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Tesco diesel


Andy sxp
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Hi all , new to the forum as just bought another ford . My 2009 1.6 tdci focus has been running fine since we bought it a few weeks ago, I've been putting bp ultimate in it but my wife (against my advice) filled it with tesco diesel and 20 miles later the engine light came on, booked it into ford this frinto get it checked but have any of you know of any issues with cheap fuel or have had the same happen? Seems too much of a coincidence to me. Cheers in advance .

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Don't use it, it will eventually mess up your car whack a bottle of 'FORTE' diesel fuel treatment in (ford stealers will probly do the same then charge you for the pleasure) and then top it up with proper diesel 

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I've been using Sainsbury's diesel for over 6 years with absolutely no issues.I also add a hefty slug of redex in the tank as well.

Sent from my iPad using Ford OC

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I've used Tesco diesel in mine 99% of the time for the past 10 years and have covered 155k miles without any problem. Any suggestion that it will "mess up your car" is utter tosh.

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I don't believe tesco diesel is as good at keeping injectors and fuel lines clean, it could just be a bad batch,

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1 hour ago, Vendee said:

I've used Tesco diesel in mine 99% of the time for the past 10 years and have covered 155k miles without any problem. Any suggestion that it will "mess up your car" is utter tosh.

+1 for this. The base fuel for all brands is the same - all comes from the same UK refineries. It all meets the same content and composition regulations; if anything, I'd have thought that the cheap supermarket stuff (without the additional additives of say Ultimate, Nitro+ etc) doesn't cause anything bad to happen engine-wise, it just doesn't do anything to prevent or reduce the likelihood of something bad that would have probably happened over time anyway.

(On the subject of coincidences, I've been using Tesco diesel for the last 3 months at least, and decided last week to try a tank of Shell V-Power Nitro+ to see if I would notice any difference. Within 3 days I had multiple 'EAC FAIL' messages on the dash and got stuck in limp home mode/no turbo whilst in the outside lane of the M40 attempting to overtake a middle-lane-hogging van..

..it's fixed now, and have since bought myself a modified ELM cable and downloaded FORScan for any future issues :smile: )

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I have been running mine on Tesco fuel since I bought it, had it 2 years now I think and no issues at all.

Just because it was filled up once at Tesco compared to BP and the engine light has come on does not prove anything.

First you need to see what the error code is that is stored then decide what may have caused it, there are rare occasions where fuel can have too much moisture content in it, but it happens very rarely and can happen at any filling station if the moisture content levels are not checked regularly.

I think you are jumping the gun, go and find out what is up with the car first.

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Tesco fuel comes from Esso refineries.

Sent from my SM-G930F

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  as stoney said tankers all get the fuel from the same dept but additives and detergents get added to the actual fuel tanker depending on who has asked for the delivery. my understanding is that supermarket fuels are cheaper because they  opt for  different additives than commercial  forecourts .. its exactly the same stuff as sainsbury’s, asda , bp Shell Texaco etc ..except they don’t use detergents , matter of choice .i never use supermarket fuels but its not because I’m afraid it will harm the engine ..i  think it’s worth the extra for the additives, the important thing is the octane rating - if there's a problem with the car it was present before tesco  fuel was used

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Well Andy, i stand corrected,  i'm just going on what ive read on a few forums including this one (the best 1) personally i dont use it :yinyang: it does seem to be coincidental though,

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Supermarket fuels are cheaper because they use a much higher % of biodesiel compared to branded fuels (almost double as its cheaper) and they don't have the additive packages. Biodesiel doesn't burn as cleanly as dino diesel and the lack of detergents means that soot can stick around. Biodesiel can dissolve certain older seals and O rings especially those used in older cars made before around 2008 when biodiesel was mandated as an additive by the government. Plus their QC may not be so good hence the thousands of cars damaged a few years ago when a metal contaminate ruined the users HEGO sensors

I normally run mine on Super diesel (as work pay for it) but when I have been reduced to using cheaper fuel I can really feel it (mine is chipped to the higher quality fuel)

 

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it still all comes from the same place and meet the same standards if it didnt there would be thousands of cars failing mot on emissions ..there is a  fuel distribution center local to me and every tanker visits it ..shell bp tesco asda texaco you pay more for the additives not cheaper grade fuel

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It is cheaper fuel, it is 15% biodiesel as opposed to 5-8% biodesiel. That makes a large difference

Yes it meets minimum standards, as do nan-kong unbranded tyres, but Neither of them are going anywhere near my cars. My expedition landrover than is designed to run on anything remotely compressionable, like vegetable oil, or old WW2 diesel in the sahara, cough and splutters on our local Tesco's crap

 

 

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I dont believe that supermarket fuel is inherently bad, but I do think there is a problem with consistency and quality control. There are too many reports of cars being harmed by supermarket fuels. Its happened here in Exeter twice, once Tesco and once Sainburys, with the supermarkets paying out to repair cars. My last car was running like a dream until i filled it up with tesco diesel about a month ago, within 20 miles the car was dead, damaged injectors. Turns out I wasn't the only one with a problem, but I had already got my focus to replace it.

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I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with supermarket fuels, I suspect its just a coincidence. But in saying that, my engine does run quieter with Shell and i get better mpg, you also have to wonder , do petrol stations clean out the tanks and if so isit  lower on the priority scale for supermarkets, I can quite believe that Tesco and co would cur corners if it saved them money which might contribute to the pool quality reputation and blocked injectors etc

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10 hours ago, ferretfloozy said:

  as stoney said tankers all get the fuel from the same dept but additives and detergents get added to the actual fuel tanker depending on who has asked for the delivery. my understanding is that supermarket fuels are cheaper because they  opt for  different additives than commercial  forecourts .. its exactly the same stuff as sainsbury’s, asda , bp shell Texaco etc ..except they don’t use detergents , matter of choice .i never use supermarket fuels but its not because I’m afraid it will harm the engine ..i  think it’s worth the extra for the additives, the important thing is the octane rating - if there's a problem with the car it was present before tesco  fuel was used

 

Morrisons being the exception as they like to use the maximum allowed BIO-Diesel percentage of 7%, everyone else only uses 5% BIO.  The more BIO in the diesel the lower the waxing point in cold weather, although I avoid Morrisons diesel like the plague I've used Tesco diesel fairly often without any issues.  I ran the car on Morrisons diesel for the 1st year I owned it & the EGR valve went from slightly coked up to virtually blocked, using the other diesels seemed to significantly reduce how quickly the crap built up again.

(A Terraclean & then blanking the EGR valve put a permanent stop to those problems!)

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The OK, been reading up tonight

5% biodiesel is the minimum by EU law that diesel fuels need to use overall at present, the EU want that at 10% by 2020 (came in at 2.5% in 2008 and rose to 5% in 2013). ttps://www.gov.uk/renewable-transport-fuels-obligation is the regulation

BS EN 590 allows a max of 7% currently to be sold as "normal diesel" any higher must be stated on the pump (it is, but only if you look very hard), but no actual lower value is specified, but the manufacturers can't meet their duty under the EU law unless they sell some over the 5% to offset fuel under 5%. http://www.ipu.co.uk/en590/

As biodiesel is cheaper than dino, the more bio they can add, the less duty they pay, and if they charge you as normal, the more profit they make. There is no legal max on biodiesel and you can get B20, B30 and B100 mixes quite easily (or make your own)

Supermarket fuel has been tested at up to 15% Bio (look for the signs on the pumps). Premium diesels tend to have less or no biodiesel

Bio is actually able to dissolve some carbon deposits so a little in the mix is OK, it also makes rubber harden, swell and crack so hope you have Viton seals in your fuel system (cars prior to 2008 wont). it also helps lover CO2 emissions compared to Dino Derv. However biodiesel generates between 5 and 10% less calories than dino juice, so your power and economy will suffer this amount

Tesco apparently use a higher Palm oil blend (its cheaper than rapeseed) and this has had lots of issues with waxing in winter. Other providers use rapeseed and other sources that wax less in the cold

Its hard to get the facts and the biodiesel industry put out quite a lot of PR stating its all wonderful and we should all be running on B100, whereas if we did, we would all starve as in reality we need to eat some of the crops that would be needed for bio if we all swapped to B100. Lots of sites stating that all fuels are the same (as they all meet BS EN 590) but we know this is just a minimum standard and you can tell they are not all the same just by using them. Do you run minimum standard tyres on your performance car (I hope not!)

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Are you sure she didn't put petrol in............. 

It happens! :w00t:

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Petrol in a diesel?? Ive never heard of anyone do that before! Lol

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Not unheard of for garages to cross contaminate fuels in the storage tanks, or for there to be water or junk in them

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I much prefer running Shell. the car gets more MPG, its quieter, and smoother. I got a new fuel filter a few months ago, thinking it may have been that causing my fuel economy drops and rough running whenever I use supermarket fuel.

I ran a week on supermarket scraps and the car was louder, kangarooing more, and if I just tick over in fourth gear it almost stalls. After running a full tank of Shell through and trying again (just their standard diesel) - it doesnt kangaroo, it ticks over smoothly (yes it bumps a little, but its like driving over a motorway surface, compared to a suspension test track!) its quieter, and its happier.

I will take that as a sign, Mindel is a fuel snob :p

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6 minutes ago, jeebowhite said:

I much prefer running shell. the car gets more MPG, its quieter, and smoother. I got a new fuel filter a few months ago, thinking it may have been that causing my fuel economy drops and rough running whenever I use supermarket fuel.

I ran a week on supermarket scraps and the car was louder, kangarooing more, and if I just tick over in fourth gear it almost stalls. After running a full tank of shell through and trying again (just their standard diesel) - it doesnt kangaroo, it ticks over smoothly (yes it bumps a little, but its like driving over a motorway surface, compared to a suspension test track!) its quieter, and its happier.

I will take that as a sign, Mindel is a fuel snob :p

How much more is Shell's standard compared to the supermarket stuff? I got the Nitro+ for 114.9, I was expecting it to be more

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About 3p,times by say 65 litres it's less than 2 quid and ultimately can mean a difference of up to 200 miles. That's worth it in my books

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

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