Is very cold coming, can fuel freeze in the tank of your car or become altered and affect the injection system?
Are you going abroad for work or vacation and leaving your car parked on the street during this week with very low temperatures, sometimes negative for consecutive days. Can the fuel freeze in the tank or become altered and affect the injection system?
The production of fuels requires compliance with technical specifications, including solidification and melting points, which are adjusted from country to country according to local weather conditions. This means that, in theory, there is no real danger of fuel freezing in tanks or pipelines, nor the consequent risk of damaging the injection systems, even when the lowest temperatures in the country are reached.
In Portugal, for example, for the winter months, the minimum filterability temperature of diesel must be -10º C, while in northern European countries it can reach values below -30º C, and it is certain that many vehicles already have diesel heating systems that facilitate filtering, allowing them to face situations of great amplitude in minimum temperatures.
The problem is caused by paraffin, a wax contained in diesel. In case of very cold weather, this liquid wax solidifies. It crystallizes and these crystals clog the fuel filter. The engine then stops receiving diesel and stops. Special additives prevent this solidification.
In the case of gasoline, 95 or 98, although it is true that it begins to crystallize at -40º C, its solidification (or freezing) temperature is below -100º C, while the melting temperature of its main component (benzene or petroleum essence) is below -60º C, which makes it the fuel used even in heavy vehicles in extremely cold areas.
