I see on the BBC that

"Trading standards officials have launch an investigation after allegations from drivers across south-east England that they had been sold "contaminated" fuel.

The motorists believe they may have been sold petrol containing ethanol, which has damaged their cars. Vehicles have been juddering, misfiring and had a loss of power.

However, the AA says tests showed ethanol was not to blame and the cause of the problem remained unknown."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6405051.stm

Mostly it seems to be Tesco affected, but there has been mention of Asda and Morrisons. It reminded me of a topic discussed a week or two back about differences in fuel. That's why we pay more for Shell

An interesting one this, I saw the new item too. Looks like some garages are going to do well out of it! How do you prove it and where it originated from? And the damage won't be covered by any manufacturers if it's proved to be fuel! I exepct they'll have their, you use it in your vehicle at your own risk get out clauses or something along those lines!

Pete

Over the past few months I have seen problems with contaminated LPG. It would seem that lpg that has been used as achemical scrubber has been resold for automotive use. This is even harder to trace and prove where it came from. Thankfully in older cars with simple mixer systems this has not caused any problems.

latest I have heard is a tanker went out carrying chemicals then brought fuel back without being cleaned properly,

this is a bit stupid old cars tend not to have problems with ethinal carbed especially but what it is is that the car thinks its doing it right but the fuel air ratio is slitly different for it,or it may even be changing it becouse of differnt emissions that eyhinal gives although small it could be enough to put them ofcouse ,even 5% ethinal which puts like 3 octane points on

it could be somthing else like somone putting somthing in the fuel storige things an addive to cause all this ...maybe terrorist attack who knows

possible or not that is the question


Cheers
will

MJ wrote: That's why we pay more for Shell

You pay more for Shell? Round here they are one of the cheapest!

Apart from the last few weeks Nick... the one on my road is usually cheaper than the supermarkets, but it's been 2p up lately.

Most petrol I thought had ethanol in it now...

I saw how Fake ran when I first got it running, lumpy on tesco/sainsburies, wouldn't on asda, and fine on shell. I know a lot was knackered at the time, but that said a lot to me, havn't used anything other than shell since unless it was dire "Foggylight on the motorway" type situations.

I have always run a three to one ratio , three fills on morrisons one on BP ultimate and have never had any problems

The RAC said the problem seemed to be particularly affecting the oxygen sensors in vehicles.

iirc its only the catalytic convertor fitted 300's that have these isn't it

Not even all of them mate, just the B200F's, any 1.4s and 1.7s over here are still carbed, so didn't need one! Basically, no English 300, so we are all good!

Silicone does bad for O2 sensors, if something like that has been mixed with fuel it can cause problems, antifreeze can have silicone and quite many other things.

It is silicona conatimination. Silicon puts a coating over the lambda probe (oxygen sensor) and prevents it from reading. This will initialy cause rich running untill the lambda caeses reading then the car will run on its base map. The car will need a new lambda probe fitting.

BTW silicone can be found in many different polishes and cleaners beware with modern cars.