Bright yellow diesel! What is going on?

[NPMR]

Just about to launch for the season and in attempting to find a 'smell' pulled up a floor panel and found the bilge full of bright yellow fluid! Pretty shocked and assumed, from the colour, that it was anti-freeze. But it turns out it was diesel, leaking from the replaced fuel filter in the engine bay. Quite a lot of diesel.

Major mystery to me was, "Why yellow?" What can have caused the stuff to be that colour? The only additive I put in the tank is diesel-bug stuff. I use, mostly, diesel from car garages and only recall one use of red fuel in the UK two years ago, the rermainder has been French .

Major breakthrough with the smell in the boat was to use Simple Solutions Cat Pee Odour Remover. It works.

Why Yellow diesel, however, remains a mystery. Any ideas? And is it safe to use? The engine ran fine from launch to mooring - about 2 hours?

 

[Graham_Wright]

Rust? = worry?

 

[RichardS]

My diesel in Croatia is bright yellow. It's rather attractive ...... like lemon juice.

I've always assumed that was the standard stuff ..... other than red!

Richard

 

[Spyro]

The diesel from forecourts is a yellow colour now. I noticed the stuff I got from Morrisons was particularly bright.

 

[Joker]

Maybe because of biodiesel additives?

 

[Yngmar]

Might not be the diesel, but bacteria from the bilge living on top of it. I had an odd looking bright orange stuff in my bilge that mystified me, until someone on these here forums pointed out that it would be iron bacteria, which are eating rust. Wikipedia says they also come in yellow.

 

[Robin]

CHinese diesel import?

 

[Neeves]

I share the anguish, though not the colour. Our CAV filter glass cracked some time during a week when we did not use the boat, I'd tightened it too much. Our diesel is gravity feed and we had 200l of diesel in the engine bay, fortunately the liquid was contained but the smell is pervasive. Getting the diesel out, 200l is a lot of diesel!, was almost as big a job as getting rid of the smell.

Our diesel is clear.

Jonathan

 

[Len Ingalls]

Good reason to turn the diesel tank valve off when docked-as I found out the same hard way.
Thanks for tip on cat pee odour remover. / Len

 

[Neeves]

If only lessons were easier to learn!

Jonathan

 

[Niander]

Stick your finger in and give it a taste...?