adblue availability in South and Central America

L

LeZeau

New Overlander
Nov 9, 2020
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Hi all,

We drive a European Toyota Hilux Euro 6 2.5 Diesel pop up camper.
Every 1500 km (about 1000 miles) we need to refill our adblue.
In Europe this isn't a big deal, you can find adblue in every petrol station.
But we plan to travel the world with this car, so I wanted to check the availability of adblue in Africa and South-America.

Can you easily get it at every petrol station or do you think this will be a problem?

Thanks,
Jo
 
Hi Jo

The simple answer is no, its not that easy in South America

You will definitely have to carry some and plan your journey really carefully.

If there is any way you can get around its need I would explore that. A range of 1500 km is very limiting.

The added problem you might have is that some countries have dreadful quality diesel. In Bolivia, for example, the diesel is jet black. its so thick that no light passes through it. A refined engine might have some issues with its very poor quality.

Altitude is another factor you might want think about. Some top end euro rated engines dont naturally like to go over 3000m and may need a bit of adjustment for the high altitude passes and planes .

Apps like Ioverlander might help you with locating adblue

Neil
 
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Thank you Cloud 9,

The 'dirty diesel' problem is indeed also an issue. I am now researching which countries have which sulfurlimit and how much the Hilux would be able to 'take'.
Altitude is apparently less of a problem for diesels than petrol cars.
--> Five myths about diesel engines | Argonne National Laboratory
--> MIT School of Engineering | » Which engine is better at high altitude: diesel or gasoline?
But it's difficult to find info on the maximum altitude for a Euro6 car. The highest point we'll want to cross are Atacama desert (2500-3000m) and the panamerica in Costa Rica at 3350m. I'll assume that this will still be possible. Some sources say that you lose 1% of power per 100m (30ft) of altitude, so about 30-35% power loss at 3350m...

kind regards
 
This interesting, Although I have never researched petrol vehicle I have always been led to believe that they coped better at altitude than the diesels.

I think Turbo diesels do better than normally aspirated.

3000m is relatively lowland in South America . Crossing the Andes will often take you up to 4500 to 5000m . An example being from san Pedro de Atacama to Argentina is near 5000m

Restricting yourselves to 3000m or less will exclude you from some of the most beautiful places

At 5000m I am probably running on 40% power and the smoke is terrible , but it manages it

Neil
 
LeZeau said:
Hi all,

We drive a European Toyota Hilux Euro 6 2.5 Diesel pop up camper.
Every 1500 km (about 1000 miles) we need to refill our adblue.
In Europe this isn't a big deal, you can find adblue in every petrol station.
But we plan to travel the world with this car, so I wanted to check the availability of adblue in Africa and South-America.

Can you easily get it at every petrol station or do you think this will be a problem?

Thanks,
Jo
Click to expand...

Hello, I'm resuming this thread because I'm in the process of buying a new Hilux myself to use as an overland vehicle. I'm getting the single cab and planning on making a flatbed camper. I'm quite concerned with reliability problems with one of these new diesel engines. I wanted to get a used euro 4, but couldn't find any single cab 4x4 available in Italy. Did you end up finding more info on this matter?

What year of Hilux do you have? I found different info for how long the tank lasts.
My dealer said the AdBlue is refilled at every service (20-25k km), checking a service manual for the 2017 Hilux it says it lasts about 15k km, and from the manual of the 2020 version 8k km. So many different numbers I'm not sure what to believe. The tank is 13.8L according to the manual and with a 1000km/l AdBlue consumption which seems to be the average of all vehicles, I'm assuming the 8k km stated on the manual considered a heavy use...

Also, did you find more info on the high altitude? I couldn't find much, just someone told me a 2015 Ford Ranger had some issues at 4900m but made it and a 2015 Isuzu had no problems up to 5000m
 
We have mrt many travellers with more modern euro 5 and above vehicles who have been totally unable to go above 3500m without the vehicle dropping into safety / limp mode.

I think the only way around it is to obtain the correct software and the skills to make regular adjustments .

Marcus Tuck of tuckstruck has written extensively about this on his blog

Neil
 
Cloud 9 said:
We have mrt many travellers with more modern euro 5 and above vehicles who have been totally unable to go above 3500m without the vehicle dropping into safety / limp mode.

I think the only way around it is to obtain the correct software and the skills to make regular adjustments .

Marcus Tuck of tuckstruck has written extensively about this on his blog

Neil
Click to expand...

Thank you, I'll definitely check his blog out. That's really a bummer, that means the only way to explore the Atacama and all of those beautiful places is to get a Euro 4 vehicle?
 
Most of Atacama is at about 3500m so you will need to be ready for that.

I think if you read Marcus's blog or even contact him he will tell you its all very doable . Howver, he wont mind me saying this, Marcus puts a huge amount of time into having his vehicle just right for the situation he i in and has become vefy familiar with re mapping his system to cooe with the envirnment and has perfected the art of of being ahead of his catalytic converters requiements.

Im sure he would point you in tge right direction

I personally like having a vehicle that will cope with anything and you can throw the shittiest Bolivian deisel in it and it doesnt care.

The downside us poorer economy, environmentally awful and slow....but no hassle

Neil
 
I've read quite a few articles on his blog, he's very thorough and full of useful information, I'll try to contact him directly as well, thank you for suggesting it.

From what I've read I've had the same assumption, it's doable with the right preparation, and diagnostic tools to have everything under control and act with real data. His vehicle is a Euro 5 Iveco and mine will be a Toyota Euro 6d, definitely more stringent emission regulations but maybe still manageable.

I also found out Mercedes for example offers a "Sulfur Robustness Packages" for trucks so it's definitely something that can be dealt with.

I'm not going to South America anytime soon, so I'll have time to research, but this gives me confidence that I can at least order the vehicle now. And wait 6-7 months...

Like I said I'd preferred to get an older one for the same reasons you described, but couldn't find any. On the bright side, I'll have a new vehicle with improved fuel economy and that's not too bad for the environment.

Between waiting for the Hilux to arrive, building it, testing it for short trips, and then longer trips in Europe, a couple of years will probably pass by, so hopefully, the sulfur content of Diesel in SA will be slightly improved.
 
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