whoosh.....stutter........CheckEngineLight! [fixed pg5]

[john_o]

well as some of you may know I had the car remapped at Awesome 10 days ago....

then running home on a cool Sunday evening , WOT 3rd gear 22psi and stutter , stutter , jerk , flashing CEL 
backed off and tried again......
 
At this point Im none too happy and decided to take it easy for a few miles , then tried again , this time the CEL stayed permanently lit 

At this point im distinctly unhappy and deciding whether to go to Awesome or the stealers.
I figured given the car drove normally at reduced throttle , and low to mid boost levels , the problem probably wouldnt occur at normal /stock map levels, so the dealer wouldnt be much good

Phoned Awesome monday and they couldnt be more helpful , said to bring it in as soon as I could to read the fault codes.
Car was in today , read fault codes
Misfire cylinder 3 , aha coil packs I hear you say .......
swapped packs to see if fault 'follows' the swapped pack , alas not.
At this point Awesome wanted to keep my car for the day to do some more diagnostic checks.
At this point I was a tad concerned.

I went and picked the car back up , the reason ?
A poor batch of fuel !!!!!

Cylinder 3 is the longest inlet tract , so fuel related issues show up on that cylinder first.
They have added some octane booster and the fault no longer appeared and the car runs sooo much smoother.
Did consider draining the tank , but prob not required.

Anyway I have phoned Tesco and intend to claim at the very least my tank cost back.
It was Tesco 99 on the pump but I suspect it may have been either an old batch or really just 95 ordinary unleaded!!!
I think I may try some Optimax again ! after being a Tesco 99 avid fan


Anyway time will tell , but I had to post as Awesome have proved themselves worthy of my trust in getting my remap there.
Top  notch service which i cant fault, and despite my endless questions were always happy to take time out to help.
Something you really need, once remapped , especially as a fault (like this) may not even show in stock mode.

We will see how the next few miles go , but hopefully its just a bad luck experience.

[Top Cat]

Good news in the end i bet you were twisting a bit after waiting so long to do the mod. 

Ps did you use the tesco next to the rugby ground for your fill up.   

[T88OMM]

Glad to hear its all sorted John, I bet you feared the worst at first! Not good to hear that about Tesco's finest 

[E30m3]

Glad you got a happy ending, nothing worse than when something goes wrong and you have no clue what it is !

Although the UK fuel tests show Tesco 99 to be very good, i have heard rumours its very bad .

i never touch the stuff, V power or worst comes to worst BP.

[john_o]

Ps did you use the tesco next to the rugby ground for your fill up.   

  TC , usually I do fill up there but this time I filled up just a few yards down the road at the smaller Express one (KFC / Pizza Hut  , car dealers etc). So you'll be fine , I have always previously bought from the rugby ground one and its been fine.

This morning on the way to the station the car was flyyying , 25 psi  peak. Oh for a dry road .....

As far as Tesco 99 is concerned I have heard the same issues about ageing and poor quality issues (isnt that the way when you start digging!). So I may start alternating with some tanks of Vpower or Opti , but alas you are always hunting for that extra psi 
And based on the way the car runs today , the map adjust very quickly to the extra octane in the tank.

time will tell as they say , Im certainly keeping my fingers crossed.

APR / Dogbone / WALKit reviews to come 

[SteveP]

Glad to hear it's no looking like it was anything major John_o 

Thanks for sharing the useful information you found as well.

[joesgti]

good result there john_o  Awesome really really do live by their name dont they, i may send sarah an email, informing her about this new site!! 

[john_o]

quick update , car is running just fine.

However despite a polite letter inc receipt AND letter from Awesome stating the problem.
Tesco are proving very reluctant to even refund my wasted tank of fuel!!!

As far as they are concerned there wasnt a problem and gave me a list of possible (but proven not so in this case) issues.

I have rewritten back stating how and why there 'possibles' are not correct in this case, but I'm very dissapointed the letter was downright dismissive. 

lets see what happens.........

[RedRobin]

^^^^

Firstly I'm very glad to hear the problem was quickly found and solved - It's very worrying when you don't know what a fault is.

Regarding Tesco, they don't have a good reputation for their ethics in business! I'm sure they'll be very stubborn and hope to force you to give up in your efforts - They have much deeper pockets than you do (I'm assuming!). I would get in touch with your local newspaper and start making some noise but firstly send a more formal letter from your solicitor.

[bacillus]

I don't think he's going to get anywhere with Tesco as he didn't get the petrol formally analysed at the time and that "bad" petrol is no longer in his tank.

[RedRobin]

^^^^

Yep, it all starts getting 'technical'. Methinks it's best to put it down to experience and move on.

[john_o]

I suspect that might be the case , but Im not going to give up that easily 

[bacillus]

I would think your only avenue now for making a complaint that would stand up in law is to find a few people who had the same issues after filling up at the same time as you and kept their till receipts.

I know that's a tall order and perhaps impractical if not impossible to acheive.

Good luck never the less.   

[Hurdy]

Oooooh. Sorry to hear that John.

At least you were sorted fairly quickly.

It's just a little worrying that this has happened more than once with Tesco

[candy turbo]

most super market petrol is rubbish , when i had cars with the 1.8t engine in the difference optimax/v power made over any other brand was amazing !!last octavia and the ed 30 only ever had v power since they were born