I've been thinking about filling up with bio-diesel for the past couple of months, but whenever I come to it, I bottle it and go to tesco!

I just don't know enough about the stuff, weather its safe for the car, weather my consumption will be poorer etc etc.

It's £1.12 somewhere close to home.

What do I do?!

Normal derv is now 5% bio derv.

Assuming you have a 50 L tank, I would run the derv down and have the tank properly cleaned and the filter changed then just mix it 50:50 and see how you go increasing it as you go.

Taking this to not be a case as draining and cleaning a tank costs money I'd do the following.

1) Go buy a genuine fuel filter, you will probably need it.

2) Run the tank low and then put 5L of bio and 45L of normal derv in the tank.

Repeat this and increase the amount of bio by 2.5 or 5L at a time until you are running 50:50.

Do this for a few fill ups and then run the tank very low and get the fuel filter changed.

If the car feels like it's running rough or down on power in a big way before this point get the new filter fitted and be prepared to change it again.

Then start increasing the amount of bio until you are at 75% or higher if you think the car is fine with this.

In winter I'd probably not go about 50:50 as bio can wax over more easily than mineral derc. Make the percentage bio even lower if it's particularly cold.

Somebody on here runs it all the time though so they will know more.

Once you're happy replace the fuel filter twice as regularly as the service manual states.

All IMHO and at your own risk of course.

I have seen the results of someone running on bio diesel mate and its not good and have heard bad stories from mates in the motor trade too but then again other people seem to have no bother.Personally i wouldnt recomend it but then i am not a fan of diesel anyway

Have search on this site.

I have posted in at least 10 Bio diesel related threads having run my last three PD engines on it quite sucessfully.

If the Bio is up to scratch then you will be able to run it fine up to about 60% at this time of year (This has to be Bio not WVO), my VRS used to love the stuff however as mentioned you will need to play with the mix and find out whats best. I ran my VRS on 50/50 WVO in the summer and it was fine. One thing to note is that you will never get it running on 100% so don't even try (I speak from bitter experiance).

You will go through a few more filters than you used to but thats the trade off. As with anything there is always a risk, however the choice is yours and all we can do is make sure your as informed as you can be about those choices. Do a search for bio and my username, loads of info will come up.

Thanks a lot for the responses people.

I think for now I'll give it a miss. I've also heard that some garages don't sell exactly what they claim to be selling.