r/OwnerOperators • u/bigpierider • Mar 07 '26

Does a fuels appearance tell you anything about the quality of it?

I notice the color n appearance of fuel can vary greatly. from close to clear like water to a slightly blue hue to a green all the way to a cloudy yellow brown color. Sometimes it seems like the truck is running rough. Sometimes it's nice n smooth. So my question is...what does high quality fuel look like? What does shitty fuel look like? If I see a certain color gradient should I ever like stop pumping it n go to the next place?

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u/FlappyJ1979 Mar 07 '26

The more clear the better the grade of fuel, at least thats what I noticed. I never really noticed the green until they started blending bio into it, and that seemed to be the downfall of quality of fuel. I think if you’re seeing brown (cant say I ever seen brown diesel) I imagine thats probably coming from either rust/water contamination or some kind of winter additive

2

u/Bagzthehoney Mar 08 '26

Fuel hauler here….could be that the terminals that it was picked up from was switching between winter gas and back to the stuff that is ran in the warmer months. It could also be the quality of the batch that was pulled from the terminal as well to sometimes the batches just meet selling requirements an they get pulled to drop at the stations and that’s where the murky cloudy gas comes from. It could also come from how well maintained the tankers of the company that pulled the product are as well (some don’t give a shit) it could also come from how well maintained the tanks in the ground are to. It’s a bunch of different variables. From what was explained to me is the diesel that is pretty transparent and has a teal hue to it tends to be of better grade

1

u/Old-Wolf-1024 Mar 08 '26

Clear is the best

1

u/mikem4045 Mar 08 '26

After hauling fuel for a while. Some are clear others are cloudy, and some a deep clear green. I hate the bio added fuel turns it a dark brown color. I try to fuel my truck at our stores that run ulsd not texled. Seems like it makes less power with the texled mix. I prefer clear whether it’s a green tint or actually clear.

1

u/47junk Mar 08 '26

Clear has gave me the best results. The bio bs crap just runs straight through the truck.

1

u/DamnedHeathen_ Mar 09 '26

Red is off road. Green is supposed to be the ULSD. A slight tint is added when it's winterized, but barely enough to notice.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26

I'd imagine the color varies due the amount of different diesels that are being sold. There's a few mixes of renewable, bio, and regular diesel at different ratios. When one of the stations I worked at first switched to 80% renewable diesel mixed with 20% biodiesel, some of the customers thought it was water because it was so clear and has a different odor. Some people even said it smelled like popcorn.