[Vwdiesel] frozen fuel filter

[Rolf Pechukas]

little New Year's story for y'all -
so I headed out on a 2 hr drive last night (cold night, had had a hard  
early morning start which I put down to cold temps)
about an hour into my drive I feel some hesitation going up a hill
hmmm
keep driving, wondering about the quart of vintage Moly Long Oil I  
added to the sump that morning
next hill, more hesitation, stumbling
I go to gas station, looking for Marvel Mystery Oil, no go, add  
another qt or 15-40 to dilute the Moly, and put some dsl fuel  
conditioner in the tank
drive on
more stumbling/bucking
starts to get real bad going up hills - no power, eventual stalling out
but I'm able to limp to another svc station
by this point I've done some deductive reasoning, have let go the fear  
that the moly long oil is seizing up my block, and now believe I have  
a frozen/blocked fuel filter
in the best of the MacGuyver tradition, I take a ball point pen, poke  
a hole in the cap of a little fuel canister, cut the fuel line at the  
filter, stick it in the cap (perfect fit), fill the container w/ dsl,  
and drive off
perfect! easy power, filter was clogged by cold
but I know the IP is still returning fuel to the tank, not sure how  
far I'm going to get
sure enough, 1 gallon lasts a few miles
not much fuel left in 2nd cannister, so I cut the return too, stick em  
both in the fual can under the hood, and drive off
this time sipping dsl
anyway, the moral of the story is: check your fuel filter before it  
gets too cold
also learned a couple things:
- cars use WAY more fuel going uphill than down - I would guess 10x
- IPs return WAY more fuel than gets burned - I would guess 10x
peace!
happy new!
(I'm off to drive back home on 1 gal can under the hood
thank god it's not gas)
-- 

Rolf in MA