Well I stand corrected. I didn't know it was that bad.

The diesel is not in spec leaving the refinery. The additive is added at the fuel terminals. Terminals generally don't have a full lab and 15 chemical engineers on staff, and I've seen some interesting things happen at terminals that you wouldn't see at refineries just from the lack of technical expertise.

The additive is also very expensive so I can guarantee that only the minimum amount is put in. What was just good enough today may not be good enough tomorrow. I have no idea what kind of testing the terminals do on this.

I saw a presentation from an additive provider a few years ago. He had a chart showing a ppm addition vs. % fuel meeting lub spec. It implied that you chose what percent of your diesel you wanted to be in spec and added x ppm. That's pretty messed up. There are no other fuel specs that are negotiable that I'm aware of.

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1982 300TD 279K.
1984 190D 5sp 265K