Murco fuel

MrLOL said:
the reality is, so poor ****ers had to shell out several hundread pounds to replace their lamda sensor when they used contaminated supermarket fuel.
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From one brand of supermarket in one area of the country. It's not exactly a commonplace occurance, is it?
 
From the Alpina Owners Forum:

In my past life, I used to work for the company that ran the fuel pipeline system around the country. This is the network that moves refined fuels to distribution centres from where road tankers fill up and service the petrol stations. One example of such a distribution centre was Buncefield which recently went up in flames.

In the early days, supermarket petrol - whilst using the same base fuel - had its own mix of detergents and additives put into it. These differed in blend and ingredients with Shell and BP additives for example. In order to achieve a lower price per gallon, the supermarkets put in lower quality, or less quantities of, additives.

Since then, BP and Shell (for example) have started refining specific fuels which differ enormously from the base fuel that supermarkets still use. So even where the supermarkets have improved the quality of the additives, the big boys have changed the overall specification of the fuel.
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Add into that that tanker drivers confirm that supermarkets use little to no additives, and aren't exactly scrupulous with storage and cleanliness practices, and I think I'm safe staying with branded fuel. Especially when it costs no more than the supermarket stuff. :)
 
I suspect from that he's referring to fuels like Shell VPower and BP Ultimate - so yes, its entirely true that the oil majors refine specific fuels. And yes, Shell VPower is a different fuel to Sainsburys 95.

But Shell 95 to Sainsburys 95 to Total 95 et al? Minor additive differences, your car is hardly going to explode if you use it. If your car only requires 95 RON fuel I honestly think it makes little difference where you fill up.

Rainmaker said:
and aren't exactly scrupulous with storage and cleanliness practices
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Based on what, a SINGLE incident? And no oil major in the world has ever once had a similar incident? I think you really need to be careful before you start accusing large organisations of being unscrupulous!
 
[TW]Fox;17642515 said:
I suspect from that he's referring to fuels like Shell VPower and BP Ultimate - so yes, its entirely true that the oil majors refine specific fuels. And yes, Shell VPower is a different fuel to Sainsburys 95.

But Shell 95 to Sainsburys 95 to Total 95 et al? Minor additive differences, your car is hardly going to explode if you use it. If your car only requires 95 RON fuel I honestly think it makes little difference where you fill up.
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I know this is going to confuse you Fox, but if I put anything-RON fuel in my car my wallet would be a very sad panda. :p Nobody's saying the car is going to explode, but over the life of the engine a good additive package is going to pay dividends. Not to mention the increased MPG and lack of smoke. It's a no brainer for me. Petrol may be different, I don't touch the stuff. It's horrible. :p

Based on what, a SINGLE incident? And no oil major in the world has ever once had a similar incident? I think you really need to be careful before you start accusing large organisations of being unscrupulous!
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Well to be fair it was hardly a single incident as has been demonstrated previously. I don't have to be careful at all, I'm simply relaying other sources of information. You pay your money and you take your chances. Since it costs me no more (actually, less) to fill up with Murco or Shell than it does to fill up at the supermarket I think it's silly not to. :)
 
MrLOL said:
the reality is, so poor ****ers had to shell out several hundread pounds to replace their lamda sensor when they used contaminated supermarket fuel.
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Which they then got a full refund from Tesco.
I was one of the effected people - within two days of filling up at a Tesco store my 307 started losing power and being almost unable to drive.
Initially thinking it was a general fault I booked it in then everything came together with the Tesco issue.

I had the work done.
I sent the invoice along with a copy of my receipt for the petrol purchased.
I had all of the work on my car refunded and also the tank of fuel I'd bought.
This refund arrived four days after I made my claim.

Certainly didn't stop me buying Tesco fuel as it wasn't exactly their fault - rather their suppliers.
I use Momentum 99 I'd say 99% of the time.
 
Rainmaker said:
From the Alpina Owners Forum:

Add into that that tanker drivers confirm that supermarkets use little to no additives, and aren't exactly scrupulous with storage and cleanliness practices, and I think I'm safe staying with branded fuel. Especially when it costs no more than the supermarket stuff. :)
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Tanker drivers have no idea what additives are added to the fuel when it is delivered, it is loaded automatically for each load, they hook-up and press a button.

The supermarket does not control the additives or run the site that stores the fuel and also has no control over tank cleaning.
 
To be fair, if you look at the fuel pumps, they generally write which standard they are to, I think its something like BS ISO something, so surely all the fuels on forecourts meet that standard anyway?
 
All fuel meets EN standards (EN590 in the case of diesel), yes. But that standard isn't very new, and doesn't take into account things like detergents, cetane improvers etc and so base EN fuel will 'go' but it might not let your engine live to be half a million miles old.

That wasn't my question anyway. As I said I didn't want to spark another "which is best" debate, I just wanted to know a bit more about Murco. :)
 
In my eyes if there was a massive difference between BP/SHELL 95 ron fuels to supermarket fuel they would have given them some cheesy marketing name... Like they do on their super fuels, as it's their own unique recipe... But seeing as they don't do this i can't see there being much, if any, difference between their 95 fuels and use pretty much the same recipe of addatives...

Or maybe this theory of mine is highly flawed?
 
WhiteCobra said:
In my eyes if there was a massive difference between BP/SHELL 95 ron fuels to supermarket fuel they would have given them some cheesy marketing name... Like they do on their super fuels, as it's their own unique recipe... But seeing as they don't do this i can't see there being much, if any, difference between their 95 fuels and use pretty much the same recipe of addatives...

Or maybe this theory of mine is highly flawed?
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You mean they might use names like "Diesel Extra" and "FuelSave" on their standard range? :confused:...
 
Well from a marketing point of view branding creates a "difference" between competition's fuel, and in theory should earn you more moneys... But clearly they don't. I don't necessarily mean calling their standard fuels something "ultimate" as they aren't... But I'm pretty sure if they could they would want to separate their standard fuels from supermarket fuels, especially if their standard fuels were superior.
 
WhiteCobra said:
Well from a marketing point of view branding creates a "difference" between competition's fuel, and in theory should earn you more moneys... But clearly they don't. I don't necessarily mean calling their standard fuels something "ultimate" as they aren't... But I'm pretty sure if they could they would want to separate their standard fuels from supermarket fuels, especially if their standard fuels were superior.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you missed my point entirely. Shell (for example) already DO market their standard fuels with cheesy names to differentiate them from 'inferior' supermarket fuels. For example, Shell Diesel Extra and Shell FuelSave. They are Shell's "standard" fuel but are trumped up as being something better than the standard pap in supermarket pumps...
 
To be fair they've only just started using FuelSave in the last 3 months or so.

Isn't diesel extra to signify its low sulphur diesel? Like 'Citydiesel' at Sainsburys? Not sure.
 
[TW]Fox;17643674 said:
To be fair they've only just started using FuelSave in the last 3 months or so.

Isn't diesel extra to signify its low sulphur diesel? Like 'Citydiesel' at Sainsburys? Not sure.
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No, Diesel Extra (now called Shell FuelSave Diesel) was [is] touted as being cleaner, better burning and longer lasting than 'inferior' supermarket fuels. The fuel was already ultra-low sulphur by law, the 'Extra' branding was nothing to do with this.

They are packed with extra detergents and enhancers, and as such are marketed to last longer, keep your engine cleaner, and give more bang for buck - whilst costing no more than 'standard' fuel...
 
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