The long-term objective is to run my Hyundai i30 entirely on biodiesel, to completely remove the dependency on fossil fuel there. Not sure about B100 users, but I know there are several B50 (that’s 50% biodiesel) users for the same model that have been going for a few years now. So at least that’s possible.

The “nasty” is that the warranty on the fuel system of a car can become void when using more than B05 (5% biodiesel). That’s the Australian Standard baseline currently, but for instance Freedom Fuels has B20 which is also fully compliant. So I asked my prospective service dealer (Westpoint, Indooroopilly), and the verdict so far is that they’d be fine with me running on B20 from FreedomFuels. That’s great news!

I did make them that specific “promise”, to get my B20 from FreedomFuels. Since you can make biodiesel at home, safely and legally, there’s the issue of quality control and that’s probably why the car warranty is phrased the way it is.

The things to look out for with diesel is water, and dirty fuel. There’s a filter for both, and the most important thing is to make sure they get checked/changed in time. Now here’s the funny thing. Pure biodiesel is much cleaner than fossil diesel, however putting it in your tank will loosen deposits from the previous fossil diesel and thus clog up your fuel filter. So, you transition more slowly and check/replace the filter. Once you have a clean filter and run on pure biodiesel, you’re all clear.

At this stage I’m only going for B20 since that’s the most I have found readily available so far. I may find other local sources for higher biodiesel % or actually make my own later, but another point is of course that running B20 for a while will show the service centre in practical terms that it’s ok, as they’ll be able to see the fuel filter for themselves. So I’m quite happy with taking the “slow path”.

While talking to the service centre this morning I also learnt something else. I already knew that a regular checkup for a Hyundai is about $200 versus $400-500 for my old Subaru. So I’d already figured a 50+% savings on basic maintenance. However, it turns out that Hyundai only wants a service once a year rather than every 6 months, so that halves the cost again! I might go in more often for fuel filter checks, but it’d still be cheaper.