Running a Nissan Pathfinder 2007 on Biodiesel fuel

I thought I'd start a blog regarding running my Pathfinder on Biodiesel after I failed to find anyone else that had shared their experiences.

After finding it hard to accept paying around 127p per litre of diesel and the pump, I decided to look into running my Pathfiner on Biodiesel today.

My Pathfinder is a 2006 06 plate 2.5 ltr Diesel automatic Aventura model. This is the same engine found in the Nissan Navara pickup too.

I'm based out of Huddersfield and with a quick Google search I found a place where I could buy Biodiesel at 93p per litre. They're based just outside the center of the town on Albert street in Lockwood. See www.greenworldbiodiesel.co.uk for more detail on where they are and what they offer.

What I'm going to do on this blog is basically enter my biodiesel experiences, good or bad for others to gain from. I decided to go for biodiesel knowing that at some point I'd need to replace my fuel filter on the car, though I have to admit as yet I don't know how much it will cost and if its an easy part to fit or not. I guess all this will come out in future blogs. For those like me that aren't into pulling car engines apart, I'm told that because biodiesel is a cleaner fuel that contains lubricants it will flush out the muck from the bottom of my fuel tank thats been left there from normal diesel. This in turn clogs up the filter overtime and a new filter is required. I have read that depending on the mileage of the car, it maybe so full of muck, several filters over a period of time maybe needed to clear it all out. They tell me the way to tell your fuel filter needs changing is a noticeable lack of power at the top and bottom end. One to look out for as I start my new venture.

So last night after completing 1200 miles around Scotland in three days and watching the Pathfinder munch through 3 1/2 tank fulls at 126.9 per litre, I visited Green World Diesel Ltd.

The site is only open Thursday - Saturday 2pm - 6:30pm, though I expect this to increase as it gets more popular.
I arrived around 4pm to find 5 cars queuing for Biodiesel. At first it was a little confusing which way I should enter the fuel station as its rather like a small car park with a large green metal container in the middle and no obvious signs. I quickly realised which way people were queuing and joined the queue. There was one young guy filling people's cars for them, he told me his uncle owns the company and makes the biodiesel himself in a location near Huddersfield. This young guy simply runs the filling station to finance himself through university.
When it got to my turn, I realised that the Pathfinders filling cap is on the passenger side, this meant I had to spin the car round as the way we were all queuing was for filling caps on the drivers side which most cars seem to have. Anyway, once turned around I asked how I could pay, its all cash at this point, they're not big enough to start offering to take the card or cheques etc. My Pathfinder was about as empty as it could get, I bought £37 worth, giving me 39.78 litres of Biodiesel. had I bought that at the forecourt at 126.9 I'd have only got 29.16 litres, so straight away, an extra 10 litres! Sounding good so far!

It was a bit weird at first, I was expecting to notice some kind of difference when I started the car and initially drove off, to my surprise there was no difference at all to running diesel.
I only live a few miles away from Green World Diesel (another free plug!), and noticed no difference in driving the car. One thing I did do was to reset the MPG meter to see if it behaved any different. With my driving the Pathfinder I usually with normal diesel get 19-20mpg when driving purely round town. Adding one short motorway journey into Leeds say bumps that up to about 26-27mpg, and a pure motorway journey on cruise control returns between 32-36mpg.

OK, thats it for now, I'm setup with a tank 3/4 full of Biodiesel and a busy weekend ahead that will probably include lots of short journeys around Huddersfield. More next time....mean while if you're reading this and have anything to add, please blog away.....