Great article! Hopefully this will trickle down to the USA.
Diesel fuel is very readily available in the USA, yet the myth of hard to find fuel continues.In the United States another issue is the somewhat limited availability of diesel fuel.
The same vehicles are available in the US.Great article! Hopefully this will trickle down to the USA.
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Only the uninformed or blind drivers don't know that diesel is offered at most stations through out the US. In my 11 years of driving VW deisels, I've only run into a small area of northern Orlando where it was a challange to find diesel. Had to go to five different stations.Great article! Hopefully this will trickle down to the USA.
I was bothered by this one comment:
Diesel fuel is very readily available in the USA, yet the myth of hard to find fuel continues.
It may be an Ohio thing. I remember having a heck of a time finding diesel going through Toledo. Most stations didn't have diesel, and the ones that did.....as you mentioned.....were the old pumps along the side of the building. And being in less-than-desirable neighborhoods, they wouldn't turn on these pumps without pre-paying or leaving your credit card inside. I refuse to do that. I'm not leaving cash or my credit card with the attendant, and I don't buy a pre-paid amount -- I always fill to the top, wherever that is.Finding diesel has been a huge hassle for me: the station has none, or wrong kind, wrong sized nozzle, pump is broken, or out of fuel.
My TDI handles the giant nozzles meant for rigs... What nozzles are you talking about? Something bigger than that? Or does yours not have the large filler hole? Weird...The worst place so far has been New Jersey. I stopped at many stations w/diesel, all had wrong sized nozzle. I finally found fuel in PA, one state over, hardly convenient.
And you cant tell nozzle size from your vehicle. You have to pull up to the pump, check it out, then leave if it doesnt fit. All in all a royal PITA. Especially when you are driving out of your way to find the diesel station in the 1st place.
VW sells a nozzle "adapter" wh/I have now ordered. The fuel is often OK, the station was just too cheap to buy the updated nozzle after switching to low sulfur fuel.
What's the point of that? It's the same fuel coming out of the pump, right? ULSD is mandatory now, no?2009 and newer can only accept smaller sized filling nozels. There are "fingers" in the filler neck that prevent the large flow nozels of the big rigs. You can fill with a large nozzel (it's a game called just the tip) it's just it won't fit in all the way and you'll have a very high chance of over flowing.
Upside is we didn't have to worry about performing a ventectomy, removing the emissions recoverty stuff.
Yeah, I hate filling my Jetta with a high rate nozzle, since I always have to baby it to make sure it doesn't massively overflow.The problem is that the high-flow nozzles send fuel out at a dangerously high rate.
So on the pre-2009 models, you can use the high-flow nozzle if you want to, in case it is your only option. Of course you aren't going to use that one if you don't have to.Yeah, I hate filling my Jetta with a high rate nozzle, since I always have to baby it to make sure it doesn't massively overflow.
While I do like having the option, I can understand for the vast majority why you probably wouldn't want to encourage people to do that. Personally, I rarely come across pumps where I have to fill up from the firehose.
Sorry but I gave up my dogsled for a snowmobile. But it's not a diesel.Only the uninformed or blind drivers don't know that diesel is offered at most stations through out the US. In my 11 years of driving VW deisels, I've only run into a small area of northern Orlando where it was a challange to find diesel. Had to go to five different stations.
What surprised me the most about the article was to see that Canadians are still using a lot of horses! From the article: 92.7% gas, 2.9% diesel, and 0.3% hybrid passaenger vehicles. That leaves 4.1% of other, which must be horses, although I've only see the mounted Police in Vancouver and Toronto. I guess is you get far enough north, they could be using dogsleds.
The ventectomy only resolves the ease of topping off the tank without having to push in the tab on MkIV's and V's. The MY09+ have the same ULSD mis-fuelling restrictor plate as the 335d's....not my favourite piece of gear on the car, but at least Canadian fuel stations are pretty consistent with the proper diesel nozzles, and I have only had an issue with the large (truck) nozzle at...well, a truck stop.Why doesn't everyone just do a ventectomy on the filler openings. I did one on my 2004 and it's not a problem. Do you have Wal-Mart up in the northern part of the U.S.? Do a search on the Murphy USA website and it will tell you who has diesel and you can call ahead. I'm sure the other oil companies have diesel stations you can locate on them as well. Am I missing something here? Please speak up as I'm in the South and have never had problems finding diesel....
Diesel is everywhere here in Indiana. I've never had a problem finding it, even in the most remote parts of the Midwest.Why doesn't everyone just do a ventectomy on the filler openings. I did one on my 2004 and it's not a problem. Do you have Wal-Mart up in the northern part of the U.S.? Do a search on the Murphy USA website and it will tell you who has diesel and you can call ahead. I'm sure the other oil companies have diesel stations you can locate on them as well. Am I missing something here? Please speak up as I'm in the South and have never had problems finding diesel....
Mk4s and older. All Mk5s and 6s have the smaller filler neck that only accepts a car diesel nozzle or smaller, regardless of whether they're PD or CR. And, no vent to ectomize on those cars.The ventectomy only resolves the ease of topping off the tank without having to push in the tab on MkIV's and V's.
And, it's not a misfueling restrictor plate like BMW's - you can put a gas-sized nozzle in a Mk5+, whereas you can't in a 335d. However, both VW and BMW offer adapters that will go in the filler neck and allow any size nozzle, even a high-flow truck one (or, on the BMW, a gasoline-sized one), to work.The MY09+ have the same ULSD mis-fuelling restrictor plate as the 335d's....not my favourite piece of gear on the car, but at least Canadian fuel stations are pretty consistent with the proper diesel nozzles, and I have only had an issue with the large (truck) nozzle at...well, a truck stop.
Regards
D.
Sooooo true. One of my colleagues, has a Ph.D. grew up in Los Alamos NM where her Dad was a nuclear ('nukular") scientist, and yet, when I suggested to her that she replace her ailing Escort wagon with a JSW, she asked me "Where do you get diesel?".Great article! Hopefully this will trickle down to the USA.
I was bothered by this one comment:
Diesel fuel is very readily available in the USA, yet the myth of hard to find fuel continues.
There's 34 Million people who would disagree with you on that. I think it would make more sense to make the US our 11th province since it's as small as one. If you're still into world domination you can have Mexico.This is yet another reason for us to make Canada the 51st state. It's high time this happened.
Canada -- 3,855,100 square milesI think it would make more sense to make the US our 11th province since it's as small as one.
When I am in unfamiliar area and looking for fuel I use my Gass Buddy app and Yellow Pages app to look for deisel prices and lokations near my present location have had very few incidents of wild goose chases. if there is a price for deisel its going to be there. As far as the deisel being located far away from the other pumps or not taking cards at the pump, it just goes with owning a deisel, we don't get any respect.Finding diesel has been a huge hassle for me: the station has none, or wrong kind, wrong sized nozzle, pump is broken, or out of fuel. Diesel is the step child of every gas station (pumps in back, hard to see, old tech, dont take credit cards, hard get to, etc).
Complicating all this is fact that VW's GPS, wh/ID's diesel stations, is wrong 10-20% of time. When you are towing a large trailer wh/is not very maneuverable, these wild goose chases off the interstate into the wilds can be time consuming and extremely frustrating, and as you burn thru limited fuel, a bit scary.
bhtooefr, didn't know that...you mean you can stick a smaller unleaded nozzle in Mk5/6 TDI's? Then why put the restrictor plate in? The guy at the local dealer I dropped by to pick up parts for Old Faithful (my 2K1) said it was to stop gasoline mis-fuelling. If it can't do that, why have it?Mk4s and older. All Mk5s and 6s have the smaller filler neck that only accepts a car diesel nozzle or smaller, regardless of whether they're PD or CR. And, no vent to ectomize on those cars.
And, it's not a misfueling restrictor plate like BMW's - you can put a gas-sized nozzle in a Mk5+, whereas you can't in a 335d. However, both VW and BMW offer adapters that will go in the filler neck and allow any size nozzle, even a high-flow truck one (or, on the BMW, a gasoline-sized one), to work.