Esso to start adding Ethanol to their Superunleaded!

[astonman]

No harm is asking Esso to reconsider there marketing mistake

[anonymous-user]

astonman said:

Esso Supreme 99+ unleaded,Ethanol free is the go to fuel for pretty much every Aston Martin produced before 2010.

" Esso is James Bonds petrol,for his Aston Martin DB5!".
What an extraordinary marketing gaff!
I'm told Esso are changing,just so they aren't different.In business,it's being different,that allows you to be better and more successful .

The amount of business they will lose will be so insignificant that a rounding error would be larger. The savings by having a standardised product across the country will be significant. Esso don’t operate any filling stations so allowing retailers to buy all products across any supplier will make costs lower. Aren’t Esso presently aligned with Red Bull anyway - not Aston Martin?

There is no marketing gaff.

[Katzenjammer]

As long as they keep supplying “normal” E5 super unleaded the same as everyone else I don’t think this is a big deal, or are their cars that will be badly affected unless they run on 0% ethanol content?

[CraigyMc]

Katzenjammer said:

As long as they keep supplying “normal” E5 super unleaded the same as everyone else I don’t think this is a big deal, or are their cars that will be badly affected unless they run on 0% ethanol content?

Anything old. Anything with a rubber fuel bladder pump that wasn't built for ethanol. Anything you want to park for months on end (or in the case of other IC engines such as on lawnmowers and generators, anything you just don't run for a long time).

[astonman]

The list of internal combustion engines affected is huge,from Veteran,Vintage,Classics ,some nearly modern ( 10 years old), from Aston Martins to Lawnmowers,from motorbikes to generators

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Shush, nobody wants the truth on here. A large amount of people on PistonHeads believe that their car "runs like a bag of spanners" if they even think of using super market fuels.

The fact that there are only six fuel refineries in the UK and Tesco get their fuel from the same ones as everyone else is irrelevant.

[anonymous-user]

Joey Deacon said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Shush, nobody wants the truth on here. A large amount of people on PistonHeads believe that their car "runs like a bag of spanners" if they even think of using super market fuels.

The fact that there are only six fuel refineries in the UK and Tesco get their fuel from the same ones as everyone else is irrelevant.

Well, it is irrelevant inasmuch as the claims are usually about the additives, which do vary by brand, rather than the base stock. How different/effective/important they all are is a different conversation.

Also irrelevant is the number of refineries - there is plenty of refined product imported and blended here. Greenergy's only refineries convert waste oil and fats into something saleable.

[OldSkoolRS]

unsprung said:

If E5 in the UK could be of importance to classic owners here on PH, it's essentially a non-event for everybody else.

The fueling issues of classic cars are well know and, let's be honest, not exactly life-changing events. Sources such as Hagerty walk through the details:

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/maintenance-and...

Thanks for the link. It's a long way off yet, but I'll have to take some of that into account and replace certain parts where I can on my 1979 RS2000 when I get to the stage of running the engine again. Looks like fuel hoses, probably the fuel pump and check if anything in the carb needs changing too. I thought it would just be a matter of using Super unleaded when the time comes, but perhaps not. I've previously changed the head for an unleaded one.

[Heaveho]

As much as I'd like Esso not to do this, for balance I can say from experience of having left cars standing for up to 3 years with V Power in them, that regardless of all the horror stories people like to invent, everything I've done this with has just started and run and driven fine. My Mk1 MR2, a car notorious for seizing fuel pumps when left to stand, fired up and ran on 3 year old Shell without a hitch.

My Evo will getting retrieved from it 2 year hibernation soon, the second time in it's life this will have happened with it. I don't envisage a problem as far as the fuel is concerned.

[Vern666]

Just a bit of info, any BP station north of Pitlochry the unleaded has no ethanol, it's drawn out of the certas yard in Aberdeen.
Might not even have additives in it but not 100% sure on that.
The ultimate unleaded still gets pulled from Grangemouth though.

[Gompo]

Heaveho said:

As much as I'd like Esso not to do this, for balance I can say from experience of having left cars standing for up to 3 years with V Power in them, that regardless of all the horror stories people like to invent, everything I've done this with has just started and run and driven fine. My Mk1 MR2, a car notorious for seizing fuel pumps when left to stand, fired up and ran on 3 year old Shell without a hitch.

My Evo will getting retrieved from it 2 year hibernation soon, the second time in it's life this will have happened with it. I don't envisage a problem as far as the fuel is concerned.

Not remotely disagreeing with you, but I think V-Power has only had Ethanol in it for four or so years.

Annoyingly I've bought my first carburettor'd car for 15 or so years, and trying work out what to do. Maybe some sort of additive plus super unleaded.

[Riley Blue]

Gompo said:

Not remotely disagreeing with you, but I think V-Power has only had Ethanol in it for four or so years.

Annoyingly I've bought my first carburettor'd car for 15 or so years, and trying work out what to do. Maybe some sort of additive plus super unleaded.

I've been running my Riley (twin S.U.s) for many years on Tesco 99RON Momentum E5 exclusively with no ethanol related problems. In my experience, with annual mileage of up to 4,000 and the car being off the road from October to March, the threat from ethanol to it and similar cars has been overstated.

[unsprung]

OldSkoolRS said:

unsprung said:

If E5 in the UK could be of importance to classic owners here on PH, it's essentially a non-event for everybody else.

The fueling issues of classic cars are well know and, let's be honest, not exactly life-changing events. Sources such as Hagerty walk through the details:

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/maintenance-and...

Thanks for the link. It's a long way off yet, but I'll have to take some of that into account and replace certain parts where I can on my 1979 RS2000 when I get to the stage of running the engine again. Looks like fuel hoses, probably the fuel pump and check if anything in the carb needs changing too. I thought it would just be a matter of using Super unleaded when the time comes, but perhaps not. I've previously changed the head for an unleaded one.

I hope the transition goes smoothly, no pun intended, with your RS2000. By the way: Is that car in the Readers' Cars thread?

Following the article linked above are a number of reader comments, including mention of this UK book:

"Classic Engines, Modern Fuel: The Problems, the Solutions"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Engines-Modern-Fu...

Obviously the largest resource is Google itself.

[OldSkoolRS]

unsprung said:

I hope the transition goes smoothly, no pun intended, with your RS2000. By the way: Is that car in the Readers' Cars thread?

Following the article linked above are a number of reader comments, including mention of this UK book:

"Classic Engines, Modern Fuel: The Problems, the Solutions"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Engines-Modern-Fu...

Obviously the largest resource is Google itself.

Cheers Unsprung. I haven't done a Reader's cars thread yet, no point until I actually start on it (again). Obviously lots of research to do on what bits I need to consider replacing. I'm bookmarking useful links in my 'RS2000' favourites folder, thanks.

[astonman]

At the moment, Superunleaded fuel that comes from a wholely owned Esso terminal to an Esso service station is ethanol free.This is the reason ,it's only ethanol free in the Midlands and South East of England.

[CraigyMc]

Vern666 said:

Just a bit of info, any BP station north of Pitlochry the unleaded has no ethanol, it's drawn out of the certas yard in Aberdeen.
Might not even have additives in it but not 100% sure on that.
The ultimate unleaded still gets pulled from Grangemouth though.

BP don't sell 99RON so while that's useful info for things like lawnmowers, it's still problematic for things like high compression engines that are tuned for 98 or 99.

Good though, it'd fix half my use-cases.

[CraigyMc]

astonman said:

At the moment, Superunleaded fuel that comes from a wholely owned Esso terminal to an Esso service station is ethanol free.This is the reason ,it's only ethanol free in the Midlands and South East of England.

The refinery is Fawley. It's the only UK refinery with an alkylate cracker, as far as I know.

[Jawls]

Riley Blue said:

Gompo said:

Not remotely disagreeing with you, but I think V-Power has only had Ethanol in it for four or so years.

Annoyingly I've bought my first carburettor'd car for 15 or so years, and trying work out what to do. Maybe some sort of additive plus super unleaded.

I've been running my Riley (twin S.U.s) for many years on Tesco 99RON Momentum E5 exclusively with no ethanol related problems. In my experience, with annual mileage of up to 4,000 and the car being off the road from October to March, the threat from ethanol to it and similar cars has been overstated.

vpower has had ethanol in it for way more than 4 years.

[astonman]

If your Riley isn't brilliantly set up and has ever so slightly worn jets or needles,then it may actually run better with 5% ethanol, because it was too rich before.
But,even my Vintage Atco lawnmower,runs a treat on Esso ethanol free and terrible on ethanol brew.

[Waynester]

It is seriously irritating for those of us with older classic vehicles. I have 6 classic sport bikes from the 1990s. And I recently sold an ‘04 Aprilia RSV as it had a plastic tank which ethanol causes swelling of the tank.

I now run all of the bikes on super unleaded but with fuel additive. I have a large 20L can so I fill this, add the fuel additive and then fill the bikes at home.

This is all part of the plan to push net zero and remove old petrol/diesel vehicles. The on average ‘500’ miles I do a year on my bikes are obviously killing the planet.