents a bigger risk in that as the ambient temperature and humidity fluctuate moist air can be drawn into the tank. Some more recent vehicles will have vents with valves that restrict too much air shuffling, for this reason.
Biocides only stop it happening; they don't cure its problems if it is already present as all that happens then is a mass killing and a tank loaded with corpses.
Regular use of the vehicle and refuelling from high turn over suppliers is the best way to keep clear of problems. If you have to lay up a vehicle top the tank over full, not much air there so next to no moisture can condense out so the bugs simply can't breed.
A remote village supplier with minimum turnover will live for ages with far from full storage tanks. These in the ground will be cool so any breathing of warmer ambient air will give a condensation risk; best to use the local supermarket that has in relative terms a massive turn over.
i had an issue with my hyundai when i got it and was advised by dealer not to use morrisons diesel as the bio content clogs fuel lines and filters and to change fuel filters more frequently especially when cold weather is here.
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Topic: Diesel Bug
