crap supermarket fuel

[stevepeanut]

A while ago, my capri was spluttering at low revs, I asked about it in the capri room, and one of the first replys was from Roger (caprinerd) asking if I had put tesco fuel in it.

 

Anyways, my doris came home the other day, saying her car is running rough and coughing/spluttering, and said it was fine until she had just filled up with fuel, just off chance, I said "have you been to tesco?" and the answer was yes.

 

Whats the score, is tesco fuel known to be crap?

[bigglesmk2]

I pretty much use Tescos all the time and never had a prob

[RossMK2]

neither has my mum or my dad with diesel. remember its not made by tesco

[caprinerd]

the guys on the 190e forum wont touch it as it messes the running of there mercs up, i couldnt see how but the 190e ive been moding for my mate was fine till he added tesco fuel and then it ran like a pile of crap,we drained what fuel he had left in the tank out and put esso in and its been fine ever since

[over_head_cam]

It made my old e30 splutter and cut out

[baz105e]

they found allsorts of shite in the bottom of the tank at my local tesco, they only looked inside the tank because the pumps were filling peoples cars with water

[stevepeanut]

been filling up the car with BP super unleaded, probs put £40 worth in since the tesco fuel went it. Its a bit better but still not running right.

 

Dont know wether to keep putting more fuel in, in the hope that it will dilute the tesco fuel, or maybe its better to empty it and fill it fresh

[morcheen]

any old liquid past it's sell by date gets mixed in that's why you get those 5p off coupons

[Ste-V]

Think I have heard this in the past, I stick to Shell

[Fiesta Steve]

Wasn't there a problem with cheap supermarket fuels a few years ago, silicone in it or something ??

[stevepeanut]

Wasn't there a problem with cheap supermarket fuels a few years ago, silicone in it or something ??

 

something happened down south, I think it was a morrisions store, everyone who filled up broken down and the fuel was wrecking engines

[RossMK2]

my mk2 is filled up always at shell so doesnt affect me

[antz]

I use shell as its on my way to work and the same price as morrisons.

 

Tesco is 9 miles in the wrong directon so I dont go there

[peranapete]

Lots of forecourt garages are using / selling us fuel but with a growing amount of Bio fuel, its cheaper for them to buy, they make bigger profits !

All the large supermarkets are doing it,

[rallyesport04]

ive never had a prob with tesco fuel but my dad had issues with his carbed volvo years ago coughing an cutting out i use shell im my mk1 but the nearest is miles away good for a little drive tho if times tight i pop to the local bp only up the road but weres the fun run in that

[X FLOW EDDY]

Mk mk2 orion refuses to run rite on jet petrol, it pinks like fook. I stick to shell now

[bortaf]

ALL fuel contains some bio supermarket or not, it's the law, nowt to do with profit, the standard at the mo is 2.5% rising to 5% next year although tesco (and other stations) have been using 5% for a few years to stay ahead of the laws and the fact the company they buy fuel from uses this percentage, this could be the reason for some cars having problems ? although i use a variaty of cars all run on either tesco or morrisons fuel without a problem.

I think it's more an individual station problem rather than a country wide one mainly due to contamination in some storage tanks.

As i say tesco don't produce thier own fuel, they buy it from one of the main manufacturers and then choose to make less profit than an independant or franchise dealer would.

[escortmad79]

Scooby coughs & splutters a bit at times & that's filled at Asda

[evil knievel]

My car runs like shite everytime I fill up at Tesco, or Morrissons. So I think I'll stick to Shell

[bigdaz27]

i do about 1000 miles a week on tesco fuel and have done for the past 6 years and never had a problem

[sab6024]

I used to use supermarket fuel up until the day I filled up at my local Safeway (god that was a while ago) and ended with half a tank of water. I will only use Shell fuels now, but luckily my nearest garage is Shell and pretty much the cheapest around.

 

I was told the the supermarkets just buy whatever fuel is cheapest and the left over at the depots. Whereas Shell, Texaco and BP always add their own additives before refueling a forecourt.

[Seals2]

On the subject of fuel i work for a ford main dealer and over the last two weeks ive had 5 vans with problems on running which have turned out to be down to fuel quality. all the customer are well known to us and all 5 use only bp, tesco and shell.

but before they had the running concerns the last place they filled up was bp. On checking out bp website as they sponsor a part of Ford i found there is a fuel call bp30 on the market which is part biofuel. so with the crap ive seen in the fuel from the petrol transits i would pretty much say its this stuff, the vans had to have a full fuel system to get it running as the injector spray patten was s*agged and fuel pressure was to weak.

As for the diesel theres just excessive water build up rusting the fuel filter blocking the tanker sender units return.

[petrolhead]

I often use the tesco 99 Octane. No probs yet with 11.7:1 Cr on mine (touch wood)

[PAUL MANN]

a few years ago i used to repair petrol tankers and you will find that all the supermarkets use different oil terminals in one week,ie asda will fill up at texaco oil terminal for maybe a week because thats the cheapest to fill their tanker,but the next it may be cheaper to fill at jet,then the next at bp so you see the pattern who ever does the cheapest fill up is where they go thats why super markets are usualy cheaper than named stations,but i think that the problem stems from all the additive that all the staaions have ie texaco is clean system three & bp is ultima & jet is something else,so i dont think they all mix very well,just my opinion

[jimbo]

a few years ago i used to repair petrol tankers and you will find that all the supermarkets use different oil terminals in one week,ie asda will fill up at texaco oil terminal for maybe a week because thats the cheapest to fill their tanker,but the next it may be cheaper to fill at jet,then the next at bp so you see the pattern who ever does the cheapest fill up is where they go thats why super markets are usualy cheaper than named stations,but i think that the problem stems from all the additive that all the staaions have ie texaco is clean system three & bp is ultima & jet is something else,so i dont think they all mix very well,just my opinion

 

Yours and Bortaf's seem the best responses on here, in that they tie in with my experience of working at a tesco petrol station and taking the deliveries.

 

The tankers and drivers were all Wincanton Logistics (badged up as Tesco) and the fuel would come from (if I remember correctly) Texaco, Gulf and Total. Speaking to the drivers, I understood that the local Tesco fuel buyer would buy batches of fuel from each depot dependant upon the price being offered.

 

More importantly, when the drivers went to fill up they were in the same lines as other supermarkets and even tankers from various "branded" petrol stations, that didn't have a fuel depot in the area. There was no certainly no correlation between where the fuel came from and to where it went.

 

I didn't think to ask about additives, perhaps they get put in prior to filling the tank. Perhaps they all use the same, but market them differently. Fundamentally, fuel is so massively diverse because of the variety in the oil refineries that makes the gasoline and the different crude oils sourced from around the world.

 

In terms of quality checks, we had to do a weekly HM Customs check on each pump to make sure you were getting the amount you paid for but in terms of water/dirt content, I don't think there was any measure. I guess that petrol station should be doing maintenance checks, but I bet they skimp on those to save money.

 

Thinking about it.....technology to cut off a pump if water is detected is hardly cutting edge science, and I'm disappointed that they haven't built it in over the years.