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Petrol, is it all the same ?

 
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Flintstone
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:24 pm    Post subject: Petrol, is it all the same ? Reply with quote

Thought I would post this subject in this section as it affects our cars probably more than bikes. A few months ago a work colleague had his cat fail on his car which showed up on the mot. He was told by the garage that it was caused because he bought supermarket petrol. The amount of time that he had owned the car probably still worked out cheaper by buying supermarket fuel. Another few friends had running problems with their cars and they were told it was due to supermarket petrol. I did a little research on the internet and it seems that all of the petrol is the same, as the tankers line up from most of the retailers at the same refinery. The only difference is that some of them put additives in the tanker prior to filling, like BP Ultimate and Shell V-Power which these two are higher octane with other things added, although BP one is crap so I'm told. Do the likes of BP, Texaco, Shell put additives in their cheap petrol ? Also some of the forecourts do diesel with additives, but at the extra prices of this fuel it would be cheaper to put in your own additives, so what is best ? Confused
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nosnowking
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I heard a similar story some time ago and did some digging. I seem to recall that during a localised tanker drivers strike at one refinery last year, a few branded fuel stations would be affected along with a couple of the supermarkets....but not all. This would add weight to the argument that the supermarkets use exactly the same fuel as the branded stations, it just depends which refinery they buy from. I think the reason supermarket fuel is cheaper is more related to business than the quality of the fuel they buy. Supermarkets will IMHO sell fuel at break-even or at a loss in order to attract you to the site where you may spend money on profit-making items. They also have the power to make sure this model works, because every time you use your nectar card or clubcard, they track your spending habits Smile

As for additives, I tend to think that they're snake oil. If your car manufacturer wanted you to use additives, or a particular brand of fuel, they would tell you in the user manual. Surely if they insisted that you use Shell fuel, but you filled up at sainsburys it would invalidate your warranty?

Im of the opinion that the additives used by the larger fuel companies may or may not build up in your injectors/cat and cause long term damage, so to mitigate the risk I make sure I go to a variety of stations, not just the one closest or cheapest. I use about one tank of fuel a week. A saving of 2p per litre is only just over a pound per tankful, or £50 a year. I can live with that kind of cost and would probably spend more than that making a weekly detour to the cheapest fuel station!

That's just my tuppence, no basis in fact, just opinion. (As all the best forum posts are Very Happy )
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Nuclear Red
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 1:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting question.

We need an Industry Chemist to tell us the truth.

My opinion. I just fill up when the tanks empty but try to avoid rip off motorway service stations.
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biggus
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of my customers is a large refinery on the South Coast I will ask the question, although I very much doubt I will get incriminating detail.

The bigger problem is things like E10 for older vehicles and bikes, is this perhaps where they are seeing problems?? If you go to france most of the E10 pumps I have seen are clearly labelled not for motorcycle use (but in French, obviously)

Southernspeed say some erosion of Carburettor parts caused by modern fuels, cba to look for it, might have even been on the book of fail...
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Carnage
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 4:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i do know for fact that my car literally demands the v plus higher octane fuels, if i use the standard fuels i literally feel a difference in performance ( the way it gets off the line and the way it pulls) and the MPG is worse , but it does run all the same.
could it be that by opting for a cheaper grade of fuel will eventually lead to component failure????
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Loco
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 11:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My 2p worth, the differnence in feel is purely down to the higher octane in the special fuels creating less 'knock' ie a smoother ride, I personaly have used both (I have an 80mile a day round trip to work) and have seen buggar all diffrence in economy. doing my servicing I also see no difference in the state of the plugs indicating that the combustion chambers are burning the fuel as expected regardless of the type it might be that the shells,BPs etc do put slightly more octane in the standard fuel for a better feel but is it worth the extra 2-3p per litre... the only considerations i give are price and location, you want to avoid using stations on not very busy routes as the fuel will start to degrade as soon as it's in the tanks.. they tell us that fuel has a 3 month shelf life, thats probably more of a best before date, what I can say is old fuel seems to burn away alot quicker than fresh..
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Carnage
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

agree with something loco has said and that is to avoid the smaller back st stations, my father used to work in the pertolem industry and had proven that time and time again the smaller guys had smaller tanks whcih they ran down to the bare minimum every time before ordering thier restock, it was also proven that every ( and i mean every) tank has a small percentage of water lying on the top of the fuel created by condensation. it doesnt take a rocket scientist to work out that the big sites who get regular deliverys to keep the tanks full never see that water emerge at the pump but the smaller guys who are watching every penny to compete will actually pull some through as they reach thier restock levels.
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