Has cop ever checked your fuel line...?

BeetlePD

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...for offroad diesel. I’ve received a lot of speeding tickets, but no cop ever looked to see if I had untaxed diesel in my car.

How sbout you?
 

Lightflyer1

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Round Rock, Texas
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2015 Beetle tdi dsg
Thread about this already here. Seems to happen every so often. Officials used to hang out at livestock shows and such and dip tanks.
 

Mongler98

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98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
...for offroad diesel. I’ve received a lot of speeding tickets, but no cop ever looked to see if I had untaxed diesel in my car.
How sbout you?
This guy
Just wont stop will you.
Speeding tickets
Off road diesel
Stop being a tightwad
If you didnt get so many speeding tickets, you could afford real diesel fuel instead of braking a BS tax law!
 

Mongler98

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98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
Also against forum rules to discuss how to get away with violating a state or federal law
 

Mongler98

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To the letter of the law, unless the cop has suspicion and reason to check, they can not just pull you over for this reason. Unless you have red flowing out of the fuel door, it would be against our federal laws to dip check without a valid reason like seeing you fill up with it or something.
Getting pulled over for speeding or anything else is not reason to dip check.
As far as I understood things on this, it's usually a case of a up and up mechanic reporting it when found.
 
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USMCFieldMP

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Fort Worth, TX
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Unless they are deaf :confused: the Diesel has an unmistakable clatter a gasser does not have.
It's not that loud - especially if you're pulled over on the side of the interstate (highway patrol/state police tend to be more about checking for tax-free diesel, in my experience), and I still wouldn't put it by someone that isn't "into cars" to know what that distinct sounds means. Could just be a noisy valvetrain for all they know. I mean, I tend to turn my car off when pulled over anyway. It's one less thing for them to worry about.

And I say this as someone that worked as military police and who knew many people that worked for Ohio city PD's and the Ohio Highway Patrol - the sound of your engine is the last thing on most of their minds.
 

BeetlePD

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Police dipping tanks? Interesting. I thought diesel cars had a “sight glass” to see the colored fuel. Quick and easy.


If you didnt get so many speeding tickets, you could afford real diesel fuel instead of braking a BS tax law!
I am using taxed diesel from the pumps. Never used offroad diesel or gasoline my whole life. Maybe you shouldn’t jump to false conclusions, when there’s no evidence.
 

BeetlePD

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Unless they are deaf :confused: the Diesel has an unmistakable clatter a gasser does not have.
The new Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) cars also make a clatter noise. It’s funny because diesels like Chevy Cruze Gen2 have become quiet, where you can barely hear them, but gassers have become noiser.

I guess it’s a side effect of adopting diesel common rail injectors to gasoline application.
 
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Mongler98

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98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
Police dipping tanks? Interesting. I thought diesel cars had a “sight glass” to see the colored fuel. Quick and easy.




I am using taxed diesel from the pumps. Never used offroad diesel or gasoline my whole life. Maybe you shouldn’t jump to false conclusions, when there’s no evidence.
Then why ask. Your implications say otherwise.
Yea lol. Because no cop ever dip checked your tank? No evidence right? Although it does leave a red colour on all the Internals for basically almost forever
 
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turbobrick240

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maine
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The dyed fuel makes your exhaust smell like strawberries. jk. I've been running Ipone strawberry scented two stroke oil in my chainsaws this summer and it's kinda nice.
 

BeetlePD

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So the overall answer appears to be “no”. Cops might check trucks at farmers’ livestock shows, but other wise no.
 

Nuje

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Island near Vancouver
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How about EGR deletes?

At a pull-out off the highway here (Vancouver Island) a couple years ago, I saw a bunch of big pick-ups all pulled over, roughly half with the hoods up. The pullout was just after a short hill (~6% for 700m), so maybe they were looking for "coal-rollers"(?); I was going 110km/h so wasn't able to confirm that they were diesels, but this seemed like the most plausible explanation I could come up with.

Any other thoughts?
 

Hayze

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Oklahoma City
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2009 Jetta TDI 2.0L
Some cops are smarter than what you think, if one of them happens to own a TDI or TSI model they would know the difference. I used to work for a small business family operated, their son was a county officer and he owned a TSI model. His reasoning was because he didnt want to deal with the Diesel prices at the time so thats why he got the 2010 or 2011 TSI Model. Law enforcement where i live does not care about a lot of the emissions or fuel tax evasions unless its Highway Patrol or DOT, and your driving commercially on 18 wheels when they do inspections on them.

Depending the state you live in, if they are given daily quotas and they are trying to find reasons to pin tickets on you then you bet they will find ways of nickel and diming everyone. By law any state can get you with Fuel tax evasion because taxed fuel is required by everyone to drive on public roads.
If your worried about law enforcement dipping your tanks to see what color of fuel you put in them then i would just go with putting the green fuel inside and not have to worry about possibility of getting tax evasion citations.

IRS from an Illinois website states First Offense: $2,500 fine Class A misdemeanor. Second or Subsequent Offense: $5,000 fine Class 4 felony.
If you feel like taking a risk to pay those fines and have a felony on your record i would advise that you dont. End result, while you think your saving a quick buck, it will cost you big time down the road, and future background checks for employment.
 

n1das

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Some cops are smarter than what you think, if one of them happens to own a TDI or TSI model they would know the difference.
Here's a TDI you don't want to see in your rearview mirror! :D TDIclub forum member Baycop's 06 TDI. :cool:
 

Mozambiquer

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A cop won't pull a TDI car over to check for red diesel, but a shop may report you when they see you have red in the tank. I have seen the DOT guys doing dip checks, they like to use the road right in front of the shop where I work, since it's a side road right off the main road and right down the road from a cattle auction. They pulled over a bunch of farm trucks and dump trucks. We talked to the officer and they said the fine is upwards of $2000 (in Missouri) and more if you have more than 100 gallons capacity. They didn't pull over any cars though.
Also, btw, some people have the mistaken notion that the red diesel is better. It's not. It's the exact same stuff, just with red dye.
 

jettawreck

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Northern Minnesota-55744
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To the letter of the law, unless the cop has suspicion and reason to check, they can not just pull you over for this reason. Unless you have red flowing out of the fuel door, it would be against our federal laws to dip check without a valid reason like seeing you fill up with it or something.
Getting pulled over for speeding or anything else is not reason to dip check.
As far as I understood things on this, it's usually a case of a up and up mechanic reporting it when found.
Not true, depending on the state.
MN used to (and still may on occasion) set up check points where they have an officer out next to the passing vehicle as they go thru a lane set of cones watching/listening which vehicles to go thru the fuel check. This was specific for checking fuel only. They can easily either check fuel or scan for dye residue (prior use even if currently running taxed fuel) at the fill pipe or exhaust. I personally know several that have been checked, mostly private vehicles/pickups. All I personally knew were compliant but there are plenty of examples of non-compliant offenders. The fine(s) for running off road fuel is well known and high bucks. It's also very common with the the loggers, construction and farming community.
With a vehicle that gets 40-50 mpg the fuel cost isn't worth the risk. Fuel taxes support road construction/maintainence (despite the looks of most conditions)
 

U4ick

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texas
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2003 jetta tdi
I have an old high school friend that lives about 60 miles out of town on a 80 acre ranch.

He drives a big, jacked up, Dodge Ram dually. When I told him that he ought to get a small car to run around in when he wasn't hauling or pulling anything he just laughed and shook his head.

He told me that he has several 30 gl. transparent plastic barrels that he fills up from his tank and lets set out in the sun for several days to 'clear up'

Does anyone know if this is true or is he just pulling my leg?
 

Mongler98

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anyone getting caught doing this deserves the fines. that's all this is, a money game.
if you seriously can't afford the drive with paying your road tax on fuel, or think that its ok to try and skirt the law/cheat the system......... you might want to reevaluate your life!
 

U4ick

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texas
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anyone getting caught doing this deserves the fines. that's all this is, a money game.
if you seriously can't afford the drive with paying your road tax on fuel, or think that its ok to try and skirt the law/cheat the system......... you might want to reevaluate your life!
I agree with you. The guy I'm talking about wouldn't think twice about gaming the system, or spreading a little BS.

If he's telling the truth, the D.O.T. should re-evaluate the formulation of their dye.
 

Cheepbeer

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Location
NW Ohio
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2014 jetta sportwagen
The people that dip tanks are usually irs agents. I talked to a state trooper awhile back, while getting dipped, said they were sworn irs agents for fuel dipping. I’ve been checked 3 times in a commercial vehicle and 3 times in a pickup. One time at a farm auction, they checked everybody with a diesel truck.
I got checked in Sanford AZ one time. They shut the whole intersection down for fuel checks. They caught one cotton farmer with red in his pickup, then went to his farm and checked every with license plates on it. He was in big trouble.
 

Mozambiquer

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Also they told us that if you get caught, it's almost guaranteed that the irs will audit you in the next couple of years, since if you are willing to cheat on taxes when it comes to fuel, you're probably going to cheat on your income taxes or business taxes too.
 

Mongler98

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Do it once your screwed. It permanently stays in your tank and fuel lines. I've been told it can be detectable even after years and hundreds of thousands of miles on normal fuel.
 

Skylake

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EU
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These checks are very often here in EU since regular diesel is $5 and "untaxed" diesel is $2 per gallon. But they are checking only older TDIs since all the new ones are pretty efficient and ppl are afraid of penalties, not worth the risk. (starting from $2000)
 
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Franko6

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Up to $2000? What I understand is, if you can't prove otherwise, you are considered to have always driven 'red' fuel and therefore, did not pay the road tax, or in Missouri, about $0.41 per gallon. Yeah, gas stations secondary function is tax collector. So, the courts will figure how long you have owned the vehicle, and because there is paperwork showing your mileage at purchase and average MPG, which you can be assured, they will UNDER calculate, and charge you a fine for 1. Illegal fuel usage, 2. the taxes you should have paid on that fuel and 3. A late payment penalty for not having paid it timely.

In the farming community I live in, one customer who was caught, the Highway Patrol checked other vehicles on the farm and family. It was an expensive event. The thing about the dye is, you can get the color out, but even if you thin it out the off-road fuel with road diesel, there is a tribenzine marker that can be detected through chromatography, even if it's diluted by several tank-loads of fuel. I don't know how far they can go in parts per million. It might be incredible.

The UK has highly developed the process. As the Brits fuel taxes are 60% of the fuel price, breaking the law is the order of the day. Even though the color of the fuel can be dealt with, the chemical marker cannot easily be removed. The Brits estimate 80 million Pound Sterling are stolen from the 'tax man' every year by off-road fuel purchases.

And there's no getting out of it. They will take your driver's license and probably your registration. They will hang it on you, big time.

It's so much easier to play by the rules. Render unto Caesar...
 

Mongler98

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don't forget the interest, there's always interest.
head a story once (no idea if true or complete BS)
guy purchased a TDI, took it to inspection shop. the PO used off road diesel. car was locked away and when the customer came to pick up the car, much to his surprise, it was being held as a trap. It eventually was cleared up, mostly to get the info from the buyer about the seller to confirm a few things. word was that the previous owner got nailed with a few grand in fines. the car has 10 miles on it from the title and 3/4 a tank from purchase. As in, if you ever have a mechanic change a fuel filter and they find some red, they will turn you in.
I have been told (again im not 100% confident in this as fact) that the government can garnish your wages and put a mechanics lien (forcing the car to be sold at auction) to ensure that the fees and penalties/interest are paid.
 
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U4ick

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texas
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As in, if you ever have a mechanic change a fuel filter and they find some red, they will turn you in.
I am glad there are mechanics in this country with that level of civic duty.

Every mechanic that I know, or have ever known, wouldn't give a flying rat's a$$ about a red tint on a fuel filter.

And possibly have to sign a statement or give testimony? Nooooooooo............
 
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