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judielarry's avatar
judielarry
Explorer
Apr 03, 2015

Bad diesel fuel

New guy on forum. I have a 2005 Coachman motorhome 300 Cummins engine. Has anyone out there purchased any bad diesel fuel for their unit recently. We were on our way to Fla. and we filled up at the Flying J's on our way down. Ran fine for about 850mi. Our last fillup was in Southern Georgia. Motorhome started losing pwr and missing, could not get up to speed only about 35mph. We were only about 3 miles away from our destination. Next morning I changed out the fuel filter thinking that might be the problem. Started the engine and it idled and reved up just fine. After a few days we left and drove about 50mi to another location engine ran good and stayed there for a few weeks. We started back home and drove about 100mi and it started losing pwr and missing again. So i thought the filter was clogging up again and changed it for the 2nd time. Ran good for about another 200mi. Parked for the night and filled the tank and poured in a good dose of Howe's treatment and Lucas fuel injector cleaner. Ran good the rest the way home except for the last few miles. There were a few hills to climb and i put the engine under load going up the hills to see if would lose power and it did but not as much as before. I had changed 4 filters before the trip ended. What recourse would I have to prove that I had gotten bad fuel? One of the counter persons at Napa said I could have gotten fuel that had algae in it, so i added some biocide to shock it. Thanks for any feed back, Larry
  • Tom_Barb's avatar
    Tom_Barb
    Explorer
    Apr 03, 2015
    Dave H M wrote:
    Yeah, I don't think black diesel would go over too good.

    It would be hard to imagine the commotion it would cause if every rig that fueled there choked down.


    Believe me, it isn't, and who knows it didn't shut down every truck that fueled there? they would be a long ways from the Flying J before they choked down. And if they did call and complain Flying J sure wouldn't advertise it.
  • Tom_Barb's avatar
    Tom_Barb
    Explorer
    Apr 03, 2015
    eHoefler wrote:
    Sounds like you have an algae problem. Pulling the tank and cleaning is the only way to solve it if it is very serious. Sounds like yours is pretty serious.


    Ever try pulling a 150 gallon tank from a raised rail frame? not easy, you must find a facility that has a service pit large enough.
  • Tom_Barb's avatar
    Tom_Barb
    Explorer
    Apr 03, 2015
    We Cant Wait wrote:
    Tom/Barb, that bit about Flying "J" dumping their used oil in their in ground fuel tanks is not true. In all reality they could never do that with the EPA doing spot checks on the in ground fuel at all truck stops to say nothing of the trucks being pulled over at the weigh stations and having their fuel checked for EPA compliance. The story was probably started by a fired employee.


    We fueled in Arkansas at a Flying J, half a tank later we were on the side changing fuel filters, we saved all the filters we changed, when we got home, we flushed the tank, and and all the filter we removed with a clean solvent, saved the debris found in the bottom of the solvent, then sent it in to be analyzed, results came back "carbon" as found in crank case oil.

    I don't care who put it in the flying J tank, but I know it was there. I don't even care if it got there by accident, or on purpose. But I do know it was there. This was a hard learned and expensive lesson.
    burn me once shame on you, burn me twice shame on me.
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Apr 03, 2015
    RACOR FILTER. Buy a bigger model than recommended Choose "S" grade filter elements which are ONE micron. This won't stop you from getting dirty fuel or water contamination but it darned sure stops at the filter. Water cannot pass through a 1 micron filter element. Neither can anything else but crystal clean diesel.
  • eHoefler's avatar
    eHoefler
    Explorer II
    Apr 03, 2015
    Sounds like you have an algae problem. Pulling the tank and cleaning is the only way to solve it if it is very serious. Sounds like yours is pretty serious.
  • Dave_H_M's avatar
    Dave_H_M
    Explorer II
    Apr 03, 2015
    We Cant Wait wrote:
    Tom/Barb, that bit about Flying "J" dumping their used oil in their in ground fuel tanks is not true. In all reality they could never do that with the EPA doing spot checks on the in ground fuel at all truck stops to say nothing of the trucks being pulled over at the weigh stations and having their fuel checked for EPA compliance. The story was probably started by a fired employee.


    :h Yeah, I don't think black diesel would go over too good.

    It would be hard to imagine the commotion it would cause if every rig that fueled there choked down.
  • We_Cant_Wait's avatar
    We_Cant_Wait
    Explorer
    Apr 03, 2015
    Tom/Barb, that bit about Flying "J" dumping their used oil in their in ground fuel tanks is not true. In all reality they could never do that with the EPA doing spot checks on the in ground fuel at all truck stops to say nothing of the trucks being pulled over at the weigh stations and having their fuel checked for EPA compliance. The story was probably started by a fired employee.
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    Moderator
    Apr 03, 2015
    Moved from Forum Tech Issues to Tech Issues

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  • Tom_Barb's avatar
    Tom_Barb
    Explorer
    Apr 03, 2015
    judielarry wrote:
    New guy on forum. I have a 2005 Coachman motorhome 300 Cummins engine. Has anyone out there purchased any bad diesel fuel for their unit recently. We were on our way to Fla. and we filled up at the Flying J's on our way down. Ran fine for about 850mi. Our last fillup was in Southern Georgia. Motorhome started losing pwr and missing, could not get up to speed only about 35mph. We were only about 3 miles away from our destination. Next morning I changed out the fuel filter thinking that might be the problem. Started the engine and it idled and reved up just fine. After a few days we left and drove about 50mi to another location engine ran good and stayed there for a few weeks. We started back home and drove about 100mi and it started losing pwr and missing again. So i thought the filter was clogging up again and changed it for the 2nd time. Ran good for about another 200mi. Parked for the night and filled the tank and poured in a good dose of Howe's treatment and Lucas fuel injector cleaner. Ran good the rest the way home except for the last few miles. There were a few hills to climb and i put the engine under load going up the hills to see if would lose power and it did but not as much as before. I had changed 4 filters before the trip ended. What recourse would I have to prove that I had gotten bad fuel? One of the counter persons at Napa said I could have gotten fuel that had algae in it, so i added some biocide to shock it. Thanks for any feed back, Larry


    We went thru this from a Flying J in Arkansas, we ended up pulling the tank and flushing it. and we used 5 set of filters to get it to stay clean.

    We found that some flying J stations dump their used oil into the diesel tanks. and the hard carbon particles clog your filters.

    OBTW you can not have algae until you have water. fuel oil will not grow a plant without water.

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