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Flushing red diesel


Mean Green

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Do I need to do anything special to flush out red diesel?

I am working to bring a 90 back onto teh road after having been on a private site runnign red for a year or so.

Is it enough to drian the tank and change the filter or should I do more?

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Do I need to do anything special to flush out red diesel?

I am working to bring a 90 back onto teh road after having been on a private site runnign red for a year or so.

Is it enough to drain the tank and change the filter or should I do more?

Dismantle and drain everything, flush everything with clean diesel, and again, then put a gallon of white in the tank and run that through.

HMRC / VOSA can detect one part red to 20 parts white, so do a thorough job!

Linky

That said, they'll probably be after bigger fish (trucks and tractors).

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I live on a farm and am pretty familiar with red diesel, as previousley said, a couple of tanks will flush it out, and change the filters too, use cheapy britpart initially and then put a decent one on later.

A good idea might be to keep with you some documentation to prove where it's been and what it's been used for if you can, that should solve any issues if you get dipped.

it's true that the HMRC can detect tiny amounts but to be honest it's rare you get dipped and if you do, explain the situation and show them any documents you have, chances are you'll be ok if there are small traces, if you had a full tank of undiluted red though, expect a visit to the crusher!

HTH

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My 1st 109 came with 1/2 tank of red in it. I informed the Police and they suggested that I drain the tank, change the filters, run it for a while before using it on a public road, and make a note of the date of transfer/the officer I spoke to. It's all very well replacing filters, etc, but soot in the exhaust can be detected for some time after red was last used. Your vehicle can be siezed and you could be be fined up to £2000, so it's wise to be extra cautious.

Les.

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The customs guy told me the fine is minimum £500 no maximum, the fine depends on how long the vehicle has been running on it and if they can prove how long. Ive been dipped quite a few times and they only chemicly tested it when they could visuly see the red, if they couldnt see red I was sent on my way. Iam not saying they will do that every time but have done on the occasions I was tested.

Drain the tanks change the filter and keep your diesel receipts the milage will be on the mot certificate which should near enough corispond with when you re tax, no big drama IMO.

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Biodiesel is significantly more solvent than petrodiesel so you might want to run a tank of that through after changing the filter, then changing the filter again since it also cleans out crud from the petrodiesel.m

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Inform VOSA before you put it back on the road as it will save on fines!!

Paul

Agreed Paul

We had a couple of mishaps at work before we moved the red pump to a different corner of the yard and providing you inform VOSA of the situation and the reasons behind it they are are usually very good about it

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back in the fuel strikes we use red in the car and informed them payed the duty thay were fine so drane the tank flush it out change the filter and wright a letter to tell them what your whanting to do should get you over the first 1000 miles

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I'd also keep ALL diesel reciepts for a while too, to prove you've been buying normal diesel, that's what i was asked for by HMRC before i had my tank dipped a while back, not that it proves what vehicle it went in, but it's something else to show them...

i doubt you'll have any issues if you follow the advice on the thread. :)

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I happened to be passing the local VOSA centre today, so popped in for a chat.

The guy I spoke to was very helpful but totally uninterested in red diesel. It does not come under VOSA's remit, all they care about is that there is no smoke from the exhaust, as he said the red is just a dye to tell if the tax is paid so we dont care about that - it is a Customs issue.

So I will give my local HMRC (ro UKBA as they are now) a call and see what they haev to say.

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True, the red dye is only a basic indicator, all red diesel has a UV marker in it, which is unique to the refinery and even the area it goes to, so they'll even know where the red came from, removing the actual dye is easy, removing the UV marker is not even worth doing.

it's bad enough if you get caught with red in the tank, but if it was a once only accident; say you worked on a farm and mixed up your jerry cans and put 20 litres of red in, you'd probably get a fine and a serious telling off, if you payed the tax and were lucky, and could prove all of the above. then you'd be on their watch list as well, so next time it'd be the crusher.

but you get caught with marked diesel thats had the dye removed and you've no excuse. you're knackered.

they use a filter on the exhaust which shows up the UV down to how many parts per million is red/marked.

it's just not worth it, especially when you can use veg oil....

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I may be wrong...however, I thought that even a vehicle used exclusively off road, but remaining registered (i.e. on a SORN) was required to use duty paid fuel. Only if a vehicle is de-registered can red be used. I have no idea how you can de-register a vehicle.

So there may be some issues with red being used while off the road. Maybe. It may be worth checking before contacting HMRC.

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Technically thats true, red diesel is for agricultural use, and a vehicle running red can only be used on the road if the landowner is travelling from one piece of agricultural land to another, and the distance has to be less than a mile and a half (IIRC)

you can register a normal car/van/landy for agricultural use and run it on red but it has to be properly registered with the DVLA and HMRC, and is then subject to the above rule.

using a landy off road on red is fine if it's registered and used for agriculture, using it on red as a play vehicle is technically illegal, but whats the chance of getting dipped on private land?

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