Dirty Fuel in Yorkshire?

[Wabbitkilla]

Guys,

Is anyone having problems with their engines occasionally dogging down under idle in the Yorkshire area?
Three of us now have had problems with the following symptoms;

1. My cars AFR is wandering around and tick-over on idling to a stop is seeing hunting behaviour. I've turned on the O2 feedback on the PFC and though hunting
    occurs when coming to a stand still, idle is now stable and correct AFR is achieved. AFR under load is showing going overly rich.
2. Another car exhibited a stall when idling down to coming to a halt, I'm assuming that similar conditions existed as mine, but since mine is a PFC and this has an
    OEM RCU then the reslut differed in that his car stalled without him noticing. Also notable is that there was a misfire recorded on C3 and when investigated he
    found the plug damaged. There was a bit of clanking too, but with fresh plugs in is running fine.
3. Another example, while waiting for a security gate to open the member found his idle dogging down and almost stalling, fair bit of mechanical noise too.
    Taken out for another drive with a couple of stops the car is running fine again.

The only common factor in these three cars is that we fill up with 99ron fuel, note though that two of us have been using V-Power and the other the Tesco 99ron stuff. I'm considering whether all 99ron fuel in our area comes from the same source.

I have now added injector cleaner and filled with 97ron from Total reasoning that it's a different supplier or the mix is different from the 99ron suppliers. WE'll all be monitoring and seeing what comes next. I'll be checking my plugs at the weekend.

I'd appreciate it if anyone can post up here if they're recently experiencing similar behaviour or anything odd in the way their cars are running.

[FGrob]

Nic.

The only time I've experienced problems like you have described was a few years ago, I was driving the car pretty normally 70mph came to a roundabout and the car started to sound like a bag of nails - heavy pinking and running was rough, it sort of cleared and the knock recorded was 160+   s:scared: :scared: s:scared:   The only conclusion I came to was I was running old fuel out from a long period of storage and once I'd put fresh fuel in it cleared, I suspect you may have old fuel in some of your fuel stations V power and Tesco 99 ron are prone to going off - I had a similar problem with two local Shell stations prior to the above incident, one was a regular user of V power and the other was not so well used.

I tend to have more knocking when the cars been stored, I try and run the tank down low over winter then go straight for the good stuff once it's back on the road - well I say good stuff, it really depends on how log it's been in the garages storage tanks for.

Just a thought.

Rob.

[Mike_V]

Fair point Rob. I'll bear that in mind as my cars been off the road since October.

[AmeR]

Fair point Rob. I'll bear that in mind as my cars been off the road since October.

Cheers Rob! Likewise, mine has been garaged since November!

[nathanMR2]

I have noticed this also but only when the car is cold and warming up seems ok after that. I too use Vpower however I put it down to following;

-The engines cold and warming up
-Maybe something to do with the map on the TTE as this didn't happen pre turbo
-Cold weather

Its not been a big issue for me as if I pull up to a junction and it bogs down then a blip on the throttle usually sorts it.

I may not be experiencing the same problems as you but I have noticed something different of late.

[steve-m-uk]

Being one of the three who has experienced problems ( mine is the one that damaged a plug on cyl 3 ) i'm monitoring this. I'll be leaving for work shortly and will report back once there as to how the drive went with regard to any running issues or performance loss. Makes you wonder why shell had a 5p off a litre sale on Valentines day, wouldn't be getting rid of a bad batch now would they?

[steve-m-uk]

Ok made it to work without incident, mix of dual carriageway and 30 limit roads over about 5 miles , not a hiccup,no codes. Will be doing a 40mile round trip tonight so will see what happens.

[PeteT]

Mine is one of the car mentioned.
Last night i spent the evening driving the car as i needed to know whether it could get me to work in the morning. It didn't make a flinch all night and today its seems to be running fine  (Touches wood). I have reset the ecu this morning and just put some injector cleaner in the tank (Thanks for the suggestion Nic). I'll see how it goes.

It was very worrying when the revs dropped and the noise came from the engine.

[Wabbitkilla]

Funnily enough, one of the guys at work has just been describing the same behaviour on his Renault Espace!

[markiii]

unrelated but my deisel has been doing the same immediately since I filled up at Sainsburys last week

confirms my assumption thats its fuel related

[SteveJ]

Sounds horribly like the symptoms when Tesco or Sainsbugs (can't remember which) mixed Silicone with the petrol in one of their tankers bringing fuel from Denmark a few years ago. That time they killed O2 sensors by the bucket load. I wonder if something similar has happened.

[Wabbitkilla]

Actually after I filled up the Audi at a recently re-opened Shell station last week I had a hiccupy, dogging down moment.
Brilliant, brand new car and someone feeds it dodgy fuel.

Yes SteveJ sounds suspiciously similar doesn't it, when I did a Google for fuel problems in Yorkshire it came up with everything from when that happened ... 2007! Doesn't feel like that long ago, but I don't doubt it.

We'll have to keep an eye on this, I think I'll check PistonHeads to see if anyone else is noticing problems.

[MelBee42]

I guess this is probably not related, but since you asked people to post anything odd...!
On the way back from work tonight, had 6/7 'blips' - revs suddenly all over the place, sudden (but brief) loss of power, strange mechanical sound accompanying it. Revs going up and down a little on idle too. Engine either at temp/nearly at temp on each occasion. Twas a bit scary.
Last twenty miles passed without incident though (I have a 50 mile journey).
I've had this before occasionally at speed (and 4000+ RPM) but this is the first time it's happened at a lower speed.

[normanh]

It was silicone anti foam additive for diesel mixed in a few unleaded grades from a storage depot in Purfleet that caused all those problems about 4 years back, knocked out the O2 sensors, not exactly sure what retailers were worst affected at the time.

[steve-m-uk]

40 mile round trip complete,still no issues or codes and power seems to be normal. Will buy some injector cleaner from Halfrauds tomorrow and hopefully that should be the end of it   s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

[Wabbitkilla]

[MOD]Off-Topic comments removed, please stick to the aim of the discussion. [/MOD]

[2 of the left]

Could this be supply to petrol stations - What with strikes by tanker drivers - refineries closing down etc. We don't know whether the tankers have old/new mix onboard when they arrive at our station of choice

[Wabbitkilla]

Ok then last time I reported I'd taken the tank low and filled with Excellium 97RON and dumped injection cleaner in. Noticed straight away better pick up in acceleration.

Tonight I've used that tankful up and refilled with Excellium before getting the Fuel light.

This hunting tickover (almost stalling) is now disappearing, but my AFR's are all over the place except when cruising or ticking over. The engine pulls cleanly so I'm guessing whatever crap was in the fuel has damaged my Innovate sensor, the sensor I've recently replaced!  s:evil: :evil: s:evil:  

Will keep an eye on it and report back, but looking like I'll be avoiding 99RON fuel for some time!

[ChrisGB]

The only common factor in these three cars is that we fill up with 99ron fuel, note though that two of us have been using V-Power and the other the Tesco 99ron stuff. I'm considering whether all 99ron fuel in our area comes from the same source.

As far as I know, the Tesco stuff comes from Greenergy and its octane rating is mostly a result of its 5% ethanol content. The V Power is exclusively from Stanlow and incorporates distillates from Shell's gas to liquid technology.

If you have your anorak on, this makes for interesting reading:

http://www.greenergy.com/Products_services/product_quality.html#1

Chris

[Mike_V]

I know that I get hunting and sometimes stalls when cold with 97 RON fuel as my nearest Shell station is miles away, a little better on V power but not much, I put that down to either the injector size or mapping, any comments would be appreciated. Once it reaches normal running temperature it's fine.


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[PeteT]

I guess this is probably not related, but since you asked people to post anything odd...!
On the way back from work tonight, had 6/7 'blips' - revs suddenly all over the place, sudden (but brief) loss of power, strange mechanical sound accompanying it. Revs going up and down a little on idle too. Engine either at temp/nearly at temp on each occasion. Twas a bit scary.
Last twenty miles passed without incident though (I have a 50 mile journey).
I've had this before occasionally at speed (and 4000+ RPM) but this is the first time it's happened at a lower speed.

Mine has done the same before and just before it is properly warmed up. It felt a sudden but brief power loss. I replaced the OCV value but it still did it.

Have you tried putting injector cleaner in your tank? I don't want to speak too soon about mine   s:wink: :wink: s:wink: