daycartes
05-09-2013, 08:54 PM
I'm starting this thread because the recent one on red lining started to get hijacked.
This discussion can be found on most car fora. The following question and answer in the Summer 2013 edition of the Advanced Driving magazine has done more to convince me than individual experiences which IMO are based more on what the propounder believes to be true and is not always based on strict scientific evidence (in that it has not taken into consideration all the variables).
What would convince me to change my mind is if someone on this forum stated they they personally organised the separation of fuel into 2 different containers or that they personally were involved in the addition of different agents into supermarket fuel / major fuel company fuel. I'm also hoping that the thread won't be hijacked into a discussion over warranties.
I hope I haven't asked too much of you! I also hope that I haven't breached any copyright in copying this from the magazine.
Question posed in the magazine:
Is supermarket fuel inferior to that sold by major petrol companies? Surely the petrol sold by any retailer must meet strict specification standards. A colleague of mine who bought a second-hand high performance car was told that if he used supermarket fuel this would invalidate his warranty.
Answer by Tim Shallcross, head of technical policy and advice:
All fuel sold at filling stations must conform to specifications agreed by the EU and operated in the UK by the British Standards Institution. For petrol the specification reference number is BS EN 228, for Diesel it is BS EN 590. This is a legal requirement and supermarket fuels will certainly meet the standards.
All cars sold in Europe are tuned to run on these fuels, and there is no manufacturer that I am aware of that would advise its customers against using supermarket fuels. It is hard to understand why any warranty company would restrict the driver from using supermarket fuel, whatever the car’s performance, since there is absolutely no reason why any fuel conforming to the legally required specification will damage an engine. Different fuel retailers also add certain extra ingredients, such as a cleaning agent to reduce the build-up of tar like deposits on the fuel system components of your car. These additives are not compulsory and some years ago it was suspected that some supermarkets did not add any cleaners. However following criticism in the motoring press, supermarkets made a point of reassuring motorists that their petrol and diesel did contain cleaning agents just as effective as those in other fuels. As far as I am aware, no supermarket has ever disclosed whether or not they added cleaners before these stories circulated, but they certainly do now.
As a result, I feel perfectly confident in advising you to use whatever fuel you choose; any standard fuel sold in the UK at any filling station, including those at supermarkets, will meet the needs of your car.
This discussion can be found on most car fora. The following question and answer in the Summer 2013 edition of the Advanced Driving magazine has done more to convince me than individual experiences which IMO are based more on what the propounder believes to be true and is not always based on strict scientific evidence (in that it has not taken into consideration all the variables).
What would convince me to change my mind is if someone on this forum stated they they personally organised the separation of fuel into 2 different containers or that they personally were involved in the addition of different agents into supermarket fuel / major fuel company fuel. I'm also hoping that the thread won't be hijacked into a discussion over warranties.
I hope I haven't asked too much of you! I also hope that I haven't breached any copyright in copying this from the magazine.
Question posed in the magazine:
Is supermarket fuel inferior to that sold by major petrol companies? Surely the petrol sold by any retailer must meet strict specification standards. A colleague of mine who bought a second-hand high performance car was told that if he used supermarket fuel this would invalidate his warranty.
Answer by Tim Shallcross, head of technical policy and advice:
All fuel sold at filling stations must conform to specifications agreed by the EU and operated in the UK by the British Standards Institution. For petrol the specification reference number is BS EN 228, for Diesel it is BS EN 590. This is a legal requirement and supermarket fuels will certainly meet the standards.
All cars sold in Europe are tuned to run on these fuels, and there is no manufacturer that I am aware of that would advise its customers against using supermarket fuels. It is hard to understand why any warranty company would restrict the driver from using supermarket fuel, whatever the car’s performance, since there is absolutely no reason why any fuel conforming to the legally required specification will damage an engine. Different fuel retailers also add certain extra ingredients, such as a cleaning agent to reduce the build-up of tar like deposits on the fuel system components of your car. These additives are not compulsory and some years ago it was suspected that some supermarkets did not add any cleaners. However following criticism in the motoring press, supermarkets made a point of reassuring motorists that their petrol and diesel did contain cleaning agents just as effective as those in other fuels. As far as I am aware, no supermarket has ever disclosed whether or not they added cleaners before these stories circulated, but they certainly do now.
As a result, I feel perfectly confident in advising you to use whatever fuel you choose; any standard fuel sold in the UK at any filling station, including those at supermarkets, will meet the needs of your car.