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.....
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Rang my local car parts store (Zak auto spares) and was told a new fuel filter for the Pathfinder/Navara 2.5 Dci would be £14.50. Now just need to find out how much it would be to fit...
Two days and we're doing around the same mpg on the biodiesel, maybe 1 or 2 less, but hard to tell me only short journeys.
One thing that I did notice today was, it took three goes to start the Pathfinder this morning. Thats a first, once it started there was a bit of a cloud from the exhaust too. I've noticed a little bit of smoke from the exhaust before, but never that much.
Don't think its anything to worry about, but just thought I'd add it to the blog.
Just done first motorway journey since using biodiesel, was only a short trip of 40 miles or so, at around the legal limit on cruise it returned 32.2mpg on the M62 which is not exactly flat. Quite pleased really, have had up to 35/36 in the past on normal diesel, but have to say that was achieved at a flatter location of the country.
Had no further reoccurence of not being able to start the engine at first attempt, now starting first time as usual.
I guess the most noticeable thing is performance, really starting to notice its dragging its feet a bit, this may also explain the 1 or 2 less mpg as I'm having to work the car slightly harder to get the same performance. In the past I've used these plugin performance increase boxes from Tunit.co.uk, adding one may help balance things back out, but they're about £500.
Hi Simmo,
Are you still running the Pathfinder on Biodiesel?
I've not been bloggin for a long time and just found your question. So sorry for the very late reply...
In short, no I'm not running the Pathfinder on Bio anymore. I got a bit panicky after only a few tank fulls. I noticed that the engine was getting a bit rattley and I decided to go back to normal diesel.
About a year after stopping using bio diesel the warranty was about to run out so I had the rattle looked into. It turned out the head was cracked on one of the exhaust outlets. If this had anything to do with running bio diesel will remain a mystery. The engine was sorted and now runs like new. As diesel is now around 1 pound a litre I'm sticking to diesel for now.
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