Have Tesco done me up???

[Paulo.dicanio]

I just squirted £15 quids worth of Tesco Super in the Chim (I only ever use Tesco Super or V-max) in at my local store. Within a minute of driving awayI notice the car running slightly "offish". It was certainly more sluggish, not quite making the right noise and I thought I could hear it pinking aswell. This leads me suspect that in my very unprofessional opinion that somehow I have just put normal 95 ron unleaded in. I checked my reciept and according to that I have used Super.
This is where it gets sinister....the branch in question has had new pumps installed and it only re-opened yesterday. Could they have got the 95ron and 99ron mixed up or is this mere coincidence? The car was serviced by Offords last week so nothing should be too wrong with it(fngers crossed)
I don't know quite what do next. I have had to leave the car in its home now until tommorrow but I don't know wether I should be speaking to Tesco or get someone to check it out, or even just stick a load of V-max in tommorrow and see if it sorts itself out. Is it possible/feasible to prove the Octane rating of the fuel?
Anyone have any similar experiences? All ideas and suggestions greatly appreciated...

P.S I suggest not using pump 7 at Bishop's Stortford Tesco

[Slacey]

What you mention is certainly possible, or maybe while the new pumps were being fitted the tanks have taken on a bit of water. Can't hurt to have a word, you may not be the only one to complain so something may be done.

[Chimjunkie]

Hi Paulo. If in doubt siphon it out! 95 ron should be fine unless youve had the engine tuned for 99 and the timing changed to suit. Jon.

[Zippee]

Hi Paulo,
Personally I'd fill up with a tank of V-power and see if it clears itself. If it does you know it's the petrol at fault!
May be worth mentioning it to Tesco in a letter but I doubt it'd do much good without actual proof the fuel is the wrong rating.

[yellow peril]

After the other two Tesco fiascos I won't use their petrol at all...

Not worth taking the chance

IMO

YP

[Vesuvius 996]

Supermarket petrol is sh't.


Go to Shell and brim it with VPOwer.


Hope to Chist it's not water in the tank.

[RUSSELLM]

Hang on hang on hang on.

"It started playing up after a minute"

Isn't that a bit early for the new petrol to get introduced in to the system ?

Unless you pushed it on to the forecourt that is

[rev-erend]

I'd take a sample to them and complain.. see what they say..

[blitzracing]

Wind the timing back a few degrees until the tanks empty if the pinking worries you (It should !.)

[nikman]

I'd take a sample out and send it to the local trading standards office. They can have it analysed and report their findings. Actually you have to keep another sample yourself.

Then I'd do as advised above - top off the tank with V-Power and go fopr a blatt.

If it turns out they've made some connection error between underground storage tanks and the pumps - or just within the pumps themselves - then I don't think it unreasonable that you should expect a full refund together with some recognition for the inconvenience and concern you've suffered. Nick.

[Chassis 33]

A minutes running on a fuel injected engine isn't an unreasonable amount of time to get "fresh" fuel from the tank to the engine, unless you run a big swirl pot (like the 3l jobbie on the racer...yes I know 3l is an overkill!), the fuel lines and filer will hold a litre of fuel tops, and unless you're running flat out most of that will be sent back to the tank via the pressure regulator.

I know the higher octane the fuel is, the quicker it goes stale, could the fuel be old stock that's been festering for a few weeks while the forecourt had an overhaul? Its easy enough to take a sample from the fuel return at the back of the plenum if that's a route you want to take.

Regards
Iain

[cerebral]

started to write some stuff about going down to station and getting manager to provide a sample from said pump as one from car would be no good . But it started to get to complicated. i'm sure the authority in charge of petrol stations would have a website that could direct you on the right and legal way to deal with this matter.

hope all goes well

[Munter]

It might be worth a quick call to the petrol station to raise your suspicions and ask if they have noticed a problem. If there has been a mistake and they know about it, it'd make sorting things out easier.

[Byker28i]

yellow peril said:

After the other two Tesco fiascos I won't use their petrol at all...

Not worth taking the chance

IMO

YP

Especially after last time they took over two weeks of a large amount of customers reporting the problem before they did anything.

[cerebral]

just did a quick check and seems to be that you'll need to phone trading standards who may do some tests. i'd contact the station with your concerns and get a sample from the pump in case it takes them a few days. The number to contact seems to be, consumer direct 08454040506

hope this helps

[C2HYM]

My father filled his RR Sport up at Tesco twice, and twice had a 'Water in Fuel' message appear on the dash, never had it happen before, or since with any other fuel (now stick to Shell/BP)

We won't touch the stuff now, God knows how its handled but the ammount of negative stories about Tesco's fuel if you 'Google' is shocking.

[Jasper Gilder]

Chuck in some octane booster?

[grahamw48]

Had a similar experience with BP Ultra (sp) a couple of years ago, in a 390SE.

- Pinking, almost as soon as I pulled out of the filling station, which it hadn't done before.

I never really got to the bottom of it, but always suspected dodgy fuel.
Unfortunately I was a long way from home so it wasn't easy to sort things out with the garage. I temporarily retarded the timing, then used only Optimax.

[Paulo.dicanio]

Thanks for the tips and advice everyone!
I shall see how it runs later on today and decide whether I'm going to do anything further....
Irang the garage directly and spoke to the manager...
Me: "I filled up with your super duper petrol about an HOUR ago and I don't know what is in it but I don't think its Super, infact I think its's just normal 95 ron."

Dopey woman manager " Have you had a laboratory repot?"

Me "Um no, I filled up about a hour ago"

DWM "We havn't had any other complaints since yesterday"

Me "If it is 95 ron instead of 99ron it is fairly likely most people won't notice or even if they did not make the association with the petro"

We round in circles for 10 miutes until she fobbed me off with another number to ring someone else. Will keep you iformed if I do decide to take a sample, largely depending how it runs after some V-max and if I can be arsed with it all.
Cheers,
Paulo.

[snorky]

Vesuvius 996 said:

Supermarket petrol is sh't.

Cobblers....same as every other garage in the area probably....there is not a "supermarket grade" for Tescos, they buy off the major oil companies...I know coz we used to supply them when I worked in the oil biz. We didn't have a "Tescos Tank".In fact supermarkets are probably better coz they go thru the stuff so quick the tanks get filled with "fresher" (ie still has all the VOCs in it) product more often....