Supermarket fuel inferior quality says Telegraph. Really?

[Riley Blue]

JimClark49 said:

willmagrath said:

I never use supermarket anymore as a project done by my Uni proved that they are more damaging to the engine than branded.!

Can you please provide data for this project or a link to the (peer reviewed) written report? I am genuinely interested to find out how the study was performed and what were the main findings (and their implications).

"More damaging..."? Don't you mean "less beneficial"?

[isaldiri]

Is there really no ethanol in BP and Esso super unleaded 97 fuel? vpower i think has 5%....

[kambites]

isaldiri said:

Is there really no ethanol in BP and Esso super unleaded 97 fuel? vpower i think has 5%....

I thought some bio-fuel content was a legal requirement these days?

[isaldiri]

kambites said:

I thought some bio-fuel content was a legal requirement these days?

Don't think so. There is some EU reg somewhere that i think says 5% biofuel of sorts of all fuel overall sold and anything over 5% ethanol has to be labelled. By no means sure on the above though but in theory it allows for the super unleaded high octane stuff to be running no ethanol i would have hoped.

[y2blade]

One of my nearby towns FB pages regularly posts reports/warnings of cars filled with fuel from t**** being damaged as a direct result.

Amazes me that this one in particular is allowed to carry on selling fuel.
The site was built on marshland the fuel is contaminated and the store itself stinks of st.

[HQ2]

willmagrath said:

I never use supermarket anymore as a project done by my Uni proved that they are more damaging to the engine than branded.!

My nan said as much.

[jmorgan]

PhillipM said:

jmorgan said:

Is fuel that good to clear away 100,000 plus miles of crud?

As anyone that's ever tried to clean a modern diesel engine up after an injector weep will say - you can use neat acetone on it if you wish, it won't shift it, neither will brake cleaner, or an ultrasonic bath, or caustic detergents.....a chisel, and some hard nylon brushes dipped in solvent, and plenty of elbow grease however, will. Eventually.

So 100k worth of deposits vs a few tenths of a percent more detergents in the fuel mix? Hmmm.

Never having done this or seen what state they can get in, just wondering.

[scjgreen]

y2blade said:

One of my nearby towns FB pages regularly posts reports/warnings of cars filled with fuel from t**** being damaged as a direct result.

Amazes me that this one in particular is allowed to carry on selling fuel.
The site was built on marshland the fuel is contaminated and the store itself stinks of st.

I think its more likely this story stinks of st....

[y2blade]

scjgreen said:

y2blade said:

One of my nearby towns FB pages regularly posts reports/warnings of cars filled with fuel from t**** being damaged as a direct result.

Amazes me that this one in particular is allowed to carry on selling fuel.
The site was built on marshland the fuel is contaminated and the store itself stinks of st.

I think its more likely this story stinks of st....

Go visit Andover t**** ...as you walk in the supermarket the smell
Is like rotting animals.

Any Andover PHers will confirm this.





Edit feel free to google "t**** andover smell" and "t***** andover fuel contamination"

[Devil2575]

willmagrath said:

I never use supermarket anymore as a project done by my Uni proved that they are more damaging to the engine than branded.!

Really? Please share.

[PhillipM]

jmorgan said:

Never having done this or seen what state they can get in, just wondering.

Sorry, should have made it more clear that I was agreeing with your scepticism

As for those hoping the high performance fuels have less ethanol - I'd expect a few of them are the opposite, given it's a cheap and easy octane booster, even though it gives less energy per litre.

[ManOpener]

Megaflow said:

daemon said:

B'stard Child said:

Scuffers said:

trashbat said:

Scuffers said:

mostly tosh!

show me picture of a gummed up engine from the last 10 years?

Define 'gummed up'.



Caveat: fuel additives will have minimal effect here

that looks more like oil contamination than fuel?

it's direct injection by the looks of it, so how did the intake valves get gummed up with petrol?

All the rest of the emmisions guff feeding into inlet tracts where they aren't able to be washed clean by fuel injected into the ports just upstream of the valves.

^ is my guess

NO.

The image was taken from an Audi website relating to excessive oil usage on 2L TFSI engines.

Nothing at all to do with fuel.

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/audi-2l-tfsi...

From the perspective of that picture, those look like exhaust valves, that are smaller than in other two, and as Scuffers said, it is direct injection, either diesel with a glow plug or DI petrol, so that contaimination is nothing to do with fuel.

This is a common phenomenon in TFSI/TSI engines and a few other direct injection ones. Dumping oil vapour from the crankcase back into the inlet manifold = carbon deposits on intake valves and other stuff like variable inlet gubbins, and with no fuel washing over the valves to displace carbon buildup, it just gets worse.

Fuel additives don't make any difference in this case, but apparently the Ester-based oils help mitigate it.

[jamoor]

We should get pistonheads to settle this argument once and for all.

Take a jerry can of petrol from the forecourts and then give it to a lab or something for analysis.

[Devil2575]

jamoor said:

We should get pistonheads to settle this argument once and for all.

Take a jerry can of petrol from the forecourts and then give it to a lab or something for analysis.

But what does analysis tell you? What we need is a test to demonstrate a benefit.

[Scuffers]

Devil2575 said:

jamoor said:

We should get pistonheads to settle this argument once and for all.

Take a jerry can of petrol from the forecourts and then give it to a lab or something for analysis.

But what does analysis tell you? What we need is a test to demonstrate a benefit.

And that's the rub..

With all the claims of damage, gumming up, performance, etc. What's the test?

[1878]

Scuffers said:

Devil2575 said:

jamoor said:

We should get pistonheads to settle this argument once and for all.

Take a jerry can of petrol from the forecourts and then give it to a lab or something for analysis.

But what does analysis tell you? What we need is a test to demonstrate a benefit.

And that's the rub..

With all the claims of damage, gumming up, performance, etc. What's the test?

Tests? Who needs tests when you can have anecdotal evidence instead?

[anonymous-user]

When I ran a 2 stroke kart, everyone in the paddock said the supermarket 95 Ron stuff was the best as it was freshest, when you only have 125cc you need the biggest bang possible. The higher octane stuff and V-Power etc could be in the tanks for a lot longer, especially when unleaded was around 130p/litre. I know the tanks are sealed etc etc so dont know how much truth there was in it but karting paddocks are hilarious for bullst stories like this.

[Mojocvh]

Kj159 said:

I fill up with both supermarket fuel and branded fuel, but recently I have been using branded fuel more after I read a similar article. It does seem to last longer and I seem to get more miles from a tank, but i'm not sure if that's a sort of placebo affect. I don't doubt that the branded fuel is cleaner and higher quality though, it makes sense.

One fill whatever supermarket 99+ I can get, one fill shell nitro plus.

It's the only way.

Mo

[Devil2575]

Scuffers said:

Devil2575 said:

jamoor said:

We should get pistonheads to settle this argument once and for all.

Take a jerry can of petrol from the forecourts and then give it to a lab or something for analysis.

But what does analysis tell you? What we need is a test to demonstrate a benefit.

And that's the rub..

With all the claims of damage, gumming up, performance, etc. What's the test?

How about a series of tests? It's really not hard.

[Scuffers]

Devil2575 said:

How about a series of tests? It's really not hard.

Like i said, exactly what tests?

What would the criteria be, how to measure, against what as a base line, with what engine?