Cold weather diesel issues

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G'day Everyone,

just this weekend I had my first snow driving experience. Travelled across Howitt High Plains and stayed at Lovicks Hut last night. It was an awesome trip, we were hoping for snow and weren't disappointed with about 3 inches falling over night. Temperature got down to -4 and I experienced some difficulty getting the car started. It would fire up and run fine for a few seconds, and then die. It's a 2012 Navara dual cab turbo diesel, we eventually managed to start it by warming the motor and particularly by using a radiant gas heater to put hot air into the intake. Was running fine for about 20 mins heading for bluff hut when it died again. Same thing, would start, run for 5-20 seconds then die as is starving for fuel. Again it took a while to get running ( more by good luck I think) and we made it back home without further problems.

had a hilux turbo diesel of similar vintage with us that had the same dramas in starting in the morning but then ran fine, can anyone other some info on what was happening with my nissan, is it because I wasn't using alpine diesel or something else? Any help would be appreciated, I really enjoyed the snow driving but now don't feel confident taking the Nav out if it doesn't like the cold

cheers everyone 

Roger


John F (flemj)
01 Jun 2015

Hi Roger

 

Your fuel turned to jelly and it will not run. You do need Alpine Diesel or you can put a diesel additive in it called Flashlube. I have heard of people using heating oil to thin it out, but I dont know.

 

You need to do this before you hit the snowline

 

Regards

John

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Hi Roger

 

Your fuel turned to jelly and it will not run. You do need Alpine Diesel or you can put a diesel additive in it called Flashlube. I have heard of people using heating oil to thin it out, but I dont know.

Thanks John

will do that next time, we had a 2001 100 series land cruiser 1Hz with aftermarket turbo that started with no troubles, I'm guessing the later model common rail diesels are affected more than earlier models?

thanks again

Roger

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Jason
Jason (Jasjul)
03 Jun 2015

The more hi tech te diesel the more care you need to take.  if I'm going in the north side I always top up at BP Mansfield, they've been pumping alpine diesel for about a month now.  If I'm down south, I've got an alpine additive I picked up from Autobarn, but I'm sure any big auto store should have something.  I've also camped at Howitt Hut and woken up to snow.  2012 BT50 fired up no worries with the additive.

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Thanks Jason, 

going to head back in a couple of weeks to mount Skene to make sure it works okay with the proper fuel

Cheers

Roger

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Andrew
Andrew (Kimmdogg)
11 Jun 2015

Another good product is the "Chemtech Diesel Power".   This suff i use in my van does a multiple of things from clean injectors to thermal stability.

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Another good product is the "Chemtech Diesel Power".   This suff i use in my van does a multiple of things from clean injectors to thermal stability.

Thanks Andrew, will look it up!

Cheers, Roger

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