The Influence of Fuel Filter Design on the Low Temperature Performance of Light Duty Diesel Vehicles

Tests have been carried out to determine how the fuel filter design affects low temperature performance of light duty diesel vehicles in the Korean market. Representative fuel filters have been collected to investigate their characteristics in terms of the effective pore size and the filtration area, which have been assessed against the low temperature test results from both fuel flow rig and cold chamber chassis dynamometer operations. The results show that both the effective pore size and the filtration area are critical in determining the low temperature performance of vehicles tested. It has been found that for trouble-free operation of the vehicles at temperatures down to -20 °C, it is desirable the effective pore size of the fuel filter is larger than 35 micrometers and the filtration area larger than 3,500 cm².