Supermarket Petrol

[Russ146]

Most of you will remember "Jet" petrol back in the 70/80's, always cheaper than normal fuel. I remember my Dad never bought it saying it "burnt the valves out"

So what happened to Jet? I was talking about this recently and an experienced motorcycle mechanic said that if people fill up bikes at supermarkets it does the same thing with spark plugs. he got in touch with the plug manufacturer to find out why this happened, as were told "its all from the same refinery" and they said:

"No it isnt"

Like jet petrol, to make it cheaper, supermarket fuel has more Ethanol in it. It thus burns hotter and will cause problems in the long term, ie burnt out valves and plugs and whatever else.

I spoke to a Policeman friend and he said that years ago they Police had a nationwide account with Tesco for fuel. That was until they started getting problems with engines and it turned out to be the same problem, too much ethanol. Tesco paid for the repairs and swore them to secrecy, which is why you never see a police car in a supermarket garage.

So be warned! Supermarket petrol is cheaper for a reason and it will cost you more in the long term.

 

[ryanshelton]

I remember a few years ago tesco had to pay out thousands of pounds in repairs because of thier petrol. Never stopped people going there for fuel mind!

 

[LeithR]

"its all from the same refinery"

This definitely applies to Scotland, the only refinery in Scotland is at Grangemouth. I also seem to recall that there are 4 refineries in England/Wales. This pretty much confirms the above statement.

p.s. What the supermarkets and other outlets do with it after it leaves the refinery is another matter. Years ago Shell or ESSO had this issue of petrol damaging engines and the additions to petrol came out then.

 

[Brewbob]

Does the same apply to diesel?

 

[artyb]

probably unlikely..
urban myth... :hmm:
millions of people use supermarket fuel ,
and i dont hear of large number engine failures,
its more likely that engines are damaged by poor maintenance ,cambelts not changed and oil forgotten...some people have no idea of a cars functions.. :?

 

[Megaross]

Used to work at a tescos store where the pumps would be regularly closed because water had leaked into the fuel reservoirs. They didn't fix it though, still haven't years later. So many reasons I won't go near a supermarket nowadays, I could tell you some stories of what goes on behind the scenes, shudder.

I tend to go to a proper petrol station, get more MPG's from it even if it costs a little bit more.

 

[Aleman]

While the basic fuel comes from the same refineries, when it gets to the distribution centers, and is used to fill the tankers then it gets the additives put in for each 'brand' . . . Supermarket fuel gets much less additives than the premium brands

 

[Jeltz]

When I had a car that told me the mpg I found that I got a little lower mpg using Tesco and Morrison diesel than I did with Esso and Shell, Sainsbury seemed between the two. As a result I tend to use the same Esso garage to fill up. Sometimes they are a penny more but I think the better mpg negates the extra.

 

[Aleman]

When I had a car that told me the mpg I found that I got a little lower mpg using Tesco and Morrison diesel than I did with Esso and Shell

I get between 60-80 miles more to a tankful using Shell vPower than I do using supermarket fuel, the line between Shell Fuelsaver and vPower is not quite as distinct, but the Rav has much more 'grunt' on vPower and when I clean the EGR valve the soot is powdery rather than solid carbon . . . easily worth the extra in my view

 

[Teenage Kicks]

not sure on exact mpg but based on an average weeks consumption

tesco near work = £19 a week

local garage (texaco) = £ 17 a week

shell vpower = £14 a week

all the garages are on route so there is no driving to fill up i just drop in

the other thing inotice is that with the teco fuel the bike feels down on power wheras when i put vpower in it feels a lot more perky and responsive

im still working out my normal with the new vpower nitro+ at 141.9p per litre but i can feel the difference in pull from around 60 to 95 but no major difference in the rest of the range will be interesting once i have used it for a few weeks to work out how much i am using

i heard a rumor once aswell that supermarkeets buy there fuel near its best before date and thats why its crap/cheap not sure what truth there is in it but i sure as won't use the stuff as it works out alot more expensive just in running costs


just to back up the numbers im an acceleration junkie and never drive sensibly - the throttle is an off switch and if the abs isn't firing i'm not braking hard enough

 

[Zedilly]

i can feel the difference in pull from around 60 to 95

On a private road of course

 

[Teenage Kicks]

i can feel the difference in pull from around 60 to 95

On a private road of course

obviously i work in Kph

 

[Russ146]

probably unlikely..
urban myth... :hmm:
millions of people use supermarket fuel ,
and i dont hear of large number engine failures,
its more likely that engines are damaged by poor maintenance ,cambelts not changed and oil forgotten...some people have no idea of a cars functions.. :?

Sorry it's FACT!

The motor industry and the Police confirm it. Its the extra Ethanol that burns hotter, probably not that noticeable by most steady eddie drivers that dont go over 45 but in higher performance cars and high revving bikes it will burn things out

 

[BigYin]

According to an engine injection engineer I know, it's MYTH - He has worked on petrol and diesel cars, vans and lorries for over 30 years, and has never, ever seen any evidence that the fuel supplied by supermarkets casues any issues :hmm:

 

[Megaross]

I imagine it depends how hard you drive your car, maybe why he's not seeing any real issues?

 

[Zedilly]

probably unlikely..
urban myth... :hmm:
millions of people use supermarket fuel ,
and i dont hear of large number engine failures,
its more likely that engines are damaged by poor maintenance ,cambelts not changed and oil forgotten...some people have no idea of a cars functions.. :?

Sorry it's FACT!

The motor industry and the Police confirm it. Its the extra Ethanol that burns hotter, probably not that noticeable by most steady eddie drivers that dont go over 45 but in higher performance cars and high revving bikes it will burn things out

I don't get what the police have to do with it. :wha: :wha: :wha:

 

[chrig]

probably unlikely..
urban myth... :hmm:
millions of people use supermarket fuel ,
and i dont hear of large number engine failures,
its more likely that engines are damaged by poor maintenance ,cambelts not changed and oil forgotten...some people have no idea of a cars functions.. :?

Sorry it's FACT!

The motor industry and the Police confirm it. Its the extra Ethanol that burns hotter, probably not that noticeable by most steady eddie drivers that dont go over 45 but in higher performance cars and high revving bikes it will burn things out

I don't get what the police have to do with it. :wha: :wha: :wha:

Nothing, a myth from a friend who knows somebody. As they always are, no proof as such. My car runs best on shell fuel, but after my weekly shop its about 15p per litre cheaper at tesco..... so the next person to own my car may have issues but I very much doubt ill do enough miles in the next 6 months to notice

 

[Jeltz]

Whether there is any damage or not I couldn't say, my last car had done 160K miles and seemed OK it had several years of running on supermarket fuel before I noticed that I seemed to get a bit more mileage from Esso and started to monitor it.

 

[Aleman]

Myth???

Google Toyota 2AD engine issues, while not a manufacturer recall Toyota are replacing engines FOC due to head gasket failures and excessive oil consumption. While it does appear to be a design issue, a large number of failures have been tied to the use of supermarket fuel. In order to ensure that my engine was replaced, I ran it on ASDA fuel for only 1000 miles or so before I started getting fault codes related to severe coking. No issues prior to that, or after when running on vPower.

The fuels are different, there are much less and cheaper additives (like ethanol as a cheap cetane improver) added to supermarket fuels compared to brand fuels, and this does cause issues with modern engines.

 

[TRXnMe]

Most of you will remember "Jet" petrol back in the 70/80's, always cheaper than normal fuel. I remember my Dad never bought it saying it "burnt the valves out"

So what happened to Jet? I was talking about this recently and an experienced motorcycle mechanic said that if people fill up bikes at supermarkets it does the same thing with spark plugs. he got in touch with the plug manufacturer to find out why this happened, as were told "its all from the same refinery" and they said:

"No it isnt"

Like jet petrol, to make it cheaper, supermarket fuel has more Ethanol in it. It thus burns hotter and will cause problems in the long term, ie burnt out valves and plugs and whatever else.

I spoke to a Policeman friend and he said that years ago they Police had a nationwide account with Tesco for fuel. That was until they started getting problems with engines and it turned out to be the same problem, too much ethanol. Tesco paid for the repairs and swore them to secrecy, which is why you never see a police car in a supermarket garage.

So be warned! Supermarket petrol is cheaper for a reason and it will cost you more in the long term.

Sorry, but the local plod fill up at Sainsbury's on a regular basis, as do the first responders and the HATO bods.

Vpower has some additives in it, detergents, octane boosters etc.

I don't use ASDA as I don't pass one on my commute, but neither Tesco nor Sainsbury diesel have caused any problems with my Rover in the last 45,000 miles.

The problems Tesco had a couple of years ago were due to the drivers putting the wrong amount of additive into the the fuel, not crappy fuel, too much octan booster is not good for an engine, modern engines with knock sensors will shut down if they detect too much of a bang for the fuel being injected (very simplistic explanation, apologies to anyone who knows the detail)