Is Morrisons pez made from old lucozade and piss?

[RoadworkUK]

Just been on a lovely holiday in the Audi. I got down to Devon and drove around a bit, all was well, 35.9mpg calculated, smashing. Filled up with 95ron at Dartmouth Morrisons and thought nothing more of it. Now, my old A4 can occasionally suffer noisy tappets when cold, it soon quietens and will probably disappear altogether with a bit of an engine colonic.

 

But soon after entering Salcombe the poor thing started tapping like a bastard. It sounded quite a lot like Fred Astaire with a machine gun dancing on top of a York Diesel while being electrocuted in the bollocks, but cleared with a nice bootful of throttle and is much less pronounced on boost.

 

Now back in ESSIX i've squirted some V-Power in and all appears to be well. Anybody else suffered from suspect jungle recently?

[rml2345]

I use Morrisons pez quite a lot and my Volvo often runs like a lumpy bastard... Perhaps they could be related?

[meshking]

The misses mentioned the other day that she seems to get less miles out of a tank of morrisons diesel than shell or even tesco.

[Spiny Norman]

I can never tell the difference between supermarket petrol and the super duper 10p/litre dearer "V-Opti-Powwaaahh" stuff.

[dollywobbler]

I stick in whatever is convenient and can't say I've ever noticed the slightest bit of difference.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Never had a problem with Morrisons petrol, and I use it quite often. Maybe it was just a duff batch.

[RoadworkUK]

It was very peculiar. To be truthful I hadn't given duff petrol a thought until yesterday. I was planning an oil change and engine flush but didn't get a chance on Saturday, at which point the tank was dry and a new "calibration" tankful added. Then something magical happened and smoothness has reared its gorgeous head.

 

Follow-up question: Has anybody had any worthwhile / positive experiences with octane-booster type stuff on "modern" multivalve engines?

[Richard]

I noticed a huge improvement in mpg (something like 20%) and performance when I stopped using supermarket fuel about ten years ago. These are people who even water down meat, so god knows what shit they put in their fuel.

[oman5]

dunno about morrisons, there isn't one near me, but I have always found asda fuel to be shit. My volvo 740 td got 3 days less travel on a full tank than with a named brand, the pug 306 td smoked like hell on asda diesel and my mate's mundano tdci had smoke,hesitancy and hot starting issues on it.

some people say that its all the same stuff, but it really is not. I have done a stint on fuel tankers, all the additives (octane/cetane boosters, detergents etc) get added at the point where the tanker truck is loaded, NOT at the refinery storage tanks. tests have shown that sometimes the octane rating on supermarket regular unleaded petrol can be as low as 92. you pays yer money, you takes yer choice.

[vulgalour]

I've found the local Texaco garage to provide me with good petrol as opposed to the slightly less local Tesco which provides me sometimes with no-problem petrol and sometimes with all sort of niggles and grumbles from the engine. It should be the same thing, really, but I've noticed that the colour of Tesco petrol is decidedly more green than the Texaco stuff which might be something to do with additives.

[MikeKnight]

The petrol all over my garage floor, clothes, face and hair should run any car with optimum efficiency! Just wring it out of me and off you go!

 

.... I hate changing fuel lines on a system where you can't block the vent.

[Station]

Never noticed any difference

[PhilA]

Used to notice i big difference in the Bluebird. Asda's petrol used to cause the engine to pink badly unless I hopped out and gave the dizzy a tweak.

 

It's probably just some low grade gunge that's gotten so much xylene/whatever they stick in it to "boost" the relative octane number up.

 

Same happens here. Get the cheap fuel, press the button for the more expensive stuff and all you're doing is paying for the pump to meter in an enrichening agent

 

Most of the new stuff I've driven doesn't notice it, but all of the old tat really made a lot of difference. It was like trying to run the car on old dishwater and lighter fluid.

 

Still, doesn't beat the time the old man got a tankful of stinky brown water from a JET* station.

 

The garage refused to pay for it either

 

--Phil

 

* Remember JET?

[Richard]

* Remember JET?

 

Yes, I go there all the time.

 

http://goo.gl/maps/DW7ih

[Cavcraft]

+1 on never noticing a difference.

I'm pretty sure the big players in the supermarkets just get their fuel from whoever is cheapest at the time, so whilst their fuel is specific to them I bet the quality varies quite a bit. Also some will be imported and (possibly) quality factors vary a bit there as well.

[Timewaster]

Working at the car spares place I used to hear a lot of differing opinions, largely from p*ssed off blokes whos women insist on filling up at tesco despite getting 5mpg less and running like a bag of spanners because "I get clubcard points".

 

I know several people who wont go near supermarket fuels. Bu then again I know mechanics who run motors on the dribbles drained from removed fuel filters!

[Richard]

I once ran out of fuel just in time to coast into Morrisons and I went into the shop to buy vegetable oil rather than buy their diesel.

[retrogeezer]

Have never noticed any difference in any of the cars I have had over the last 15 years..

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

+1 on never noticing a difference.

I'm pretty sure the big players in the supermarkets just get their fuel from whoever is cheapest at the time, so whilst their fuel is specific to them I bet the quality varies quite a bit. Also some will be imported and (possibly) quality factors vary a bit there as well.

 

BP seem to have no problem delivering fuel to my local Waitrose using branded tankers.

[Cavcraft]

Do you mean Waitrose branded tankers? As said earlier I think supermarkets buy on price (perhaps a months worth at a time) and if you go to probably any refinery you'll see different vehicles in for fuel. I suspect this is a good idea as it wouldn't pay BP to run every one of their stations from Grangemouth (or wherever) and I believe the fuls all have to be slightly different from one another.

[Doctormop]

From 1998 to 2002 I was a Taxi driver running a Montego 2.0 TD;

It ran like a bag of shite (no surprises)on anything other than Texaco derv from a smallish garage about 4 miles from home, I tried BP ultimate, Asda own City diesel, everything but the old nail was only happy on Texaco from 4 miles away,

I'd run it on other stuff, stutter onto said forecourt, fill up to the brim and having paid the nice lady at the till trundle off and within half a mile of slight hesitation all manner of crud shot out of the exhaust and the old monty felt like a different car, gearbox went dickey at 288k but it went to the scrap yard running like a trooper (albeit in 4th gear only with plenty of clutch slip) I honestly believe that engine was addicted to Texaco I remember my Dad telling me that in years gone by certain Diesel engines got addicted to easystart (he drove an Austin FX4 taxi) maybe it depends on the actual car, some are fuel sensitive, some run on anything.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Do you mean Waitrose branded tankers? As said earlier I think supermarkets buy on price (perhaps a months worth at a time) and if you go to probably any refinery you'll see different vehicles in for fuel. I suspect this is a good idea as it wouldn't pay BP to run every one of their stations from Grangemouth (or wherever) and I believe the fuls all have to be slightly different from one another.

 

BP branded ones.

[PhilA]

* Remember JET?

 

Yes, I go there all the time.

 

http://goo.gl/maps/DW7ih

 

 

Hm, they all but vanished from the south-west.

Upon writing this, I see they still sell fuel. We had a lot of little mom-and-pop type gas stations that used to sell all manner of odd branded fuels- the bright yellow with black JET I remember seeing on the way into town, small place, sold boiled sweets and dusty bottles of oil.

[Guest]

My storage brakakakakakakakakakaka is next to a fuel dump and all the major branded pez places and most of the supermarkets get their shit from the same tap \ tanks.

[ashmicro]

My 2011 W211 S350 ran like shite on Tesco diesel. Smoked a bit too. It was fine on BP stuff though. The 911 didn't like Tesco petrol, and was noticeably slower, and slower to start from cold for some reason.

The Jaaaaag isn't terribly sophisticated and will run well on any pez, as will the wee Rover. The Suzuki clatters a bit on Tesco petrol.

[trigger]

I've known people (including my old man in his then new Transit) who's bought diesel from a normal branded petrol station only to fill their tanks up with water, I'd sooner have supermarket fuel then a tank of water.

[CreepingJesus]

Can't say I've ever noticed a difference myself, either in economy figures or in running. I did give Asda a body swerve for a while after their contaminated diesel episode a number of years ago, but I've never had a problem like that.

As to the branded tankers - it doesn't really matter, 'cos there's only 2 or 3 tanker companies who handle the bulk of deliveries.

 

These are people who even water down meat, so god knows what shit they put in their fuel.

 

They're allowed to adulterate chicken, beer, and whatnot under various laws and guidelines, and still call it what it appears to be. Road fuel is checked by the C+E pretty regularly, to make sure it is what it says it is. And there's a British Standard for that, so the latitude for adulteration is very much narrower. But, given that they broker this stuff, and only really care about getting the best deal, it's entirely possible that they might end up pushing the limit of what's legit.

[barefoot]

Follow-up question: Has anybody had any worthwhile / positive experiences with octane-booster type stuff on "modern" multivalve engines?

 

No, but the Porsche (1987 but frantic 16valver) mpg has increased noticeably - from 28.4 to 30 odd mpg on ultimate BP

- that's 10% better for a 5% increase in cost - so pence per mile is better.

[cms206]

My old Focus 1.8 petrol didn't like supermarket pez at all, ran like a bastard normally. My work was next to a Shell garage so I generally filled up on the way home from work with V-power and the happiness returned, along with an extra 3-5mpg on a run. I refuse to use supermarket pez if avoidable because even the Volvo won't run on it happily, though to be honest I'm even fussy about not using Shell 'cos points make money off vouchers for more pez.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I’ve never heard of any of this, all petrols have to comply to the same British Standards, and engines nowadays can adapt themselves to different octane levels meaning they are much more tolerable of fuel differences than they were 20, 30 years ago. I reckon if your car is running craply on one brand of petrol or other, there’s something wrong with it, specially if its a 'bread and butter' shopping/family car engine.