Tesco doing up to 50p of per litre.

[Hedge]

I seem to remember a few years back some engines going bang due to bad fuel. Think that was Tesco's.

[SteveyD]

Thorney's a massive douchebag, so I'd ignore that completely.

I don't use Tesco fuel because it's full of ethanol to boost the octane rating of the cheap and poor quality fuel they buy wholesale.

Maybe I'm being too cautious, but you're forever hearing about supermarket fuel knackering lambda sensors and eating the fuel system. Getting the blend wrong even by a very small amount has a quite bad effect.

That's not what you said whilst running my home brew!!

[tony_danza]

I trusted you. Those clowns couldn't find their arse with both hands.

[sub39h]

is there any evidence anywhere of any of the above negative comments? or is this like the "K&N filters destroy MAFs" all over again?

if a major fuel provider was providing a fuel that was causing engines to fail i'm sure we'd be hearing a lot about it and i'm sure engines would be failing all around us. i'm also sure that my car would not be working after 40k miles of mixed Momentum/V-Power use (70%/30%)

is there a link somewhere Tony that states that all Tesco are doing is adding ethanol to cheaper fuel? no offense but you can't make a statement like that without some sort of proof. aside from Thorney AMD also back Tesco Momentum and R-Tech Nick thought nothing of it when he had my car and i told him what it ran on

[rich83]

I wouldn't take AMDs advice on making a cup of tea..... (that's another thread though)

[George]

http://www.greenergy.com/Products_services/product_information.html

Petrol and diesel
We manufacture all of the petrol we supply to meet customer-specific quality specifications for both standard grade petrol (EN 228, 95 octane) and super-unleaded (BS 7800, 97 octane or above). We also manufacture and supply Tesco with their Momentum 99 petrol.

 

http://www.greenergy.com/Products_services/test_results/99_octane/99octane_2012.06.pdf

[Apollo]

I seem to remember a few years back some engines going bang due to bad fuel. Think that was Tesco's.

This was never proven - Although I do believe water content was the main focus.

I have only ever had 1 bad experience with Tesco, it was with 95 Ron and I put it down to a one off...and to date thats exactly what it was.  That said I have had several 'bad fuel' experiences with several of the so called main players, it's not something that happens often but it can happen with any fuel distributer.

To make a blanket statement that Tesco add ethenol to make up for the poor quality is IMO a load of bo**ox. All fuel stations are independently tested for quality as well as the usual measuring of the quantity pumped.

ETTO when choosing which fuel to use, personally I have no quarms using any of the supermarket filling stations. 

[SteveyD]

Danza is right about the addition of ethanol, a lot of supermarkets add +/- 10% to fuel including the 95 Ron.  Ethanol actually burns with greater efficiency than petroleum hence the increase in Ron.  Ethanol perishes rubber so if mixed incorrectly then the results are self explanatory. 

Now, I'm a religious V-Power buyer I go out of my way to source it but I do also run momentum and my car runs better on that.  It's not a placebo effect either, it does run better.  Iv run v-power mixed with E85 for 3 years now on track days and nothing has ever gone wrong.

if tesco were knocking out poor quality fuel then I'm sure it would have been discovered by now. 

[tony_danza]

Sub39h, do you not remember the massive problems a few years back with supermarket fuel causing engine failures?? It was all over the news.

Ethanol enables petrol to absorb water, slowly via the atmosphere, but more damagingly when it's collected in the containers which store the fuel due to bad management of them (allowing rainwater in etc). Petrol alone does not absorb water.

When you mix it in the volumes the supermarkets do (typically 10%), there's a higher risk they'll put a bit too much in, causing it to eat materials. Also, the more ethanol there is, the quicker the effect of water absorption happens, so if stored badly or too long, the risk of water related engine failure is greater.

V-Power uses ethanol blend, however in smaller amounts and with their own additives to boost the octane. This is 5% maximum content.

Ethanol in fuel is actually a brilliant thing, and turbo cars love it - However I don't trust people buying and selling at the bottom end of the market with anything, not just fuel. I work for a bank, I've no interest in Shell's profits or business.

I don't doubt that Tesco fuel is actually better, but I won't buy it. Just my opinion and in no way an instruction to others. You're all adults, investigate it for yourselves and make your own minds up.

[vRS Carl]

As with anything you pays your money and you makes your choices.

However, NO FUEL in the UK is sold by any mainstream distributor (big player or supermarket) without meeting EN 228, (for 95RON) and BS 7800 (for 97RON & higher). Fuel is strictly controlled in this country so you can make from that what you will.

Yes there have been problems with Supermarket fuel in the past (Tesco, Morrisons & Asda in 2007) but there have also been issues with the big players. In the Tesco et al case the problem was caused during shipment of fuel in a tanker between the Vopak tank farm in Rotterdam and the UK. Anti-foaming compound intended for diesel fuel was added to the wrong tank. When the organic silicone compound was burnt in a petrol engine, a layer of silicon dioxide (glass) formed over the Lambda sensor preventing it working and causing the engine to go into limp home mode.

Disclaimer* Info taken from wikipedia so it's probably wrong 

[vRS Carl]

When you mix it in the volumes the supermarkets do (typically 10%),

Where do you get that info from Tony?  

EN228 states that no more 5% ethanol is allowed. No fuel is sold in the UK (according the the DFT) with more than 5% Ethanol and E10 fuel will only be permitted, but not mandated, from end of 2013. This is for stations with more than 3million litres per annum throughput.

If smaller stations sell E10 it must be labelled not suitable for all vehicles.

[gobbleplease]

Agreed with danza I hated how thorney used to suck up tescos ass saying that the 99 was the best fuel ever and heres the tests to proove it ( they done the test on an e46 m3 ) there race car at the time - at this time i too had an m3 and used it on my car, my car absolutly hated the stuff and so did a high percentage of m3 owners cars for that matter, it stutterd and gave a bit of pinking, same on my present car ! Never really effected the eddy for some reason though ! basically the make up of v power is far supierior and id rather stick 95 in than the tesco stuff now !

That thing about supermarket fuels a few years ago was tesco fuels and was due to the fuels being transported in tankers that were not flushed out correctly after cleaning if my memory serves me correctly, it was proven and tesco paid out over it, it was all over the news too

As said though pay your money take your chances !

Good shout for the 95 ers though !

[rich83]

I'll use v-power most of the time, tesco 99 if I'm feeling tight and 95 RON if I'm on empty and need fuel to get me home.