Leaving tank more than 1/4 full

[WelshGas]

There are plenty of legitimate reasons why people might want to keep their fuel tank low, and only top up a little each refill. 70/80 litres is a refill limit not a refill target. For those reasons I think it is a little unkind to refer to people who would routinely refuel to under a quarter of a tank as "numpties". It wasn't until very recently that we learnt of the problems associated with routinely keeping the tank low.

Well unless it is just me, I was informed many years ago that it was not good practice to regularly run fuel tanks at a low volume as this concentrated the various contaminants that are present in the fuel diesel/petrol in particular water, which gains entry through various methods ( atmospheric changes in temperature/humidity and poor handling etc: ) . One of the reasons that there is a fuel filter in the supply line. Also with many modern engines utilising injectors manufactured to very fine tolerances and very high output/pressure fuel pumps, such contaminants can cause serious/expensive damage.
Running on low fuel volumes, with more frequent low volume refuelling can increase the amount/incidence of such contamination due to repeated opening of the fuel tank and low tank volumes concentrating such contaminants thus increasing the risk of damage within the fuel system, especially in modern engines that are engineered to very fine tolerances.
So, in theory, and I personally believe in practice, the fewer times you remove the fuel cap to refuel, the less chance of introducing such contamination.
Do as you wish, accept or don’t accept my reasoning, we are all free to do as we wish.

And I still maintain that someone who runs a modern vehicle with £5 of fuel in the tank and tops up with the bare minimum is a Numpty, or it’s not his vehicle.

 

[Meoncoast]

Well unless it is just me, I was informed many years ago that it was not good practice to regularly run fuel tanks at a low volume as this concentrated the various contaminants that are present in the fuel diesel/petrol in particular water, which gains entry through various methods ( atmospheric changes in temperature/humidity and poor handling etc: ) . One of the reasons that there is a fuel filter in the supply line. Also with many modern engines utilising injectors manufactured to very fine tolerances and very high output/pressure fuel pumps, such contaminants can cause serious/expensive damage.

I was also told that many years ago - but more like if run from the tank right down all the S%*T from the bottom of the tank gets into the system. True or false - Is your tank 1/2 full or 1/2 empty - 1 like to keep as full as practical.

 

[WelshGas]

I think we've established this is wrong. The T6 doesn't passively regen. Blasting down the motorway may slow the relative creation of soot, but ALL the regeneration on a T6 is computer controlled and involves forced injection of fuel.

In my original post I stated that on the T6 the DPF regenerations seem to be of the forced variety, as a preemptive measure, so if on a long run fuel levels drop below the minimum level required for a regeneration and you then stop and refuel then regeneration will then take place when conditions are met as you now have sufficient fuel, However if you repeatedly fail to refuel above the minimum 1/4 tank then regeneration will repeatedly fail until such time as the DPF becomes blocked.

 

[Amarillo]

And I still maintain that someone who runs a modern vehicle with £5 of fuel in the tank and tops up with the bare minimum is a Numpty, or it’s not his vehicle.

That is not what you said earlier. And I never mentioned £5 worth of fuel. Neither do I disagree with anything you say about running a tank to very low levels. (You seem particularly fond of constructing a strawman). A 1/4 of a T6 tank is 20 litres or 17.5 litres (~£25).

Referring to what you said earlier, 1/4 of a tank isn't particularly empty.

What I said was, "There are plenty of legitimate reasons why people might want to keep their fuel tank low", and we can discuss that if you disagree. If you don't disagree, can we agree that it is a little unkind to refer to such people as "numpties"?

 

[WelshGas]

That is not what you said earlier. And I never mentioned £5 worth of fuel. Neither do I disagree with anything you say about running a tank to very low levels. (You seem particularly fond of constructing a strawman). A 1/4 of a T6 tank is 20 litres or 17.5 litres (~£25).

Referring to what you said earlier, 1/4 of a tank isn't particularly empty.

What I said was, "There are plenty of legitimate reasons why people might want to keep their fuel tank low", and we can discuss that if you disagree. If you don't disagree, can we agree that it is a little unkind to refer to such people as "numpties"?

Correct, I mentioned running with less than 20 L of fuel, or if you wish to be pedantic 17.5L if you have the 70L tank and was using the £5 of fuel as an exaggerated example, obviously lost on you.
Anyway, I still maintain that anyone who wishes to run their modern vehicles on very low fuel levels for any period of time are Numpties and deserve any problems they might experience.
And, No, I do not wish to discuss anything further on this topic. End Of.

 

[Amarillo]

Correct, I mentioned running with less than 20 L of fuel, or if you wish to be pedantic 17.5L if you have the 70L tank and was using the £5 of fuel as an exaggerated example, obviously lost on you.
Anyway, I still maintain that anyone who wishes to run their modern vehicles on very low fuel levels for any period of time are Numpties and deserve any problems they might experience.
And, No, I do not wish to discuss anything further on this topic. End Of.

Ha ha - so you are happy to argue a point I didn't make (running on 5L fuel) but not one I did (running on under 20L fuel)?

More subtle this time, but you still cannot help building your strawman. Yes - I spotted your change in emphasis which you then argue against (from my low to your very low).

 

[Joker 1299]

Ha ha - so you are happy to argue a point I didn't make (running on 5L fuel) but not one I did (running on under 20L fuel)?

More subtle this time, but you still cannot help building your strawman. Yes - I spotted your change in emphasis which you then argue against (from my low to your very low).

Come on you guys. Bury the hatchet! You are two of my favourite posters on this forum, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. Life is too short. Let’s just get on.

 

[JerryB]

Yes what about supermarket fuel!

 

[WelshGas]

Come on you guys. Bury the hatchet! You are two of my favourite posters on this forum, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. Life is too short. Let’s just get on.

No problem. It’s a pity people cannot have their own opinions without being hounded. Maybe I’m too quick to rise to the bait.

 

[Toothlessjon]

FYI VW left this in my glove box. Looks like VW are now confirming the tank must be 1/4 full.
View attachment 54391

Was this in your glove box when you picked up your new or used T6? Did it have any information on the back?

 

[2into1]

@vwguru (tagged at the start of this thread and mentioned several times) hasn't been on the forum since 4th Jan. Hope he's just having a well deserved holiday, and hasn't got fed up of us, or been told to stay off by vw.

 

[Toothlessjon]

No problem. It’s a pity people cannot have their own opinions without being hounded. Maybe I’m too quick to rise to the bait.

The trouble with all forums is we are Remote from each other, we don’t know what type of person we are dealing with. For instance i am a sarcastic B who thinks he’s right all the time (actually I am right all the time). Humour doesn’t come over very well either. Also you have a lot of old people on here and they are the worst for being short with people and again always thing they are right And get frustrated with people too easily.

We also read into messages things that are not there because we don’t see the persons face. As an example you have given me some indispensable advice on other posts you come over to me as being a bit short. But is that you or am I just mind reading ? We all read into things that are not there, believe me I’m the worst.

In the great scheme of things none of it matters, and I’m too old to give a s@++, just block those that wind you up. Keep going I’d miss your excellent posts, and you can block me first if this is of any help.

 

[ainsy]

Was this in your glove box when you picked up your new or used T6? Did it have any information on the back?

The leaflet was left in my glove box with another generic leaflet. I wasn't told about the leaflet and nearly binned it. It was left when my vehicle was in to have both the leisure batteries replaced (apparently they were so faulty they could have exploded, which is another story )

If it helps my California is a September 2019 model with the EURO 6D Temp (same engine I believe as new T6.1) engine.

 

[ArunAlec]

The trouble with all forums is we are Remote from each other, we don’t know what type of person we are dealing with. For instance i am a sarcastic B who thinks he’s right all the time (actually I am right all the time). Humour doesn’t come over very well either. Also you have a lot of old people on here and they are the worst for being short with people and again always thing they are right And get frustrated with people too easily.

We also read into messages things that are not there because we don’t see the persons face. As an example you have given me some indispensable advice on other posts you come over to me as being a bit short. But is that you or am I just mind reading ? We all read into things that are not there, believe me I’m the worst.

In the great scheme of things none of it matters, and I’m too old to give a s@*+*+, just block those that wind you up. Keep going I’d miss your excellent posts, and you can block me first if this is of any help.

Agree with you, apart from the bit about old people!
I feel that people just need to exercise basic good manners and communication skills, something the world of "on line debate" seems lacking. In the "real world" where people actually interact and communicate face to face I wouldn't dream of calling someone's view "rubbish" unless I knew them pretty well and knew how they would take such a severe comment. And I would think it only right to explain such an extreme response.

 

[ArunAlec]

@vwguru (tagged at the start of this thread and mentioned several times) hasn't been on the forum since 4th Jan. Hope he's just having a well deserved holiday, and hasn't got fed up of us, or been told to stay off by vw.

If he is on holiday, hopefully paid for with a big bonus for the good work done on behalf of Breeze!

 

[Eber123]

.... Also you have a lot of old people on here and they are the worst for being short with people and again always thing they are right And get frustrated with people too easily.
...

Good afternoon,

Fantastic comment. Nothing beats a "grumpy old man" (have I said that I must be gender neutral and say "grumpy old person").

Disclaimer
And just for the record, I thought the comment from Toothlessjon was funny and I try to be sarcastic.

I allow myself this comment, because I am not a spring chicken anymore...

Regards,
Eberhard

 

[Amarillo]

I wouldn't dream of calling someone's view "rubbish" unless I knew them pretty well

Outside the school gates at the end of last term, someone I didn't know cited a law to me requiring children under twelve to wear cycle helmets. I had no problem telling them to their face that it was "bullshit". However, I think it unlikely that I would criticise someone who every Friday refuelled to under a 1/4 of a tank, knowing it would last them until the following Friday - unless, of course, they had been forewarned that such a habit is likely to cause regeneration problems.

 

[ArunAlec]

Outside the school gates at the end of last term, someone I didn't know cited a law to me requiring children under twelve to wear cycle helmets. I had no problem telling them to their face that it was "bullshit". However, I think it unlikely that I would criticise someone who every Friday refuelled to under a 1/4 of a tank, knowing it would last them until the following Friday - unless, of course, they had been forewarned that such a habit is likely to cause regeneration problems.

You were responding to a stranger who was having a go at you. Maybe if they'd been less confrontational you might have been less inclined to respond as you did.
Are we firing up the children's cycle helmet debate again?

 

[Nolan]

Regardless of the merits of varying fuel levels this doesn't look good for VW as it seems like they have prioritised getting vehicles out the door before addressing the issues with keeping the engines running while still meeting emissions standards.

They need to do better than this to meet the competition from Tesla etc, maybe all of VWs efforts are going into the new ID EVs at the expense of customers of non EV vehicles.

Not sure if I posted this earlier but I can't see many owners running a commercial T6 being too careful about fuel levels and whether there is any way to determine fuel system (DPF etc) health with a secondhand vehicle (some of which will be sold by VW themselves).

 

[Toothlessjon]

Good afternoon,

Fantastic comment. Nothing beats a "grumpy old man" (have I said that I must be gender neutral and say "grumpy old person").

Disclaimer
And just for the record, I thought the comment from Toothlessjon was funny and I try to be sarcastic.

I allow myself this comment, because I am not a spring chicken anymore...

Regards,
Eberhard

Hi EhBernard, no need for a disclaimer I’ve decided to take all comments as sarcastic comedic replies, because to have a laugh is better than being angry Lol. Life’s just too short to spend it being angry.