Quote Originally Posted by Scotrod View Post
I've been considering a small diesel,,, My needs really aren't a perfect 'fit' for diesel, but they do have some advantages.

Diesel fueling is / can be pretty nasty. The pumps down here are always pretty grimy,,,
I agree, Scott! There are some advantages like long engine life and great fuel mileage. Diesel in NC is running around $3.75/gal. right now. My wife's Jetta TDI gets up to around 42 mpg on the highway and has a range of up to 600 miles. As far as nasty fueling...the stations I frequent provide plastic gloves and that helps a lot. On the downside, I have to change the fuel filter every 20K miles but that's not too bad a job. Otherwise, service is not too different from gas engines.

There does seem to be some concern about the ultra-low sulfur fuel providing good lubrication to the fuel pumps (pumps are lubricated by the fuel). BTW, there are 3 fuel pumps on the TDI engine. A lift pump in the tank, an intermediate pump, and a belt-driven high pressure pump. Believe it or not, that high pressure pump is providing up to 25,000 psi to the injectors . Just to further protect those pumps, I use an additive from Power Service which hopefully, will prevent that HP pump from "grenading". Talk about a bad day!