My turn for dead on the road -5 F

So -5 this morning car starts right up, idles up to about 1000. I start off and make it about 1 mile down the road and I notice the boost climbing (road is flat), then then I put in the clutch and the engine dies.

So I pop the hood and the clear line going to the pump from the filter is foaming pale yellow. Sigh. So I get a ride home, grab my Power Service 911 and tools to get my CAT filter off. I take off the connections on the CAT filter and pull it out. The fuel level is down quite a ways, but when I turn it upside down, liquid diesel came out. So I filled it with 911, put 16 oz of 911 in the tank. Tried to start, nope. Pulled it home and popped the clutch in 2nd gear at 20 miles an hour and no start then either.

So my plan now is to have a friend pull the car up the hill to the shed by the house. Plug in my Frostheater and put some old blankets on the car to hold the heat in: my theory now is the pump is gelled up.

Any other ideas?

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head.

Buy a large, cheap tarp and put over the car. Weight down the edges. Borrow a torpedo heater and put under edge of tarp, obviously aimed where heat won't hurt anything. You should be good to go in a few hours.

We did this once on a helicopter that got caught in an ice storm. Worked like a charm.

So much for stations properly winterizing their fuel

Every winter we see the same things happen again and again. Additivize your fuel folks! Can't trust the stations to.

Especially where there are outbursts of record lows.

See how half the school busses in Denver froze up last night?

CC: have you done the cold weather mod to the fuel pickup?

Yes I have done the cold weather mod to the fuel pickup. Of course I screwed up my low fuel indicator quantity but that I will fix next summer.

Yes I did not have my normal stock of Stanadyne in the car and I was cursing myself for trusting the pump.

It was fun getting my car in the shed. Of course I live rural and my buddy is a farmer. Just like a amusement park ride getting pulled up the hill at break neck speed. Then we pull the car pretty close to the shed, but of course there is so much farm equipment in the shed we have to stop short. So he turns his pickup around and has his brother hold a fence post against my trailer hitch and puts the other end on the bumper of the pickup and sure enough we push the car into the shed.

The car is now in the shed with the Frostheater 1500 watt tank heater running and the battery charger on. I have a metal skid plate so I am not sure where I would point the torpedo heater!!

Wow I can't believe there are so many cases of this!

Fuel here has been winterized since Sept!

Farmers are awsome. My in-laws are farmers and we are planning to move out to the farm as soon as we sell our house. People at work make fun of some of the engineers calling us "farmer engineers." Well I can tell you that if anyone can do the impossible, it will be the farmer. They HAVE to do what they can with what they have. And they do, all the time.

Curious Chris said:

Yes I have done the cold weather mod to the fuel pickup. Of course I screwed up my low fuel indicator quantity but that I will fix next summer.

Yes I did not have my normal stock of Stanadyne in the car and I was cursing myself for trusting the pump.

It was fun getting my car in the shed. Of course I live rural and my buddy is a farmer. Just like a amusement park ride getting pulled up the hill at break neck speed. Then we pull the car pretty close to the shed, but of course there is so much farm equipment in the shed we have to stop short. So he turns his pickup around and has his brother hold a fence post against my trailer hitch and puts the other end on the bumper of the pickup and sure enough we push the car into the shed.

The car is now in the shed with the Frostheater 1500 watt tank heater running and the battery charger on. I have a metal skid plate so I am not sure where I would point the torpedo heater!!

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Ay-up. Uncle Larry that has had a 500K mile L-diesel tried to cure a leaning silo with a failing foundation.

Curious Chris said:

The car is now in the shed with the Frostheater 1500 watt tank heater running and the battery charger on. I have a metal skid plate so I am not sure where I would point the torpedo heater!!

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Aim it at yourself while you stand there pointing the hair dryer at your IP.

So much for the naysayers who say anti-gel additives are a waste of time if the fuel is bought locally and you have done the fuel pickup mod: U.S. diesel fuel can't be trusted for anything: minimum lubricity or cold weather performance.

The odds are better that the fuel gelled/water-in-fuel froze in the fuel line between the tank and the filter. You can verify this with a hand vacuum pump at the feed line to the filter. If you can't get fuel out, there's the problem.

The fact that fuel had been drawn out of the filter to a low level indicates the pump did what it could.

PS 911 does not magically get into the fuel in the fuel line. It only helps the fuel in the tank and the fuel pick up. It isn't going to flow into the fuel line by itself.

Aim the torpedo heater to heat the fuel lines under the car.

If you have an air compressor available (even a small portable tire inflator one that plugs into the power outlet), disconnect the feed line at the filter, disconnect the opposite end of the line from the tank, and blow out the gelled/frozen stuff from the line (aim the loose end into a container!). Then reattach, use hand vacuum to reprime the line up to and through the filter. Finally, start the car.

Ah tomorrow night after work I will give the frozen in the line theory a test. I don't have a torpedo heater but I do have a compressor.

It will be tricky with the CAT filter. I guess I will have to remove the banjo fitting. Sigh. I guess it is my penance for slacking up with the Stanadyne Performance Formula and trusting the station.

I was lamenting not having a Mity Vac and my sweetie said I could open one of my Christmas presents early: MityVac Silver Line!!!

Ha! A Silver Line-ing in this cloudy moment.

I don't mean to kick a fellow TDI'er when they are down. However, I had my fuel gel on me a week into owning my Jetta. So after that fiasco I use Power Service at every fill up. I figure ounce of prevention better than a pound of cure.

What's the cold weather mod?

Not that it's much of an issue here in California...

NB_TDi said:

Wow I can't believe there are so many cases of this!

Fuel here has been winterized since Sept!

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I'm shocked too, left stranded twice with gelled fuel. Fuel here is supposed to have been winterized since september as well. Looks like somebody has been screwing up (stupid superstore gas bars....)

We have one Superstore Gas Bar....never used it. Made by Irving anyway. But I couldn't see it having a large turn-over rate.

I only use Shell V-Power. They add a brew of chems to make it all la-de-da. The Shell station I go to turns over a lot of diesel. The city trucks and fire dept. fill there. I saw the pump tonight before I used it.....$420.00

I had that happen to me once couple years ago when I just bought my TDI and knew nothing about diesel gelling issue. Last weekend sunday night I had to drive from Chariton, Iowa to home 360 miles distance. For last 70 miles to home about 40 miles of them thru the worst weather I've ever seen in my life. Very strong winds blowing snow with temp -8F with wind chills about -25F, the visibility was zero about 0-7 ft from hood. My speed was anywhere from 5-60mph on interstate. Saw one semi truck drifted off the road in to ditch luckly didn't flip over, three cars in ditch and state trooper on shoulder standing after driving for a mile with flashers on.

That night and next morning monday -10F to -14F temp saw lot of diesel trucks and city buses get towed due to fuel gelling. My TDI fired up right up in morning and I pretty much kept it running all day long driving around town doing some errands. I use Stanadyne Performance Formula all the time and never had fuel gelling issue, as long as I keep fuel above half the tank.

Yes Losha I know I have been very consistent up to this winter with Stanadyne Performance Formula every tank.

But now the good news: it lives! Kudos to Glenn for all his help. And oh nothing like a MityVac at a time like this.

Cold weather mod is drilling an in-line check valve out of fuel pick-up assys older than 'H' IIRC.

3 oz. PS white per tank year around. Maybe a double dose for sub-zero temps.

I hate winter! Winterized fuel cuts my fuel mileage! Why do the blenders use so much winterizing!

I hate winter! They didn't add enough!

Let this be the lesson to us all: "they" are supposed to winterize the fuel. However, "they" don't get all the fun of being stranded along the road. So pay attention and winterize your winterized fuel!

Had this happen to 6 customers this week already. There was a lot of rain/snow/melt so a LOT of water can run into the tanks when they open them or if the cheap bastard that owns the tanks isn't checking them with the dip stick for water. NEVER, EVER not add additive. Period. Especially with the new ULSD. They add lubricity additives at tank loading time and if they miss this then you get a dry load of crap fuel. Yeah.....that's good for the pump....

All this additives sounds like good advice but I have to say I haven't had trouble here about 50 miles north of Denver. Drove to work Monday it was 10-15 below zero without trouble. Car was left sitting all day in below zero. Started fine and drove 35 miles home at zero to about 10 below without trouble. This isn't the first time in this kind of cold. Supermarket fuel and no additives ever. Lucky I suppose but we don't get that cold very often.

Well the main reason I have been using Stanadyne Performance Formula all year long has been primarily for lubricity. There is a TSB for this on my 2002 for sure.

I have always viewed the side benefit of lower gell point, cetane improvement as a free bonus.

i run biodiesel year round and the only place that sells it has been great for keeping it blended.but monday it was so damn cold i added some stanadyne for the first time in 3 yrs.

Curious Chris said:

Well the main reason I have been using Stanadyne Performance Formula all year long has been primarily for lubricity. There is a TSB for this on my 2002 for sure.

I have always viewed the side benefit of lower gell point, cetane improvement as a free bonus.

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Now I'm curious Chris. What is the TSB on lubricity? I have an 02 and I am not aware of this.

Doug Huffman said:

Cold weather mod is drilling an in-line check valve out of fuel pick-up assys older than 'H' IIRC.

3 oz. PS white per tank year around. Maybe a double dose for sub-zero temps.

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Do you think this is necessary even on the 2009's? My soon to be ex-F350's oil analysis said that the PS was leaking by the pistons and causing excess aluminum in the oil due to rinsing away oil. I used Staydine for the first 2 tanks, but quit after that. Your thoughts?

Curious Chris said:

But now the good news: it lives! Kudos to Glenn for all his help. And oh nothing like a MityVac at a time like this.

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So I take it you drew some crud out of your lines between the tank and the filter?

My thought is that F350 has bigger problems than 3oz of PowerService.

To our Canadian brothers confused by US winterization: the level of winterization varies both by location and time of year. fuel is winterized according to average lows, so if there is a cold outburst early the fuel may not be sufficiently capable to deal with it.

FWIW: there were some parts you could order from VW for the A4 that covered (and perhaps insulated) the exposed fuel lines under the vehicle. Don't ask me for part numbers, but there were some threads about it a long while back.