Bad Fuel !

[GTR-N1]

TODAY TONIGHT had an article last night about crook fuel picked up from two big name brand servos.

Dread the thought of it getting into my car but where does it come from?

Is it already in the underground tank from rain seepage coming thru a puncture/rust?

Does it come from a fuel tanker?

We are advised not to re-fuel when there's a tanker occupying a servo.

We are advised to go to the same servo whenever possible.

But one lady last night said that she always goes to that same servo and yet, she copped 4 litres of water in the tank. Costed her heaps to fix > 1K

Any advice?

[-R33GTS-]

Terry I wouldn't read into Today Tonight's article with to much consideration.

TT and ACA are the leaders of obscuring viewer perception.. they're constantly skating across the lines of incorrect delivery of Current affairs.

---

I have heard of this sort of thing happening. But one thought; If they're allegedly topping up their petrol reserves with water - who's not going to see this happening? Every time I've seen these large tankers come into the servo, they take up a large space generally around the front where everybody pulls in to fill up and the put that huge piping thing into the ground and fill up the service station's supply.

So to fill their reserve up with some water, thing only realistic way of doing this quickly would be to get a water tank mounted on a truck to come in a do the same as the petrol tanker. maybe a hose but would it look a bit wierd with a big open hatch a garden hose or the sort sitting in there

And a again.. Gasoline and Water are immiscible liquids. They won't mix. Since the Water is a more dense liquid - all the water would go to the bottom! So when the reserve got to its lower point - someone could possibly cop a tank a water.

I really don't see this sort of thing happening very successfully if at all..

[GTR-N1]

Laboratory Testing results of fuel samples is supposed to aired on TT Monday 1/2/10.

%age Breakdown of fuel content

%age Sediments

%age Water etc

...and how lab testing is done, is supposed to be revealed.

It'll only be 7 mins but yes, it might tell me something I didn't know. I've only been a pharmacist, but chemistry interests me still.

I did get bad fuel early last year; and then 3 months later, my coilpacks needed to be replaced. I wonder if there was a knock-on effect.

[Sarumatix]

I've filled up from a BP with ultimate.. and had the car cough and splutter and start running on 5 cylinders within 10 minutes. As soon as fuel was flushed and injectors cleaned, sparks replaced, back to running smoothly. Accident or not BP was not interested in investigating it and I was stuck in tassy.

[GTR-32U]

A lot of the time its the Tight Ass servo owner who runs his tanks way too low.this picks up all the shit from the bottom. Even more so when he finally refuels as it mixes it all up

[Iron Chef]

I've filled up from a BP with ultimate.. and had the car cough and splutter and start running on 5 cylinders within 10 minutes. As soon as fuel was flushed and injectors cleaned, sparks replaced, back to running smoothly. Accident or not BP was not interested in investigating it and I was stuck in tassy.

You should've been much firmer with them then, as BP are the only ones who guarantee the octane rating of their fuels. A mate of mine successfully got a rebuild on his RX-3 from a different fuel company too (he works as a scientist specialising in fuels so he tested the fuel in a lab lol)

I suspect the water issue may come from a combination of ethanol blends (ethanol is hygroscopic - it absorbs water) and then being put in tanks not designed to suit it.

[Lippo]

Running the tank low has nothing to do with getting bad fuel. You will cop water/dirty fuel at any stage as the fuel pick up in the tank sits at the bottom. And as water is heavier than fuel, it will always sit on the bottom. Same as your cars fuel tank. Dont put blame on running your tank low when you pick up water and dirt. Running the tank low has nothing to do with it.

Terry, most of the time getting crook fuel usually comes from the tanker. You get lots of cross contamination from these tankers. They dont always clean the tanks out after each trip so in the same tank on the truck, you might get diesel one trip, then 98 the next and then 92 another trip etc. So its not uncommon to find traces of diesel and other contaminants in your 98.

[R TUNE]

I had a bad batch once.

Picked it up from my local PB in dimond creek right after a heavy rain storm a few years back (which resulted in some flooding in some areas of melb)

car would ideal like shit run like shit.

put some fuel tratment in and just let the car run till was almost empty then field up about 2 weeks later and ran fine.

[getyayayaout]

i had bad fuel from a major in metro melbourne toward the end of last year and through the whole tank it stalled on idle and missed up the gear, not to mention i only got 240km to the tank. cleaned it with redline and been putting bp ultimate in it since. didnt ever take it up with them...probably should have

[our12]

Hi.

The oil companies and resellers do source refined fuel from overseas mainly Indonesia because it is cheaper and usually this fuel is not refined to the same standards as fuel refined here. The oil companies will assure the public this fuel is put through their processes here to bring it up to the standards required. We can only believe them.

[gotRICE?]

I've filled up from a BP with ultimate.. and had the car cough and splutter and start running on 5 cylinders within 10 minutes. As soon as fuel was flushed and injectors cleaned, sparks replaced, back to running smoothly. Accident or not BP was not interested in investigating it and I was stuck in tassy.

Now that you mention this, i have always run my R33 on Mobil E10, and i unfortunately got a couple of $50 BP vouchers i couldnt flick off So bit the bullet and used them.

Ever since, the car has developed a wierd miss occasionally. Almost like coilpack failure. Not nice when your feeding it to it uphill in a passing lane and you suddenly loose all power, and the car surges as if its hit a wall.

Think ill do what you have. Clean the injectors etc and go straight back to Mobil.

[Mayuri Krab]

After reading through everybody's encounters. Seems like I'm one of the lucky ones that haven't had any bad fuel experiences.

Then again, my car doesn't seem to be very sensitive to different types of fuel, BP, Vortex & even generic RON 98 all works fine with no noticeable difference.

[PM-R33]

You can buy items such as these that seperate the water from the fuel due to as others have said, water being heavier than fuel.

http://www.mrfunnel.com/Mr._Funnel/Home.html

Always wanted to try one up here. We get a lot of rain up here in the summer seaon (half the town is flooded at the moment) and im sure a lot of water would get into the underground tanks in some of the servos.

Edited January 31, 2010 by PM-R33

[GTR-N1]

You can buy items such as these that seperate the water from the fuel due to as others have said, water being heavier than fuel.

http://www.mrfunnel.com/Mr._Funnel/Home.html

Always wanted to try one up here. We get a lot of rain up here in the summer seaon (half the town is flooded at the moment) and im sure a lot of water would get into the underground tanks in some of the servos.

Prevention better than cure!

I'd personally love to see just how well that filter-funnel is able to expose bad fuel from a dodgy underground tank at the servo.

Some people say that what you can't see won't hurt you!

But we all know that anything from a Salmonella bug from an unclean restaurant to a leaky, rusted out underground petrol storage tank leaching in water that ends up in our fuel tanks is despicable as well as sloppy.

Heck, I love onion; but when I order an egg sandwich and get the taste of onion when I don't expect it > pisses me OFF!

So if my "Herbie" could talk and he gets sh/t in his food ('er fuel), I can't help but cry tears for dear "Herbie".

I'd love to get my hands on a kit that exposes all the slag 'n dross that gets into the V-Power/Ultimate eh?

I don't have the $$ for a mass spectrometer tho'

Anything better out there?

[PM-R33]

You can buy the little Mr Funnels (i actually saw them on the shelf today, was thinking about buying one). Could keep it in the boot and use it at the servos.

I might buy one and give it a go just to see if it picks up anything.

[GTR-N1]

OK, so a H2O molecule is 5 microns in diameter which the filter-funnel will not let through.

Let's see how we go at determining what's left over after 50 litres of Ultimate/V-Power/8000 goes into a tank.

My Foz XT will never have had it so good methinks - since I only do 4000Km/yr in the R34.

Hopefully though, there'll be no sh/t leftovers wherever I fill up.

Wonder if the servo attendant might think I'm filling up a colostomy bag whilst standing so close to a funnel. lol

[bozodos]

this is why I only go to the newest servos in town with the clean tanks and never fill when the tanker's there

I have used boost 98 on quite a few occasions with no hassles, and am waiting to see if there is any truth to the E10 paranoia with my GF's Datsun 1200 - it has been run on Plus ULP (95 octane 10% ethanol) for at least 3 years now exclusively and there is yet to be any "eaten" fuel lines or anything found. Indeed when the head was off the other week the mechanic commented on how good the engine looked for its age

[lachlanw]

oh oh i know this one . my job is to remove tanks from old service stations (in NZ)

the fuel pick up is about 7 inches off the bottom of the tank . diesel tanks are the worst . seen a 50000 litre one and the bottom 6 inches of whole tank were rust and sludge . its a down side about my job aye . you really dont wanna put any fuel in your car . thank fully there is a new BP (only place to get 98 in NZ) with 22 pumps and its the busiest service station in the southern hemisphere so i know the tanks are clean and it always gets fresh fuel .

its really gold when our new holden rodeos go back to dearler ship because they wont run . they ring us up and say its diesel bug . phone goes silent when we ask them for a sample so we can test it

[lachlanw]

oh oh i know this one . my job is to remove tanks from old service stations (in NZ)

the fuel pick up is about 7 inches off the bottom of the tank . diesel tanks are the worst . seen a 50000 litre one and the bottom 6 inches of whole tank were rust and sludge . its a down side about my job aye . you really dont wanna put any fuel in your car . thank fully there is a new BP (only place to get 98 in NZ) with 22 pumps and its the busiest service station in the southern hemisphere so i know the tanks are clean and it always gets fresh fuel .

its really gold when our new holden rodeos go back to dearler ship because they wont run . they ring us up and say its diesel bug . phone goes silent when we ask them for a sample so we can test it

[lachlanw]

oh oh i know this one . my job is to remove tanks from old service stations (in NZ)

the fuel pick up is about 7 inches off the bottom of the tank . diesel tanks are the worst . seen a 50000 litre one and the bottom 6 inches of whole tank were rust and sludge . its a down side about my job aye . you really dont wanna put any fuel in your car . thank fully there is a new BP (only place to get 98 in NZ) with 22 pumps and its the busiest service station in the southern hemisphere so i know the tanks are clean and it always gets fresh fuel .

its really gold when our new holden rodeos go back to dearler ship because they wont run . they ring us up and say its diesel bug . phone goes silent when we ask them for a sample so we can test it