diesel quality!

[(RIP) PLANK]

by keeping a rough check on MPG i have noticed that the milage on a couple of our vehicles seems to have gone down, I know the milles per £10 is less as the fuel has gone up but even so, it seems dissproportionate.

I have a feeling that it may be the quality of the fuel we are getting has been tampered with, maybe even slowly reducing quality is a new tactic? so eventualy whe all our cars are scrap, the new generation of super economical cars will still only do 25mpg on this watered down rubbish

am i off on another paranoid conspiracy theory trip or has any one else noticd a difference?

 

[dinky]

Try to always fill up with Shell ,Dont like fuel from Supermarkets doesn,t seem to last long.

 

[jims-terrano]

You may have apoint, my Scenic 1.5DCi that used to sniff the diesel hasn't been as econimical for a few months now. Dealer has checked it out and it's fine :?

Jim T


PS please don't laugh at the car, my employer wasn't too happy at me running around in "a gas guzzling 4x4"

 

[(RIP) PLANK]

I fist noticed with my tansit, general knocking about half country roads half town half the time heavily laoded or towing or both, it allwyas did approx 155 to 165 miles on £20, with recent increases it now does around 120 miles to £20 even alowing for the price hike it still doesnt add up! We have cheked it all on a brand new £12k gas analyser, it has had full service new clutch etc etc, no issues.


Now as you have pointed out some fuel is better quality that others and many companies now offer differnet grades, some cost more but offer better MPG performance etc. so it is possible to 'tinker' with the stuff.

so are they making the premium stuff look better by fobbingus off and is is all part of the super mini conspiracy to drive us into tiny cars or off the road.

think about it if we all bought a citoroen c1 tomorrow £20 a year tax and 85 plus mpg, the country would go bancrupt, so as they drive us down that route they have to have a back up plan to keep the tax cash flowing in is this diesel tampering it?

no 2p increase but a slight loss of cetane? so it amounts to an icrease by the back door?

 

[jims-terrano]

Jeez, imagine C1's. Think that I would need one for each foot -rotfl-

A while a go we got a loan car, it was a Kia Picanto and I litterally couldn't fit in the drivers seat. My knees would not allow me to turn the wheel. Never mind poor wife drove that whilst I used the T2

So no I really can not imagine life with just mini size motors :?

May be I should try going to a shell station and see if it makes any difference rather than going to Morissons and getting my points.


Jim T

 

[thor]

I have been using [prior to the fuel pricing jumping even higher] the ultimate diesel from BP...it states that you will get more mpg and it's cleaner, so I obviously used it. I avoided supermarkets because if you are going to get lower quality it would be from those places.
I was of the opinion that the motor ran great, acceleration very good and the mpg appeared good.

 

[(RIP) PLANK]

conventional wisdom says that supermarket fuel can not be any different from any other supplier, supermarkets dont have their own oil rigs or refinery's!

in fact a lot of people suggest this is the same wit all petrol stations they just buy in watever is going an the 'super' grades are just addatives, the BP, Shell, or whatever just being the franchise name over the door!

so theoreticaly at least it shouldnt matter where you buy it from, but it does show that if all petrol retailers stock comes from a just a few refinerys the it would be easy to tamper with the quailty.

On the plus side the more oyu use the more points you get, i had a £5 voucher of morrisons and that has to be better than nothing :wink: :lol:

 

[thor]

But when there was problems with the fuel not too long ago, was it not from supermarket stations ???
Too much blend of water or whatever it was. 8O

 

[wildbri]

I am in the middle of a test with my terrano. I have posted about this before. I normally get 30-31 on a run and 27-28 around town. I keep a full tank and has i'm retired just fill it from time to time. I noticed that my mpg had sunk to 22mpg and mentioned it to a mechanic friend saying I thought it needed a service, he asked me if I bought my fuel at a supermarket, which I do or should I say did, I changed to the local Texico put in some cleaner and and have done two tank top ups and i have achieved 31mpg. :smile: Im about to fill up again and tow my caravan about 160 miles, I will fill up on my return so will have my mpg for towing only as the caravan site at southport is so handy for the town and prom I will not need to us the car. I will then start to use ASDA once again to prove to myself whether there is any truth to this rumor. regards.....bri :lol:

 

[(RIP) PLANK]

But when there was problems with the fuel not too long ago, was it not from supermarket stations ???
Too much blend of water or whatever it was. 8O

god point but wasnt it a couple of different supermarkets hinting at a common supplier? (wasnt it some kind of silicone contamination?)

Bri has a point too his test will offer some evidence.

is this how supermarkets keep the cost down? is it simply a case of you get what you pay for? and as super markets are probably not tied to one fuel suplier the quality may go up and down as they shop around?

 

[(RIP) PLANK]

as a footnote to this thread i am off to cypruss in the early hours of the morning so if you all miss me you know where ive gone :lol:

 

[wildbri]

I hired a terrano in cyprus, thats why I bought one! :smile: Enjoy your break in the sun....bri

 

[iandouglas]

rubbish fuel

hi ive read a post somewhere about better fuel quality in france .
some one went on holiday towing caravan ,noticed how much better truck ran with french fuel compaired to british rubbish .
so it looks as though you could be right plank.
rgds.iandouglas
ps.
and not forgetting how many times its been quoted as running better with svo mix.
WHICH I AGEE ON

 

[devs]

well i get 118 miles per £20 from asda and tesco and 113 from morrisons and this is consistent,recently i had no option but to fill up at shell and got 126 for my £20 and there was a noticable difference in running ie it felt much smoother hence my new garage of choice is shell and i am sure it`s not all in my head. :?
paul.

 

[Jocky]

I have been using [prior to the fuel pricing jumping even higher] the ultimate diesel from BP...it states that you will get more mpg and it's cleaner, so I obviously used it. I avoided supermarkets because if you are going to get lower quality it would be from those places.
I was of the opinion that the motor ran great, acceleration very good and the mpg appeared good.

I agree with this, I always try to get BP Ultimate when towing the van as it makes my T2 run much better. Only thing it costs way too much. We should be getting this as standard.

Just some info about supermarket fuel, by law it has to be within a certain Spec, if its not they are breaking the law, yes BP, Shell etc make the fuel for the supermarkets.

:smile:

:smile:

 

[JonathanM]

Can't really compare fuel usage based on £20 fill up though, it needs a brim fill, run down, then refill. You've used x litres to cover x miles, then you can workout fuel consumption.


Fuel consumption increases in winter months, so is that the cause of our problems?


And it might have been me who commented on my wagon liking french fuel, and cheap french supermarket fuel at that - it always seems to run better and give better mpg over there.

 

[Chaz]

Hi

I work for Total UK at Warwickshire Oil Terminal at Kingsbury. Our fuel all grades comes in by train from Imingham Refinery Total and Conoco. We also receive fuel by pipeline from UKOP ( United Kingdom Oil Pipelines) which comes from Stanlow Refinery Shell, and MLP ( Main Line Pipelines) Texaco. Tankers loaded at our Terminal include Total, Conoco, BP, Shell, Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury. The fuel Petrol/Diesel etc all comes from the same storage tanks, the difference being that Total, Conoco, BP and Shell all inject there own specific Additives. After a train or pipeline receipt a sample off the fuel is taken from the the tank and is checked for quality before being released for sale.

 

[(RIP) PLANK]

cheers chaz, very informative answer, so i suspect from this and all the other ocntributions we may be on the right lines that fuel quality is indeed going down?


my £20 fill up thing is a bit rough i know, but it was no real experiment just my observation of the miles to a regular top up so maybe more acurate than it forst seems, as i allways refill when the light comes on!

 

[buzzard]

Re: rubbish fuel

hi ive read a post somewhere about better fuel quality in france .
some one went on holiday towing caravan ,noticed how much better truck ran with french fuel compaired to british rubbish .
so it looks as though you could be right plank.
rgds.iandouglas
ps.
and not forgetting how many times its been quoted as running better with svo mix.
WHICH I AGEE ON

 

[buzzard]

I too have found that Shell derv gives more mpg than morrisons have been running 10% used chip oil and find that the engine runs smoother, I am going to try 15%. Any advice on this would be welcome .
My maverick is a 93 2.7 done 88k
P.S do hiclones work.