'contaminated' fuel

[Nick F]

Keep an eye on the news

Trading standards officials have launched an investigation after drivers complained that they had been sold "contaminated" fuel.

Drivers from across south-east England believe they may have been sold petrol containing ethanol, which has damaged their cars.

Their vehicles have been juddering, misfiring and had a loss of power.

Independent oil company Greenergy said it was testing fuel supplied to Tesco and Morrisons to see if it was faulty.

Greenergy, which supplies "greener" fuels, said its "extensive" tests on the batch of fuel supplied to Tesco and Morrisons showed that it met industry standards but it was continuing its investigation.

A spokeswoman said the fuel contained up to 5% bio-ethanol, which was within permitted limits.

"So on that basis ethanol does not seem to be the cause of the problem but we are still testing," she said.

The company added in a statement: "Greenergy has been made aware that some drivers using our fuels are experiencing some problems. We take this very seriously."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6405051.stm

[coco]

guess it's best not to buy petrol from Tesco or Morrisons at the moment anywhere in the country not just the south east unless you want to risk having to try and claim damages against the retailers for ruining your engine

[SilentDeath]

more ethanol i say! it burns, whats the problem

Seriously though, the other bbc article says that after changing the sensor, and fuel, there is no problems - so the problem is fuel-buggering-up-hego sensor.
It would be interesting if the engine runs fine with the sensor unplugged (with the bad fuel), as it should - although with less clean emmisions.

[Konan555]

Tesco have ALWAYS added ethenol to their high octane stuff. Guess someone got a bit excited with the bottle

[McMav]

Only use shell now I get about 50 miles less to the tank if I fill up at tesco.

[johnny02004976]

oh bugger, i've just put £35 quids worth in from Tesco

[99Flake]

I would never fill up with supermarket fuel anyway. Much higher carbon content, exceptionally good at sooting up injectors. Plus it is never cheaper than Shell in my area.

[johnny02004976]

i usually buy from the BP which is the same distance away from my house as Tesco and is usually within 1/2p of Tesco's price

i just got caught short today and had to refill at Tesco

[kalniel]

Ah, the joy of diesel.

Looking at the BBC respondants though it looks like quite a few have problems from Shell as well.

Also shame on the garages - surely this kind of thing should clear up without needing a whole new sensor? I bet they're loving it.

[Butcher]

I normally use shell as they're cheapest round here. Less ridiculous queues than tesco too.

[Rave]

I would never fill up with supermarket fuel anyway. Much higher carbon content, exceptionally good at sooting up injectors. Plus it is never cheaper than Shell in my area.

In a petrol car the injectors are in the intake manifold, well away from the combustion chamber, so they shouldn't 'soot up' unless the petrol contains large quantities of actual soot- which I doubt.

I'm at a loss to explain all this- if you feed E85 to a normal petrol car it'll run very lean, which could easily damage it, but I fail to see how that would damage a lambda sensor unless they're simply burning out from excessively hot exhaust gas temperatures. If the lambda sensor is working properly it should just richen out the mixture anyway.

For the last six months I've filled my bike up with all sorts of different fuels, including Shell, BP, and Tesco, and have never noticed the slightest bit of difference. Albeit that my bike isn't that highly tuned by bike standards, it still puts out nigh on 100bhp/litre, so you would have thought it'd be more sensitive to crappy fuel than most car engines.

[Butuz]

I put £60 of Tescos FInest 99 ron into my skybarge last Friday and I will be putting another £60 into it tomorrow. At 150odd bhp/litre I would think I would have noticed any unsavourty petrol (I can tell the difference between Tesco 99 and Shell Optimax or whatever its called nowadays, for example in the last 3 cars I have had).

Also - the incident seems isolated to england does it not?

Very strange either way.

Butuz

[SHare]

I have noticed alot of the initial complaints are from the French built makes, no wonder really, my megane used to eat lambda sensors at the best of times. I wouldnt fancy having to try and claim from contaminated fuel though as I pay cash and cant ever remember getting a receipt in a garage, so proving I'd bought it would be near impossible.

[Butuz]

Actually scratch that one of the girls in work just told me that her car is no fubared since she put tesco petrol in last week and its in the garage now!

Shell garage on the way home methinks!

Butuz

[Lowe]

I'm with Rave, I don't understand how it can actually cain the lambda sensor? I think the main stealers are just having a laugh... Easy money off a punter that doesn't know any different...

[arbitor]

wish i still had my old car, running red deisel baby