Bad diesel fuel

[judielarry]

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

[Stefonius]

Gooding. R wrote:
Also remember, some diesel machines have 2 fuel filters. A primary(small) and a secondary(large) filter. You can change the big filter till the cows come home and still have a clogged filter. The small filter usually has a scraper handle on top, but this is only good for several uses and you have to change the filter.

I had a friend who had problems nearly identical to the OPs. It turned out that his particular rig had three fuel filters. The first half dozen shops he took it to had no idea. He replaced filter after filter, had many of the fuel lines replaced, had the tank dropped and cleaned, spent a small fortune and the problem still did not go away. The last shop had one mechanic who knew that there was another filter. It looked like it hadn't been changed since the coach was new and it was clogged nearly solid. His engine has been purring like a kitten ever since.

[Charlie_D_]

So much for filters at the stations. Many have disagreed with me but IF stations have filters I think they do a poor job of replacing them. I have never seen filters being replaced while fueling and neither has anyone one I asked. Flying J, Pilot, etc would need a large bank of filters to filter the fuel. Filters at the pump, IMO, wouldn't do it. The number of trucks fueling at a pump in one day would dispense more fuel that many of us would use in a life time.

That's my story and I am sticking with it.:D

[gatorcq]

Never bad fuel from any mayor fuel companies. However, Bio-diesel is a different animal. Traveling from St Louse thru Kansas, we fueled up, however we put in Bio-diesel, Coming into Dodge City you guessed it, fuel problems. Stopped at the Freightliner and had the filter changed out. Found out the BD used in that area is animal fat, and when it gets cold. Well, our power dropped from 65 mph to 45 mph. Think about this, if a mayor fuel farm was putting out bad fuel, wouldn't you see trucks on both sides of the highway?

[MM49]

Tom/Barb wrote:

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.

You should be sued for a statement like this.
MM49

[MM49]

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

The symptoms really sound like the fuel tank bug. The fuel pickup screen is plugged. A temporary fix ix is to use air pressure to blow back into the tank to open the fuel pick up screen. The cleaner you put in the tank has made a small problem much worse. Professional fuel tank steam cleaning is the permanent solution.
MM49

[Fleet_Man]

Contact the F-J where you think you got the bad fuel. If you got bad fuel there, so did many others. Several years ago, September of 2007 if I remember correctly, the F-J at Carlisle, PA got a load of bad fuel and a large number of customers were adversely affected. That F-J acknowledged the bad fuel and provided assistance to those who complained and could prove they purchased fuel there at the time in question. No supplier wants to be branded as one who sells dirty fuel on purpose, word spreads quickly and they soon are forced out of business.

[Tom_Barb]

Gooding. R wrote:
Also remember, some diesel machines have 2 fuel filters. A primary(small) and a secondary(large) filter. You can change the big filter till the cows come home and still have a clogged filter. The small filter usually has a scraper handle on top, but this is only good for several uses and you have to change the filter.

Our Spartan/Cummins, has a chassis and an engine filter, they are the same part number. I buy at NAPA, or Fleet guard.

[Star_Gazer]

Yep, got water in my diesel at the Flying J Knoxville last Nov. Broke down within 20 miles and got towed to the Ford dealer just down the road from FJ main corp office. The refused to do anything saying I did not get it from them. I guess I drove the last 300 miles with that in my tank and it just happened to kill the engine after I got FJ fuel?

Anyways, wasted a day, $2500 however my insurance covered all but my deductable. They said they will go after them as I had plenty of evidence.

So Flying J or Pilot will not be one of my stops every again. Except to dump 🙂

[Gooding__R]

Also remember, some diesel machines have 2 fuel filters. A primary(small) and a secondary(large) filter. You can change the big filter till the cows come home and still have a clogged filter. The small filter usually has a scraper handle on top, but this is only good for several uses and you have to change the filter.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

We did get bad fuel at a Flying J after heavy rains in that area. Been a couple years ago and don't recall the location. We changed the fuel filter twice and shocked the tank. Solved the problem. We usually buy fuel at half a tank so that may have helped.

[Tom_Barb]

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]

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]

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]

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.