# Fuel heater system in CTD?



## MRO1791 (Sep 2, 2016)

Best guess there is a heater in the fuel filter housing. That is how it's done on both filters for my Cummins. It's the logical place for a heater, just before the filter.. to prevent plugging of the filter. 

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

the filter housing is heated.


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## johnmo (Mar 2, 2017)

boraz said:


> the filter housing is heated.


I'm assuming this is accomplished by recirculated fuel?


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## 91794 (Mar 25, 2015)

In the gen1 and/or gen2 diesel is there also a fuel-return line for the diesel such that all the fuel in the tank gets heated as the car is driven or idled? 
I'm thinking "yes" there is but do not have a reference for that currently.

Warning, DEF-related verbosity is below. Please add DEF to your computer before reading further or your throughput will be throttled. 

Also I understand there is a DEF electric heater too - it is mentioned in the owners manual and is evident via the fuse-block details. On drive through Ft Erie PA and its predicted 2-inch snowfall which became multi-feet of snow via life-threatening 10F "lake effect blizzard", the DEF seemed to be a fuel: at about 5K miles as blizzard conditions worsened car warned me it would strand us or limit speed to 4 mph unless we added DEF within 300 miles. The important thing became the fuel burn rate however - thankfully the car will always allow the engine to run even if there is no DEF and it became evident this was a life and death thing in arctic blizzard conditions: I-90 was stopped and we were stranded for hours - with hours appreciate the 1/4 gallon per hour fuel burn rate of the diesel vs the 3/4 gallon per hour fuel burn rate of my other car home in the garage. One plow was evident in all of northern PA on I-90. No national guard until a day later, after we had escaped via an exit and drive due south to escape _The Day After Tomorrow_ nightmare conditions. Before we entered the lake-effect-blizzard I pointed at a cloud over the lake, super angry bubbling dark low cloud and I said , "wow look at that, I've never seen a cloud like that before either in winter or summer". Should have photographed it. Also should have exited I-90 and drove due south *immediately* instead of after being trapped on the road for hours. For this drive/roundtrip, we saw >45 wrecks, including 15 bigrigs, all evidently due to "instant black ice". While we were in MN, Eleven Hundred wrecks were reported due to ice/spinouts. 

btw, the "fill DEF within 300 miles or else" was the first/only warning - I had expected more warning than that. Also btw I found the DEF filler inside the *fuel door* of the car! who knew!?  It's more evidence that for these unmodded gen 2 diesel cruzes, DEF is a required fuel from driver perspective, as long as you want to drive 4mph. I suppose if one were to run the car in an application which required constant running at 4mph, one could run for 100k miles with no DEF. 

ps - aside from refilling it during 10F blizzard, I <heart> DEF!!!


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## johnmo (Mar 2, 2017)

Fuel: a material used to produce heat or power by burning

DEF doesn't burn.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

johnmo said:


> I'm assuming this is accomplished by recirculated fuel?


no

electric 100%, same with the def lines, electric heat trace

some semis have coolant lines to heat the def tank, some are electric.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

eli said:


> In the gen1 and/or gen2 diesel is there also a fuel-return line for the diesel such that all the fuel in the tank gets heated as the car is driven or idled?
> I'm thinking "yes" there is but do not have a reference for that currently.
> 
> Warning, DEF-related verbosity is below. Please add DEF to your computer before reading further or your throughput will be throttled.
> ...


this is jibberish

the car gives you 11ty warnings to add def.

if you run out of def, or better yet, the computer thinks you run out of def, the car will stop.

its government mandated.


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## 91794 (Mar 25, 2015)

I'll try to make it more clear in order to correct the plethora of wrongnesses in previous post (#8).

1. The gen2 car did not warn me once about DEF until "300 miles" warning - it happened as odometer indicated about 4900 miles - just before we entered a rather life-threatening blizzard near Erie PA, which was predicted to be a couple inches of lake effect snow. 

2. The gen2 car does not stop when you run out of DEF. Maybe the gen1 does that but not the gen2. The gen2 manual indicates that if DEF is never added, the car will allow max speed of N Mph, where N drops to "4" at a minimum. So you can run the car for arbitrarily long without ever adding DEF, at 3mph. 

Car is at dealership now for the oil change and to apply a recall for a DPF (or DEF?) sensor. 
Hmm, could the recall have something to do with why the car never warned me about DEF until the 300-mile warning???!?


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## johnmo (Mar 2, 2017)

eli said:


> Car is at dealership now for the oil change and to apply a recall for a DPF (or DEF?) sensor.
> Hmm, could the recall have something to do with why the car never warned me about DEF until the 300-mile warning???!?


Unlikely. Mine has had a *DPF* sensor replaced twice.

I've always gotten lots of warnings about my DEF level.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

eli said:


> I'll try to make it more clear in order to correct the plethora of wrongnesses in previous post (#8).
> 
> 1. The gen2 car did not warn me once about DEF until "300 miles" warning - it happened as odometer indicated about 4900 miles - just before we entered a rather life-threatening blizzard near Erie PA, which was predicted to be a couple inches of lake effect snow.
> 
> ...


and how long are you gonna drive at 3mph until someone shoots you or a cop arrests you?

OMG


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## 91794 (Mar 25, 2015)

Wow.  Boraz, are you related to BORAT by any chance? (I <heart> Borat). 

To be clear, nobody said i was going to drive 3 mph for any specific distance and nobody mentioned any of that other wacky stuff in post #11! 

And there is nothing new about diesel fuel heaters to see here.

May all your diesel fuel remain in the liquid form , northern diesel peoples ! Best regards...


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