Dear Kind people of this forum,

upon cleaning the fuel tank strainer,

Diesel was black , ( see picture attached )

black staff around the strainer lips,

Did put Star Brite, star Torn,in the tank,(probably too much!),

filled the tank with new diesel, ( 23.5 gallons!!!!),

took the prime fuel filter out, cut it open, ( see attached picture )

Black on the outside filter paper,

The diesel that came out, looks clean,(middle picture )

am I the only one?

driving 15,000-20,000 miles a year,

keep the tank full, Southern California,

order three Fuel filters, to keep in the trunk,

any clue?

thanks

reuven

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I don't see much of a problem there. If it's critters in the tank you'll find your primary filter full of black stuff.

I used Startron once and my filter didn't show black after that.

With the fuel leaving that black residue I'd probably run a couple cans of straight Diesel Purge. Pour it in a bottle and put the supply hose down in the bottle close to the bottom and put the return hose in the side of the bottle close to the top.

The return fuel will be nasty looking but just let the engine run until the fuel returned clears up a bit.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

it is algae that got to growing in the fuel when you had either a lot of stagnant fuel or perhaps the car sat without running for a period of time.
I had this problem in my '79 300TD and it took a couple of years of changing strainers and filters (one strainer three filters) AFTER a shot of Redline Diesel BIOSTAT every fill up. No longer available, BIOSTAT probably had something in it that the California Liberals thought harmful to their way of life.
There are diesel conditioners on the market maybe they will kill the stuff but if you really want to fix the problem fast you drop the tank and have it steam cleaned. After its drained of course.
In the wagon its easy to do without dropping the tank, you remove the fuel level sensor and have a nice big opening to look down into the tank and using a long brush you might be able to clean it manually. The sedan tanks are of the wrong form factor to allow one to do that.
Oh, I remember a Forum member that put some steel balls into the tank and drove around with them rolling around on the bottom to remove some of the stuff. If its real bad you may have to resort to that.
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

Thanks for the quick response,

just realize that on small amount of diesels can NOT see the black staff,

what ever it is,

on bigger volume of diesel , I can see the black staff ,

thanks

Startron has an enzyme in it that is supposed to break up the growth into particles small enough to pass through your filters. However it is possible to have a large enough issue that one treatment will not work.

If you read some of the older threads you will find that people often get the nasty diesel fuel when they go on trips outside of the area they normally buy in.

Buying from places that the Big Rig diesel trucks frequent is another way to avoid getting bad fuel. The rason for that is if a Trucker gets a load of bad fuel he gets on the radio and tells others to avoid the place he got the fuel.

Buying from some little independent station that is off the main road is more risking then getting the fuel from the down town of some sizeable town.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

#1: it's fungus not algae ! algae needs sunlight to grow .

Startron works really well and you cannot over dose it but as mentioned, sometimes the problem comes with the recently purchased vehicle .

Your photos show the top of the secondary filter to be shiny clean steel so you prolly just got a bad load of fuel not a serious problem .

I recently tried K100 fungus killer and it worked *much* better than Startron, I've been using Starton for a few years but this other K100 stuff kicked the fungus' behind .

As mentioned, adding a few clear plastic paper element inline filters after the clear plastic fuel intake screen, will allow you to see what's going on and rapidly catch ann the dead fungus from whatever additive you choose .

Carry a few spare paper element filters as they some times fill up quickly ~ as soon as they change from yellow to brown, you need to change them ASAP .

FWIW, I had to take my fuel gauge sender out and apart and every so gently clean it as it had a serious accumulation of fungus built up inside it .

Have fun and don't dawdle addressing this problem .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Its not fungus, it's bacteria.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Second thread this week on this topic:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/386705-top-tier-diesel-fuel-california.html

I still think the coloration has something to do with it being CA-compliant fuel. Either a dye, or some byproduct of using biofuels. Or maybe someone is disposing of used motor oil by dumping it into the supply tanks.

thanks for the response,

last two gas station were Costco Woodland Hills Ca.

did not travel lately,

thanks again,

Ugh...

Most of the black mess in a diesel tank is asphalt dropping out of solution.

The "infection" in a diesel tank is bacteria... not fungus or algae

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