After a quiet holiday break, it was finally time to put more biodiesel in our 2005 Volkswagen Jetta TDI this morning. Since our preferred station no longer carries B99, I drove six miles to Palisades Gas & Wash. Ordinarily, this would be a 15-minute drive (assuming light traffic), but the gas station is tucked behind a grocery store, so getting there involved some doubling back, a phone call to the station and ultimately 30 minutes of drive time.
Fueling up at this station is not the most convenient, either, as it's a busy full-service car wash so you can only pull into certain aisles and, once there, you risk getting stuck behind any number of Land Rovers. Also, it's full service only, at least for B99, so I wasn't able to twist and turn the nozzle to my heart's content to ensure a completely full fill. As a result, the fuel gauge doesn't read quite to the "F" mark.
Pricing isn't too bad, though. I paid $34.97 for 11.662 gallons of B99 at $2.999/gallon. The Exxon near my house is charging $2.599 for self-serve regular diesel right now, and 40 cents/gallon is a pretty standard markup for full serve on Los Angeles' West Side. Still, it must be pointed out that it's tough to pay more than $2.10 for 91 octane in LA right now.
Erin Riches, Senior Editor @ 65,877 miles
texases says:
01:28 PM, 12/30/08
So biodiesel works, is expensive, and is hard to find. What else do you need to know?
altimadude00 says:
04:50 PM, 12/30/08
Full Service? I haven't seen full service since the late 80s.
MS3lvr92 says:
03:50 PM, 01/ 1/09
Full service... cool. Did you know that by law in the states of Oregon and New Jersey there are no self serve gas stations.
firstwagon says:
08:36 AM, 01/ 2/09
What possible reason did they have for a lame law like that?
mlh says:
11:49 AM, 01/ 2/09
FYI, ConServ Fuel in Brentwood is now selling B99 again. There's a letter that explains the reversal posted on their website:
http://www.conservfuel.com/
kjmiller1 says:
10:36 AM, 01/ 5/09
"twist and turn the nozzle to my heart's content to ensure a completely full fill."
Look inside the fill tube and you will see a black plastic lever. Push it in while filling up and you will vent the tank allowing an extra 50 miles or so of range.
Colorado_Al says:
08:09 PM, 01/14/09
I'll say it again: ventectomy!
Look it up on tdiclub.com
You remove the vent lever and never again have to worry about a partial fill up.
PS- When are you going to install a VO conversion in the Jetta TDI?
I installed a frybrid.com kit in mine in October 2007 and have 40k on it since then.
Check it out here:
http://www.a-lan.com/wvo/