Veggie Vehicles

The first vehicle I ran on Biodiesel was a Renault Traffic with a 2.1 engine, the same as Josh Tickell's Veggievan but without the turbo. This ran faultlessly, visiting the RAC rally in the middle of winter and always started well despite the engine being worn out to start with.

My Astra has now covered about 12000 miles since it was bought just over a year ago. Most of this has been done on 100% Biodiesel. So far it has been mainly problem free: The filter life has been reduced to the manufactures recommended interval because it cleans out any muck in the tank. It clogged up the week before it was going in for a service! Cold starts are not really a problem, it's never not started. If it's frosty then it might need two lots of heat and a little bit of throttle for ten seconds to warm it all up. This isn't a lot different to normal. The heater duration and fast idle could be tweaked but it's not really worth the effort. The exhaust smell is a lot more pleasant than diesel although traffic jams can cause hunger pangs when the subtle smell of frying wafts past. I've quite often seen people wind down their windows and sniff the air when they're sat behind me.