That first tank (or part of a tank) of fuel from the factory/dealership

How many here have considered the possibility that the HPFP failures are born before we ever see our cars for the first time?

I have long felt that OOB (Out Of Box) failures in fuel systems are likely due to what was first put in the fuel tanks at the manufacturer or dealership. This is my opinion even about heavy machinery and OTR truck manufacturers, no sacred cows here. In the case of the Jetta TDI they are built in MEXICO. The fuel used to do the initial run in of the car as it comes off the assembly line, or the first squirt of fuel into the tank by a dealership salesperson could be to blame. COULD be. I didn't say IS. Again my opinion. But the dealerships don't stock fuel, they go pump the tank full as a service station FOR YOU before or at delivery.

Here is an interesting factoid contained within:

Fuel Requirements for Diesel Fuel Injection Systems
Diesel Fuel Injection Equipment Manufacturers
Common Position Statement 2009

General Diesel Fuel Quality
Standards: The European fuel standard EN 590:2009 embodies the latest fuel quality requirements. Fuel injection equipment manufacturers' products might not meet the expected lifetime performance and
emissions targets if EN 590:2009 fuel or fuel with similar properties to the EN 590:2009 specification is not used. The responsibility therefore must fall to the equipment user and/or the fuel supplier to ensure that the
fuels used are compatible with the fuel system and objectives of the emissions legislation.

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Further:

Lubricity: It is essential that the lubricity of the fuel as measured by the HFRR test specified in ISO
12156-1 meets the requirement of a wear scar diameter not greater than 460 microns. In addition, it is recommended by the Diesel FIE manufacturers, that “first fill” of the fuel tank should be with fuel with
good lubricity characteristics (HFRR < 400 μm) in order to guarantee good “run-in” of the injection system
components. The US diesel specification (ASTM D 975-09) includes a lubricity value of 520 μm maximum
(according to ASTM D 6079). It is expected that the useful operating lifetime of any mechanical
component will be adversely affected by fuel with a lubricity exceeding 460 microns.

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The above verifies the US spec is outside the requirement to begin with. How many dealerships will dose the tanks of these cars when the fuel pump is in it's run in period?

So...can VW or the dealership GUARANTEE the buyer that they have done the proper run in with fuel meeting the stated requirements of the manufacturers?

The run in period is the most critical point in a fuel injection systems lifetime. Id they used Mexican sourced fuel, which they no doubt would almost have to do given the locale of the plant, and then ship the cars to a port in the US where the car is moved to the dealerships all over the country, then how do we know what kind of crap the tanks already has in it when we get the car?

http://www.stanadyne.com/docs/pubs/FIEM_Common_Position_Statement_2009.pdf

Don't the CBEA motors get shipped to Mexico for installation in the car. Meaning already assembled and 'run-in' on a dyno in Germany? If so, how likely is it that the fuel pump that is to be with the car the rest of it's life is the same one supplying fuel to the motor on the dyno?
My first tank was at a Shell up the street from the dealer too...their pump was broken.

According to the literature above, it says "first fill" and to me that means the first time fuel is put in the tank, be it a fill up or whatever, and that happens in Mexico. Does the assembly plant take care and test to assure their fuel going into every single car meets Bosch's requirements? Maybe, maybe not. How would an owner on the hook for a 7 grand bill for a new fuel system be able to find out? There are many instances of cold starts with short duration runs on the engine between the time it is fired on the line, and when it's delivered to the new owner, too. Run in from brand new happens in Germany and Mexico. How can we customers be sure the fuel in both cases was pure and up to spec?

If the next tankful is in the US, then there is a very good chance the first fill of fuel isn't up to the specs mentioned in the literature above as the new owner drives out the gate and onto the highway home. If that fuel in those cases is out of Bosch's specifications Bosch says the system is compromised.

How do we know when we get the car if it is already in early stages of hulling itself into the fuel filter?.

Guess you'd have to figure out if the HPFP is 'run-in' before install....what are the chances?

Slim and none.

The engine plant should have good fuel and it should be correct spec. That isn't saying the pump is anywhere near run in during the brief dyno test.

The issue would likely be in Mexico, and or thereafter, till delivery of the vehicle to the owner.

US spec diesel is above the numbers required by Bosch. ("above the numbers" means it fails to meet the criteria required for long, happy pump life) Are we going to believe the fuel depots filling tankers are testing their fuel? Maybe one in 10 loads, maybe all, maybe less. Adding the 5 gallon can of treatment to a tanker as it fills isn't a good way to assure anything, other than they went through the motions.

I use Stanadyne Lubricity Formula, purple label.

I've been running B5 for the past 4K miles, I switched over around 3K, I am almost tempted to crack the filter open see whats what.

I may start doing the "1 gallon of B-100 per fill" along with the Stanadyne Lubricity additive.

The company I work for blends the diesel fuel for VWNA - for those first few gallons put into a new TDI coming off the assembly line at the factory. They have been doing this for over a decade - since VW had a plant in PA. which has been shut down for years. It is not Mexican low grade diesel fuel. All blended to VW specs - in 55 gallon drums - then we truck it to the Mexican Boarder. This is unusual since most oil is delivered via pipeline/barge/rail-car/truck - we've never done 55 gallon drums on flat bed trucks before. The reason for this is VW makes us put ' Lot Numbers' on the 55 gallon drums. If there is ever an issue - they can track it back to the offending lot. VW is very strick with what goes into their new car's fuel. I'm not the one who blends up this order for the VW factory. I just buy the bulk ultra low sulfur diesel off the U.S. pipeline systems - another guy oversees the blending. VW's concerns are the new TDI's coming off the assembly plant may end up in hot Florida or cold Alaska and other dealership in between - one fuel blend must meet all extremes. I should ask my co-worker specifically but never have. as to VW's blend of initial fuel. All I know is I can assure you my company would only follow the contract in every regard. Their are independent inspectors that can sample the drums of fuel at any time. That would cause a law suit if we did not meet the specs - not worth it to us nor would it be our intent. I can only quess that Fred leans to 40% blend of kerosine which will assure starting in either cold or hot dealship locations along with with stabilizers (in the event the car sits on a lot for months) and VW's more demanding Lubricity level than U.S. specs for lubricity that is blended into all the ' dry' new ultra low sulfur diesel. So yes, the bulk fuel depots do not add as much lubricity factor into this new ULSD as VWAG wants. So add your own to keep the wear scares as small as VW wants. We use to supply the gas to Chrysler vehicles coming off the line. Chrysler only put 3.4 gallons into each new car - Dunno what VW does. My quess is your new TDI gets the bulk of it's tank filled from a U.S. retail station near the dealer's lot. I didn't read all the post here. Hope this answers some of the questions.

Blair

Great stuff Blair. Well I would hope that VW is in agreement with the "run-in" lubricity for the first fill and the VW specs do call for low scar wear fuel as the diesel FIE manufacturers recomend.

Does anyone know the fuel level in the TDIs when the cars arrive at the dealer lot? Someone that works for a dealer should know or be able to check.

Excellent news and puts my fears to rest, at least till the cars hit the dealer lots.

tdiblair said:

The company I work for blends the diesel fuel for VWNA - for those first few gallons put into a new TDI coming off the assembly line at the factory. They have been doing this for over a decade - since VW had a plant in PA. which has been shut down for years. It is not Mexican low grade diesel fuel. All blended to VW specs - in 55 gallon drums - then we truck it to the Mexican Boarder. This is unusual since most oil is delivered via pipeline/barge/rail-car/truck - we've never done 55 gallon drums on flat bed trucks before. The reason for this is VW makes us put ' Lot Numbers' on the 55 gallon drums. If there is ever an issue - they can track it back to the offending lot. VW is very strick with what goes into their new car's fuel. I'm not the one who blends up this order for the VW factory. I just buy the bulk ultra low sulfur diesel off the U.S. pipeline systems - another guy oversees the blending. VW's concerns are the new TDI's coming off the assembly plant may end up in hot Florida or cold Alaska and other dealership in between - one fuel blend must meet all extremes. I should ask my co-worker specifically but never have. as to VW's blend of initial fuel. All I know is I can assure you my company would only follow the contract in every regard. Their are independent inspectors that can sample the drums of fuel at any time. That would cause a law suit if we did not meet the specs - not worth it to us nor would it be our intent. I can only quess that Fred leans to 40% blend of kerosine which will assure starting in either cold or hot dealship locations along with with stabilizers (in the event the car sits on a lot for months) and VW's more demanding Lubricity level than U.S. specs for lubricity that is blended into all the ' dry' new ultra low sulfur diesel. So yes, the bulk fuel depots do not add as much lubricity factor into this new ULSD as VWAG wants. So add your own to keep the wear scares as small as VW wants. We use to supply the gas to Chrysler vehicles coming off the line. Chrysler only put 3.4 gallons into each new car - Dunno what VW does. My quess is your new TDI gets the bulk of it's tank filled from a U.S. retail station near the dealer's lot. I didn't read all the post here. Hope this answers some of the questions.

Blair

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Rod Bearing said:

Excellent news and puts my fears to rest, at least till the cars hit the dealer lots.

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I've never seen a dealership with a D2 pump. They often have gas pumps, but that's even getting rare, at least here in Mass. I don't think the dealers want to deal with contamination/leakage issues. I ofter see cars with dealer plates getting filled up at two of the local stations.

tdiblair said:

Chrysler only put 3.4 gallons into each new car - Dunno what VW does. My quess is your new TDI gets the bulk of it's tank filled from a U.S.

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Each vehicle gets 12L - gas or diesel.

dieseldorf said:

Each vehicle gets 12L - gas or diesel.

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That ain't much is it...

Whatever fuel runs through them at engine dyno + 12Litres of their special stuff at assembly. I wonder how much fuel is required to properly break in a Bosch 1000?

sorry about my late reply to some of the questions. I called my main office in PA to ask what we blend up for the VW factory. To my surprise, Fred told me we are no longer making the deliveries of diesel fuel to the factory in Mexico as of this year. A rather sudden change after doing this service for many years, since they had a factory in PA when we started to be the vendor of their initial fuel in the new car tanks. They , VW, elected to go with a local vendor in Mexico. Do I think VW will let the other Mexican Vendor get away with cheap fuel? I do not. Also crude refiners make good diesel. The more modern refiners ' crack' the fuel in the refining process. That gives your refinery more efficiency but you, the consumer , get a less stable fuel. VW was tough with us - I assume that will continue with the new vendor in Mexico, but my fear is that we only blended to VWNA's lubricity spec for each 55 gallon drum we delivered. The tank, in the new car, did not get filled with our fuel. Just enough to drive it out of the factory , get it on and off transits and some moving at the dealers parking lots for prep , washing ect. I can't imagine VW putting in more than 3 gallons of our fuel into each car coming off the assembly line, but no, none of our people ever went to the assembly line to see how much they actually put in every car. I do know American diesel is not up to VWAG spec for lubricity. Don't quote me, but I beleive American diesel will make wear scars up to 540 microns and VW wan'ts them smaller - down to 480 (? ) I have not heard these specs in years so don't trust my memory. So at best - the new Mexican VW TDI got 1 to 3 gallons of great fuel and the balance of diesel filled near your local dealer with American Diesel which is slightly shy of meeting the actual wear scares VW wants on the injection system. I know an independent inspection company that has one of these wear scare testing machinges.
Maybe it's called a 3 ball test? Dunno, it's outside of my end of the business. It only came out when he sent me the best lubricity factor he had tested. A synthetic lubricity factor. They , the inspection company, does the lubricity for Shell on the east coast. The machine is $88,000. I'm clueless as to know if anyting gets damaged between a 480 or a 540 ish wear scare. I only assume that over the long run you will get less life out of the injection system. dunno what that sacrifice in wear life would be between those two values.

Blair

tdiblair - Thanks for the info. Though your company is no longer supplying the fuel to VW as of this year, your info is still current so wonder if you could answer the following:

1) What additives did your company use, especially those related to improving lubricity?

2) You mention a couple of times VW wanting a better lubricity rating than US specs. This is interesting because the only thing I've seen is VW specifying ULSD and a reference to ASTM D-975, which allows up to 520 micron HFRR rating. The european spec and recommendation by Bosch is 460 micron. So, what did VW specify for a lubricity rating in the fuel your company provided?

Thanks in advance any additional info you can provide.

Both Chevron and Conoco/Phillips state their diesel fuel test under 500 microns in monthly terminal testing.

I would think you have no worries here. But to those that do..............go ahead and do what VW says 'not to do'............add additives to the CBEA engine. Your call/your money. Check the manuel and/or call VWNA......I did and that's what they say.

GTIDan said:

Both Chevron and Conoco/Phillips state their diesel fuel test under 500 microns in monthly terminal testing.

I would think you have no worries here. But to those that do..............go ahead and do what VW says 'not to do'............add additives to the CBEA engine. Your call/your money. Check the manuel and/or call VWNA......I did and that's what they say.

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The dealers are using additives at every oil change now.