Can Petrol be faulty?

[Hairy]

My LCR was running perfectly on new-years-eve, filled up with V-Power and pootled home in traffic. Come New-years-day I get out on the open road put my foot down and it just didn’t go how it normally does.
It still has power and runs smoothly, no funny noises from the engine, but there is definitely a difference in performance. So could this be a problem with the petrol I filled up with or is it much more likely to be some thing else, if so what?

Is it worth trying things like disconnecting the battery to clear the adaptation tables and do a throttle body alignment?

If my DV diaphragm has split what would it feel like to drive and would it show a fault on the diagnostics?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[browno]

Bad batch of fuel maybe (recent delivery disturbing any water in the tank or something?) Evo mentioned that they had seen this as a problem when they did their big fuel test a while back, and it could make the car run like a dog... never had a problem with Optimax/V Power myself in either the LCR or the 182...

 

[nibbles]

differnt situation but i put some dodgy diesel in (only £20 worth) in my van it cost £1800 to fit 4 new injecters new fuel lines and clean the tank

 

[Hairy]

differnt situation but i put some dodgy diesel in (only £20 worth) in my van it cost £1800 to fit 4 new injecters new fuel lines and clean the tank

Ouch!! I'm sure it wasn't diesel I put in, if it was I think I would be experiencing bigger issues.

 

[nibbles]

Ouch!! I'm sure it wasn't diesel I put in, if it was I thick I would be experiencing bigger issues.

no it was a diesel van

 

[matt_s]

plus the pump nozzle wouldn't fit in your car.

 

[daveyonthemove]

All fuel can go be "dodgy" if the right circumstances arise.
You can get water in the tank due to poor mainanance at either the forecourt or fuel depot.
Condensation from the climate can cause water to settle at the bottom of the tank.
If water is left in a tank long enough you can get a microbiological contamination where a type of gunk (for want of a better description) grows at the interface. This would be very bad for your car, however i doubt it would get past the filters in the garage pumping system.
The worst type of problem, but probably the least likely would be cross contamination, when diesel gets put in petroltank at the forecourt or vice versa. That could really give you and the garage a bad day.
It might be something simple though like standard petrol being put in the V-Power source by mistake. This wouldn't do your car any harm, but it would notice the difference (much like you descrbe).

 

[Hairy]

It might be something simple though like standard petrol being put in the V-Power source by mistake. This wouldn't do your car any harm, but it would notice the difference (much like you descrbe).

That had crossed my mind too, thought about trying to top up with good fuel, but if this was the problem then I could be putting in more of the bad stuff, unless the garage has had a new delivery. There is only one shell garage in the area so I might have to put in BP Ultimate instead and see what happens.

 

[daveyonthemove]

That had crossed my mind too, thought about trying to top up with good fuel, but if this was the problem then I could be putting in more of the bad stuff, unless the garage has had a new delivery. There is only one shell garage in the area so I might have to put in BP Ultimate instead and see what happens.

Try putting an additive in that might boost the octane levels. If it is lower grade fuel, this should bring somewhere near the right level of the V-power and might even clean any crap off injectors etc.

 

[daveyonthemove]

Also i would pop into the garage and ask if anyone else has made a similair complaint or remarked on it. If you bring it to their attention and something goes wrong with your car as a result of the fuel, at least you on camera going in to make it known that something is wrong.

 

[Hairy]

Try putting an additive in that might boost the octane levels. If it is lower grade fuel, this should bring somewhere near the right level of the V-power and might even clean any crap off injectors etc.

OK I'll give that a go, never used an additive before, any recomendations?

 

[daveyonthemove]

I'm driving on DERV, so i couldn't give any advice without having tried some first.
Maybe ask in a new topic for any prefered brands for you car/engine. I'm sure some of the speed freaks out there will have tried some of them

 

[Hairy]

I've been doing a bit of a search on petrol and additives and spotted a post from Mork about having some bad fuel after several days of rain and that reminded me that a day or so before I filled up we had torrential rain with localised flooding and water coming UP from swamped drains like fountains!
I'll pop to halfords tomorrow and get some additive, hopfully this and a fresh tank of fuel will sort it out.

Cheers for the help.

 

[daveyonthemove]

I've been doing a bit of a search on petrol and additives and spotted a post from Mork about having some bad fuel after several days of rain and that reminded me that a day or so before I filled up we had torrential rain with localised flooding and water coming UP from swamped drains like fountains!
I'll pop to halfords tomorrow and get some additive, hopfully this and a fresh tank of fuel will sort it out.

Cheers for the help.

Hope it does mate.
Lets hope it isn't water and just some lower grade fuel.

 

[Hairy]

Hope it does mate.
Lets hope it isn't water and just some lower grade fuel.

I don't like the tone of that, if it's water will it have done some damage?

 

[daveyonthemove]

I don't like the tone of that, if it's water will it have done some damage?

It would probably be more fuel than water if there is water in it, and your car seems to be going ok, but not as it has?
If there was a lot of water you'd probably have done the damage long ago, and if Mork had the same problem but his car is fine now, i shouldn't worry.

 

[Hairy]

It would probably be more fuel than water if there is water in it, and your car seems to be going ok, but not as it has?
If there was a lot of water you'd probably have done the damage long ago, and if Mork had the same problem but his car is fine now, i shouldn't worry.

Cheers, not panicking quite as much now.

 

[Snoopie]

plus the pump nozzle wouldn't fit in your car.

I've heard this rumour. But at the same time, not seen anyone brave enough to try it.
My sister recently put Petrol in her Diesel car with a 54 plate. This to me proves it can still be done.

 

[daveyonthemove]

I've heard this rumour. But at the same time, not seen anyone brave enough to try it.
My sister recently put Petrol in her Diesel car with a 54 plate. This to me proves it can still be done.

I think Diesel Nozzles and filler necks are bigger than petrol ones, so where it would be hard to fit a (big) diesel Nozzle into a (small) petrol filler neck, the (small) petrol nozzle would easily fit into the (bigger) diesel filler neck.
Hope that made sense?
Only way i can see to prevent it from happening (apart from cutting one finger off anyone who got it wrong (that would make you think twice next time) ) would be to use the "round peg, square hole" method where it is impossible to match the two.

 

[nibbles]

If u try seeing the garage u r wasting u r time, i wrote to total head office,they wrote back with a load of **** and bull and i was furious so i made some more phone calls and it got me nowhere