Safeway Petrol Watered Down?

peterbaker

No-one said it was, smarty-pants! ::)

But did you know that water injection systems have been used on and off over the years to create a water petrol air emulsion in the cylinder which burns better than petrol and air alone? Work that one out if you can!

thetheboy

There is definitaly something going on. I reckon I have an expanding tank... 2 weeks ago it took £42 to fill her up now £46 - definate conspiracy ::). [glow=red,2,300]Its the men in black suits you have to watch out for![/glow]

System

Being a driving instructor and filling up every other day I keep a close eye on fuel consumption and the total amount of litres against my mpg. Some fuel pumps have a very fast fill rate which causes diesel (which my cars runs on) to froth up during the fill process hence shutting off the filler before the car reaches its "true fill" You often see taxi drivers rocking their cabs and taking ages to fill up before returning their cabs for the next driver shift so that the cab is filled to the brim at the change of shift. I know that some independently owned fuel forecourts have been exposed by the authorities for "fixing" the pumps but don't for one minute imagine that Safeway would take this chance and for a member of the staff working there it would be virtually impossible to do this, however if anyone has any doubts about the amount of fuel they are receiving it is quite easy to telephone Trading Standards or measure a litre into your own spare fuel can if you have one, and as mentioned by someone else, fuel and water don't mix so no chance of it being watered down. My local Shell garage has a very slow filing diesel pump and as my Corsa's fuel tank manages to take about 6 litres more than it does at Safeway before shutting off, as a result I average 500 miles from a tankful of Shell diesel against 440 miles from a tankful of Safeway diesel, but of course I purchased 6 litres less at Safeway.

System

No-one said it was, smarty-pants! ::)

But did you know that water injection systems have been used on and off over the years to create a water petrol air emulsion in the cylinder which burns better than petrol and air alone?  Work that one out if you can!

The main function of these systems
is to suppress detonation caused by
high temperature and pressure developed
within the combustion chamber when
the effective compression ratio has
been taken beyond the auto-ignition point
by either a turbo or a supercharger.
Water, with its high latent heat content,
is extremely effective for controlling
not only the onset of detonation but also the
production of oxides of nitrogen in
the modern leanburn engines.

mydog_2

OK, here one for you.
My wife has a new type beetle, with a catalitic converter, from time to time she has the system warning light come on, we have identified that it comes on every time we fill up at tesco, but if we wait after a tesco fill until its half full, then fill up from say a reputable gas supplier like say BP, after a while the light goes off, so we think that tesco fuel is slightly downgraded.
any thoughts

webmasterpolo

I do a lot of miles so my mpg is very important, so l keep a close eye on it.

I've made an excel spreadsheet where l enter the miles, litres, and company into so l can monitor who provides the best mpg.

So far (2 months and 3000 miles later) l see little difference between Jet, Somerfield, Tesco, Asda, Shell. I have not tried Safeway as there isn't one around me, but these ones seem to have no real difference - but a difference may become clearer with more data to analyse. If l do find any big differences l will post and let everyone know.

mattyh

Blimey, what an impact my little post had. Kinda ironic that Safeway is now a dying breed, so maybe we'll never find out. It could be one for Cold Case.

My Safeway is turning into a Waitrose, so we'll see if posh fuel goes longer!

Paul_Varjak

No-one said it was, smarty-pants! ::)

But did you know that water injection systems have been used on and off over the years to create a water petrol air emulsion in the cylinder which burns better than petrol and air alone? Work that one out if you can!

Yes, I knew this. In fact, my father designed one and fitted it to his NSU 1200C in about 1967.

Paul_Varjak

I seem to recall a few years ago that there was a hoohah in the press about supermarket petrol - which was generally cheaper.

Apparently, supermarket petrol did not have detergents which helps to keep the engine clean. From what I recall, the supermarkets did then ensure that detergents were included. Has the situation now reversed?

Of course, the influence of detergents (or lack of) would not be immediately noticeable - only likely to effect fuel consumption if you used petrol without detergents for some time.