Alternative Fuels Cooking Oil feedback
Taken from various posters on the Alternative fuels forum
I have been running my 1.6 non turbo on a mixture of 50% diesel rest oil . have no probs. cheep at .40p litre or less. no power drop[ what power....] mechanics i use say no probs.
yes been using it for 3 years in mmy citroen zx diesel car... no probs.. 12 months in my camper.. it`s my campers first mot in my hands. after 12 months of 50/50 mix. [ approx] depends on pennies in my pocket. Will let you know. after monday `s test. given it 1 week of pure diesel, but no difference in drive or performance what so ever, just to help on test . Fingers crossed.
Well it passed its MOT with flying colours... and the new one with everything computerised. So I can safely say cooking oil has no effect on the "thingy" they stick up the exhaust.. to test its emmissions. As you have said cleaner than diesel. Heres to another 12 months of cooking oil running.
UPDATE The posts below are from 2006. Since 2007 you do not have to register with customs if you produce under 2500 Litres of cooking oil for use in vehicles [1] it may be prudent to keep some records to show that you are not using over 2500 Litres a year.
I think you will find that they do not dip tanks nowadays. They use a "sniffer" that goes in the exhaust and yes they (excise?) can tell if you are running on cooking oil and will impound your vehicle, possibly destroy it if you are
Kev, in terms of tax you have to register with HM Customs that you are using waste or new oil as a fuel for your vehicle. They tell me the process goes like this. They send you a form (I got one and it is an odd one, how many rooms does the building have for example...) you fill it out and they consider it, then you get a visit from an inspector, then they register you. Following that you have to fill out monthly statements of usage and pay the appropriate tax on that. New and waste are taxed differently. 27p for waste and 50p (Ish forgotten now) for new.
I work for Revenue and Customs and I can tell you that the roadside units CAN detect cooking oil.......use at your own risk. I have done in the past before working here, but you do risk confiscation and destroying of the vehicle if caught.......funnily enough I was checking up on this today on the works intranet to see what the advantages were on doing this legaly. The tax they charge you is 45p litre.......so providing you can get cheap veggi oil (ie less than 35p litre) then it is worthwhile doing it above board
Today I have been to collect a vehicle from a custom/excise vehicle compound (being a truck )and in there is three vw t25s one camper and two panel vans which i will bid on in the next sale ,two run on cooking oil and the other one on red diesel so beware they know you are doing it................
I can vouch for this too,a guy at work got pulled running on red and had his Discovery impounded. They charged him back-tax from the date of purchase estimated at 10,000 miles/year and at 30 mpg (IIRC) anyway it was pay up about £4K by a set date
