Diesel in U.S.

"AS" wrote in news:3ga5m.5844$ snipped-for-privacy@flpi144.ffdc.sbc.com:

prevent diesel.

Deisels are not partcularly good in areas that have cold winter weather, so a diesel would be mainly a product for warm weather states. Subaru is most popular in cold weather states.

How cold? Where I live (and visit) the lowest temperature is >15F typically - does diesel make sense in such conditions?

Boris

I think this is a good point, but how cold does it have to get before the subaru diesel has issues starting? My neighbor has a TDI that has no trouble starting at 15 degrees. Last winter he didn't even plug it in until it got below 25 at night. True it is a pain to have to plug a car in. Especially if you take it to work, stay there long enough to let the engine cool to ambient, then try to restart it at 20 or 25 degrees. I did that a few times with an old mercedes diesel and had a tough time getting going. But these cars are newer. Consumers don't accept that any more. Technology has progressed. I'd be surprised if Subaru diesels have cold weather issues.

I think that perhaps we should just see if they do by asking others who own them in cold environments. Unfortunately this september isn't going to be cold anywhere in the world they sell subarus. I wonder if they had some development mules operating at low temps somewhere that someone knows about.

This doesn't make much sense. There are winter fuel additives that make diesel reliable in all but the most severe arctic winters.

"Typically" in this case (>15F) means diesel re-sellers/refineries in your area may not be adding winter fuel additives. When a cold spell hits, you may experience problems. Where winters are more severe (>0F or so) anti-gelling additives are added routinely in winter months, so there are relatively few problems. Of course when a cold spell hits, it is the same story all over as concentration may still prove low.

AS

I don't think there's any issue with diesel engines and cold as such. Here in Finland almost all heavy vehicles are diesels, in private cars a significant portion. Winter temperatures can go as low as -40 (conveniently doesn't matter whether it's celcius or fahrenheit). There is winter grade diesel fuel though, apparently so that it remains a liquid in cold temperatures... Also electrical systems are beefed up (stronger starter motor, larger battery, heavier charger).

Exactly.

Same her in germany, although our winters are not comparable to the finnish ones (thanks god:). As winter approaches, the fuel stations get the winter diesel. The consumer does not even notice. The question is whether in the U.S. such a logistic is also implemented, given their marginal share of diesel cars. How about Canada? Is diesel popular there? I remember a week in the Banff national park, where tmperatures never went above -20=B0C. People let their motors running, while purchasing something in the super market, etc. Astonishing.

Same her in germany, although our winters are not comparable to the finnish ones (thanks god:). As winter approaches, the fuel stations get the winter diesel. The consumer does not even notice. The question is whether in the U.S. such a logistic is also implemented, given their marginal share of diesel cars. How about Canada? Is diesel popular there? I remember a week in the Banff national park, where tmperatures never went above -20°C. People let their motors running, while purchasing something in the super market, etc. Astonishing.

They do that with gas engines unless they can plug in the block heater. When it is -40ish, you'd have a hard time getting the engine going again in after a few minutes. They do have winter diesel though.

At -40 with no blockheater you are good for about an hour before the engine gets cold enough to have any starting issues - but by then the car is a deep-freeze and it takes half an hour to get it above freezing inside.

We do have winter deisel in Canada - but deisel is NOT popular. Until very recently our deisel fuel was high sulphur, so all deisels were very smelly. Quick-Glo systems make deisels relatively easy to start in cold weather as long as everything is up to spec. Without quick-glo you almost need ether to start - and if the compression is down you DO need it.