'54 Plate V50 SE T5 - cheap quality fuel?

[pgm]

Originally Posted by SonyVaio

Having driven fuel tankers I have a little knowledge here and I would beg to differ. It is possible for cross contamination but are you talking about at source (depots where fuel is picked up from) or at destination (garage forecourt)?

Source - very hard to have cross contamination and every vehicle is (SHOULD BE) checked over. This includes negative earth continuity, firewalls and state of tanks with degas certificates etc... if necessary before fuel is able to be drawn. There would have to be a few failures in procedure for cross contamination to be possible.

Destination - this would be driver error and hooking up to the wrong tank to dump into the ground, would take a complete numpty for this to happen but yes possible. Once again a few procedural errors would have to happen for this to take place.

As for the whatever fuel is available is what goes into the ground is just not right and I would expect the top companies applying extra additives to their fuel would be rather upset at the thought of what should be their very expensive research and additives not being delivered.

When a tanker is top filled there is the pipe that is fed is not a single pipe. The pipe has many feeds and depending on who the fuel is for depends on what additives are fed into the filler pipe and in what quantities.

Fuel truck 1 arrives at fuel depot and after checks pulls up at filling point, fuel truck 1 is destined for Tesco so is just filled with plain old fuel and nothing else.

Fuel truck 2 arrives at fuel depot and after checks pulls up at filling point, fuel truck 2 is destined for Shell (V-Power) so is filled with exactly the same fuel as truck 1 but is also filled with Shells additives while being filled.

It is all pretty well regulated and quality controls are also done at various points along the way too. Although it has now been a good while since I last drove fuel tankers I'm sure very little has changed, I used to pick fuel up from the big fuel depot at Bristol.

as I understand it cross fueling takes place on garage forecourts. usually when there is miscomunication between driver and petrol station. He told me he was told to deliver standard fuel to a petrol station owned by the company he works for as the petrol station had run out/very low and it wasn't the first time. He works for a big fuel supplier and is not a contractor so can't see why he wouldn't be telling the truth. I am sure the likes of v power ect is better for your car than cheap supermarket fuel and will give better economy but I didn't think using cheap fuel would affect the long term running of a standard car.

Paul

[SonyVaio]

Yes I can fully understand the problem being on the forecourt over the fuel depot.

Normal cars as you say should be able to run fine on any standard fuel. I personally stick to V-Power as much as possible with my T5 though. If I'm caught out then I'll try my best to find a BP for Ultimate and then if nothing else then any other garage for Super Unleaded.

[scoobysn7x]

I had issues with my T4 and specifically tesco fuel I got a tank full to do a long journey, and from half to empty the car ran really lumpy was hesitant and just a nightmare, I thought there was something wrong, I decided to top up the petrol with shell and it ran fine, must have just got a dodgy batch from tesco but I've never used tesco fuel since,and I started using Vpower and I found that with the 2 T4's I had I got better mpg using the Vpower, for example I would get more miles from £20 of vpower than I would for £20 on standard unleaded.

I just got into the habbit of using Vpower and thats all I've ever used on the T5.

I would as advised get the codes read elsewhere first so you can get an idea of what the issue is, before returning to the dealer.

[gswede]

Did you fully close the gas fill cap?
If not, it WILL throw a cel as evap system will not work properly.

[brykins]

Originally Posted by gswede

Did you fully close the gas fill cap?
If not, it WILL throw a cel as evap system will not work properly.

I think I'm closing the cap. Turned till it starts clicking. ... not much else to do.

Interestingly I topped up with half a tank of VPower this morning and now the fuel gauge is showing full but at random times it's dropping to showing empty for ten seconds at a time.

[pgm]

as has been said get the codes read with a proper volvo code reader.

Paul

[brykins]

Been read and it says it's the Lambda Sensor. Being replaced under warranty on Wednesday.

Still not sure about this cheap -v- expensive fuel though.

[Welton]

My T5 has been fed Tesco Momentum Super Unleaded for 4 years and 32K miles without a stutter, it is still as sweet as the day I got it.

Although more expensive petrol, the car will return slightly more MPG and balances the extra cost (and your engine will be pleased to run on the better fuel).