Good idea to keep tank full ?

[mxtdiguy]

Less air in the tank means less chance for water condensation, the enemy of diesels ?

 

[Jetta_Pilot]

Buy a second car and drive it, in the meantime park your TDI and admire it sitting with your full tank of fuel

 

[mxtdiguy]

Buy a second car and drive it, in the meantime park your TDI and admire it sitting with your full tank of fuel

oke dokey, thanks for the insightful tip

Maybe I should have phrased the question as " Is it a good idea to keep the tank fuller rather than not to reduce the volume of air ?" or is condensation inside the tank an non issue ?

 

[C C]

Thanks to widespread restrictions on volatile hydrocarbons, condensation has become uncommon. You're likely to get water from contaminated fuel instead.

Fuel is the heat sink that keeps expensive high pressure fuel pumps running cool. Thus, I fill my vehicles around 1/2 tank.

 

[GreenLantern_TDI]

I tell everyone during winter keep tank over half. Keep tank topped off. Ya never know if you may become standed and need to idle to stay alive until rescue or circustances change.

 

[pdq import repair]

^^^
Best reason there, especially in snow states. I have been stranded for only as long as a couple hours one time. Luckily it was in traffic and waiting for wreck clearing (not mine) with others around. There are places along my daily commute where I could blow far enough off the road to not be seen, or stuck in a whiteout blizzard, or something like that. Good to have fuel for heat at least.


As far as condensation goes, it is possible in a diesel as they do not have the evaporative emissions sealed systems like gas cars, but it is still not even a concern on my part. I do go through fuel faster than some so I fuel up weekly anyway.


Biggest fears and effects from condensation in the past was tank rust internally, but today's tanks are plastic, so no problem there either.

 

[Mike in Anchorage]

I don't practice what I preach, but after the shaky here last week, the lines at the stations were really long. Fortunately, power stayed on for most places, so the pumps worked. I run my car until the fuel level alarm shows <50 miles remaining.

 

[740GLE]

I'd be more worried about having proper gel point of the fuel than condensation.

IN the western mountains of Maine, my father in law needed a tow this past Saturday morning in his '18 Duramax, local fueling place gel point must have been -10F. Friday night it dropped to -13F at his camp (only 40 miles away) he made it 3/4 of the way home before he had to call for tow and place the truck in a garage with some PS 911.

Needless to say I'm going to be giving him a big jug of PS white for xmas.