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Old 7th March 2007, 09:19 PM
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Re: FIAT Punto 1.3 TD: suitable for bio-blends?

B5 - nah, don't worry about that mate! The Euro Standard and the Australian standard do differ in a few areas, but they are hardly relevant to whether biodiesel will work in your car or not.

For example the Euro spec contains an iodine level, as rapeseed does not contain iodine, but soy (used in the US) does. This was possibly done for economic reasons to prevent US imports of biodiesel to Europe,so hardly to do with the combustion of biodiesel in your engine.

The Australian spec, without getting too much into detail, meets or exceeds the Euro and the US specs in all the relevant areas and you are not going to have a car broken because a European manufacturer has not done their own testing on other countries standards.

It's more of an arse covering and bureaucratic issue here than a real mechanical one. Land Rover say no, but I run B100 and have not had problems, like so many other users here. Peugeot say 30%, but I run B100 - same story.

Now, as for the warranty, FIAT don't warrant the fuel, they warrant the car against manufacturing defects. If you picked up a dodgy tank of petro-diesel and incurred costs from the damage done, FIAT would wash their hands of the responsibility and tell you to seek compensation from your fuel supplier. Same for biodiesel.

Don't worry about it and go for B100, or whatever other blend you can get, providing you are aware of the possibility of having to change your filter the first time if there is any petro-gunk in your system. It seems you've done a bit of research already, so maybe you do, but if not, ask and we'll point you in the right direction.

Cheers,
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