Burning Biodiesel

[Glasswarrior]

I have a 2003 D4D Avensis with 100,000 miles on. I've become interested in making and using my own bio diesel. Does anyone else have any experience of this or know if the D4D engine will accept it? I've been assured by one company who makes & supplies equipment to make biodiesel at home that the D4D engine will run perfectly on it. In these times of super high fuel prices, I'm trying to make motoring affordable again.

[Sam29]

I have a 2003 D4D Avensis with 100,000 miles on. I've become interested in making and using my own bio diesel. Does anyone else have any experience of this or know if the D4D engine will accept it? I've been assured by one company who makes & supplies equipment to make biodiesel at home that the D4D engine will run perfectly on it. In these times of super high fuel prices, I'm trying to make motoring affordable again.

All old common rail engines work perfectly on bio diesel.

Luckily your D-4D is common rail engine and will work on it.

All you need to do is change your fuel filter before going for bio diesel and change your engine oil more periodically.

[Cyker]

Toyota don't support Biodiesel so any warranty left on the car will be invalidated.

That said, it should be okay; We have a few people here who use biodiesel (Albeit blends and not pure IIRC) and I've not read any problems apart from the fuel filter.

The engine should run fine (Possibly better!), the only worry is rubber hoses and seals, as biodiesel eats organic rubber. I don't think any modern Toyotas have any organic rubber in the fuel path tho' so should be okay!

The main caveat, esp. if you're using pure biodiesel, is to change the fuel filter after the first tank of biodiesel is run through or if the car starts to drive badly; One of the side-effects of Biodiesel is that it cleans out all the accumulated crap in the fuel system, but this also means the fuel filter will get clogged very quickly.

It may need changing a few times when you start using it before all the crap is cleared out and the filter stays un-clogged!

BTW, someone told me that you don't have to pay tax on home-made fuel if it's for personal use and below a certain amount in a year. Is that true??

[Glasswarrior]

Cyker, it's true, the Revenue allow you to make and consume for personal use 2500 litres per year without paying tax, so that's one of the main reasons for my interest.

I've had this Avensis a year now and been really pleased. Had a petrol one before, loved it too. On suburban driving we get an average of 44mpg out of her. That's quite good but fuel prices are getting outrageous. here is no manufacturer warranty left on her and the one year after market one I bought for peace of mind after buying it has expired - and too expensive to renew! I had a mis-fueling error very recently, shoved £20 of unleaded on top of about 5 litres of diesel, drove 10 miles before realising. Got away with a drain and flush, no damage. I fitted a Fuel Angel so it won't happen again! But making my own diesel has piqued my interest. I'm grateful for all information.

[Cyker]

*Mr Burns voice* eeeexcellent!

My Yaris gets through about 50 litres a month so it would barely get through a fifth of that limit in a year!!

I wonder if you can hire one of those biodiesel manufacturing units, then you just need to dump a load of used chippie-oil into it and run the car off the result for the year