Formerly under the jurisdiction of Committee D02 on Petroleum Products, Liquid Fuels, and Lubricants, this test method was withdrawn in November 2021. This standard is being withdrawn without replacement. This item was recently balloted for Reapproval on Ballot D02 (21-02), Item 9. The ballot received one negative vote regarding the Precision section being inadequate. The standard states in Section 13.1.1 – “The reproducibility of this test method will be determined within the next five years.” This was the original statement from 2003 – many more than five years. This voter did offer some alternative options as found in Form & Style for ASTM Standards, Section A21.5.5. No motion was made to find this negative not persuasive thus finding it persuasive and, therefore, we feel it prudent to ballot for withdrawal. Several other comments were also received on this ballot item indicating that this standard should be balloted for withdrawal, and subsequently archived as a historical standard for various reasons as shown below:
– Section 5.4 states: “No absolute correlation has been determined between the two test methods” (referring to PLV as determined by D6898 and HFRR)
– Very little interest in, or use of the standard (not currently listed as an approved Lubricity method in D975 Section 5.1.13) – not even enough for ASTM PTP reporting
– Lack of any meaningful updates to the standard since 2003
– Reference to cancelled SAE specification J967 (replaced by ISO 4113) in Section 2.2 and Section 7.2
– The injection pump DB4427-4782 is no longer in production (including replacement parts). Any replacement pump would require a new round robin be performed.

5.1 Diesel fuel injection equipment has some reliance on lubricating properties of the diesel fuel. Shortened life of engine components, such as diesel fuel injection pumps and injectors, has sometimes been ascribed to lack of lubricity in a diesel fuel.

5.2 Pump Lubricity Value (PLV) test results generally rank fuel effects on diesel injection system pump component distress due to wear in the same order as Bosch, Lucas, Stanadyne, and Cummins in-house rig tests.5 In these fuel/hardware tests, boundary lubrication is believed to be a factor in the operation of the component.

5.3 The PLV is sensitive to contamination of the fluids and test materials and the temperature of the test. Lubricity evaluations are also sensitive to trace contaminants acquired during test fuel sampling and storage.

5.4 Test Methods D6078 and D6079 are two methods for evaluating diesel fuel lubricity. No absolute correlation has been developed between these two test methods, or between either of these methods and the PLV.

5.5 The PLV may be used to evaluate the relative effectiveness of a fluid for preventing wear under the prescribed test conditions.

5.6 This test method is designed to evaluate boundary lubrication properties. While viscosity effects on lubricity are not totally eliminated, they are minimized.

5.7 This test can indicate whether or not an additive will improve the lubricity of a poor lubricity fuel.

1.1 This test method covers evaluating the lubricity of diesel fuels using a pump rig test and Stanadyne Model DB4427-4782 pumps.

Note 1: Other pumps may be used if a correlation between pump performance factors and fuel lubricity has been developed.

1.2 This test method is applicable to any fuel used in diesel engines, including those which may contain a lubricity enhancing additive.

1.3 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.

1.4 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. Specific warning statements are given in Section 7.