The curse of bio diesel !

Well today my car in this cold weather has gone into limp mode ( restricted performance warning , orange engine light )

The problem is a blocked fuel filter caused by either

A : waxing of the diesel in the cold ( which is a surprise as its 1 deg c)

Or more likely

B : bio diesel black sludge in the fuel filter !


This seems to be an all too common problem on modern euro v cars .


Supermarkets and the main brands are all adding upto 7% bio blend to there fuels , which causes the problem

They all use the same base stock diesel from the distribution depots and then just inject additive packs at the loading arm. Sainsbury inject the least additives.

So I really don't know the answer on how to stop this problem occurring again, except keep on changing the fuel filter at £100 ago.


Somebody said use Diesel Rhino additive , I have never heard of it.

I wonder if adding Millar's (or it might be Miller's) Diesel Cetane enhancer that good auto stores sell - I have added it to my Defender's tank to prevent diesel problems when it is laid up over the last 5 winters and never had a problem when I first start her (after replacing the flat battery that has been killed by the cold...........) every spring. I have since invested in a battery conditioner now the Def gets parked near a powerpoint and even the flat battery is a thing of the past.

I always fill-up at Shell using their normal diesel and even at -13 never had any problems.

Wife has a BMW 120d which has always been run on Shell V Power diesel, its very low mileage and it has never missed a beat, will run the Evoque on the same when we take delivery next week.

(24-03-2013 05:33pm)Stadt Panzer Wrote:  I always fill-up at Shell using their normal diesel and even at -13 never had any problems.

I mainly fill up at Tesco, and we've had temperatures as low as -10 (and below), but I haven't experienced any issues with their diesel.

I got my Evoque back on Friday after it spent 10 days at the dealers while they investigated a very similar problem.

The engine was warm and I was more than halfway to work when it coughed and spluttered and very nearly stalled on me. The yellow triangle came up with the restricted performance warning and I think I saw a low fuel pressure warning (over half a tank of diesel left though). The rest of the journey was completed very slowly and carefully and I then called Land Rover Assistance.

The Land Rover tech guy plugged in his laptop and the fault logged was "P0087-22 - Fuel rail pressure too low." He would have changed the fuel filter there and then if he had one on him, but he didn't so he referred me to the dealers (where it had been serviced only four weeks previously!).

The dealer could not find a definitive reason for the fault and spent a few days talking to Land Rover, uploading data from the engine management system. In the end they just changed the fuel filter and declared it fixed. I've put a few miles on it this weekend without any further hiccups - time will tell.

PS - I've never put supermarket fuel in it, mainly BP Ultimate, or Shell V-Power and the standard versions when those are not available.

(24-03-2013 06:02pm)BaringTech Wrote:  The engine was warm and I was more than halfway to work when it coughed and spluttered and very nearly stalled on me. The yellow triangle came up with the restricted performance warning and I think I saw a low fuel pressure warning (over half a tank of diesel left though). The rest of the journey was completed very slowly and carefully and I then called Land Rover Assistance.

The Land Rover tech guy plugged in his laptop and the fault logged was "P0087-22 - Fuel rail pressure too low." He would have changed the fuel filter there and then if he had one on him, but he didn't so he referred me to the dealers (where it had been serviced only four weeks previously!).

PS - I've never put supermarket fuel in it, mainly BP Ultimate, or Shell V-Power and the standard versions when those are not available.

All the fuel shell / bp / asda / texaco etc come from the same base stocks

The only difference is the additives packs that are injected when they load the tankers, so since its now appears to be law to have a minimum of 5% bio blend in diesel.

Hence there is the problem, it's not just effecting Land rover , it seems to be effecting Ford , Citroen etc

So the Eurocrats say we must meet emissions levels and the government say you must run your car on bio diesel.

The two just don't go together , the technology appears not to work


P.s the assistance guy who came to see me knew what the problem was before plugging the laptop in, he was down to his last fuel filter as they fit so many

There's part of your answer - the 2.2TDi in the Evoque is a Ford/PSA engine

I always use the local supermarket, never had any problems. I thought the Evoque could handle 7% bio diesel.

The bus company I work for uses bio diesel, a much stronger blend than most filling stations, and our 59/60 reg double deckers are taking a hammering, constantly reduced engine performance, sometimes running with only 50% of their engine output.

It's nasty stuff.

Mine broke down last cold snap and turned out to be the fuel filter, LR assistance guy had been to a freelander before hand with same issue.

I was using supermarkets cheapest then went to shell when I got a fuel card, always fill with vpower now but won't know if this issue occurs again until mileage climbs to the next service. I fill up about 3 times a week due to mileage so could be an issue with storage tanks in the real cold weather