Worse petrol experience ever

[MercedesDriver]

On Saturday I was driving back home after lovely spent day with family and at one point had to refill tank asap. Since I was on M20 driving towards Dartford crossing on M25 you all know how many services are there so at one point when I was almost on vapours just after toll I had to stop and fill tank at Esso.
Blimey what a mistake I made.
Immediately engine started to sound like it's from high power lawnmower, stalling like it's running on 3 cylinders. I filled some 20-25 litres and it lasted only 70 miles!!!!
Usually I fill only at Shell or BP and sometimes even at Tesco but almost never at Esso.
Was my experience just a single misfortune case or this poor Esso petrol quality is considered as "normal"?
I just know that in future I would rather call RAC from stopping lane than filling at Esso.

 

[markjay]

Was it on the M20 or M2?

 

[ivandraganov]

Its unlikely to be the fuel,you havent put diesel instead of petrol...

 

[Rory]

Not sure if the question is serious or not, but of course it's not normal.

It's taking a real chance running very low on a motorway in any event - you could find a services out of fuel (not that uncommon) or be stuck in a jam (much more likely).

 

[ivandraganov]

Might-have-been the Tanker driver who has mistaken the fuels then...

 

[John Jones Jr]

Highly unlikely it's an Esso fuel quality problem, more like you dragged up crap from the bottom of the tank instead of fuel.


Edit: Actually, in all my years of driving I don't recall ever getting poor quality fuel from Esso or anywhere else.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Highly unlikely it's an Esso fuel quality problem, more like you dragged crap in the bottom of the tank instead of fuel.

All fuel is pumped from the bottom of the tank - think about where the outlet is, at the bottom!

Its a myth about the crap at the bottom

 

[John Jones Jr]

Its a myth about the crap at the bottom

I'd totally disagree.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

If it wasnt at the bottom of the tank, you would run out when it reaches the side/top or where ever the opening was.

In addition, think about how liquid moves when in a car, its all over the place spashing from side to side in the tank. while moving you dont get any sediment at the bottom

 

[MercedesDriver]

was it on the m20 or m2?

m20

 

[John Jones Jr]

I'm no going to debate the point with you, the simple fact is crap does build at the bottom of tanks, seen it, experienced it and had to resolve the problem. Another two points you can ponder on. One, not all tank outlets are at the bottom as you stated, some are at the top! Two, generally speaking if crap is not an issue why have filters, some cars even have two filters - one on the submersible pump in the tank and also one mounted externally.

 

[BTB 500]

Water contamination?

 

[MercedesDriver]

From bottom or not it was still worse petrol I have ever used and even if it was from tank bottom I'm 100% sure that this was not first time I have filled petrol from such bottom level tanks.
I understand some of you have good experience with Esso, in that case it seams that somebody was sleeping at work instead of putting some fuel additives at fuel terminal.

 

[MercedesDriver]

Water contamination?

This is something that came to my mind also.

 

[developer]

Tiger in your tank ?

 

[John Jones Jr]

From bottom or not it was still worse petrol I have ever used and even if it was from tank bottom I'm 100% sure that this was not first time I have filled petrol from such bottom level tanks.
I understand some of you have good experience with Esso, in that case it seams that somebody was sleeping at work instead of putting some fuel additives at fuel terminal.

I'm sure it's possible that you could have got contaminated fuel but I suspect it would be rare enough.

 

[NOMONEYBUTAMERC]

Could possibly be linked to the fact that Esso add 5% Ethanol to fuel in most ( but not all , i.e. Devon & Cornwall), parts of the country. Although this tends to have a detrimental affect on older vehicles. Not sure whether other petrol companies do the same in different areas.

 

[6cyl]

I've had bad fuel before - low fuel light on, filled up with Shell VPower super duper petrol, engine was very rough after a few miles. Was fine before I filled up. It was going in for a service, so I asked them to change the fuel filter. Problem solved.

 

[flango]

All fuel is pumped from the bottom of the tank - think about where the outlet is, at the bottom!

Its a myth about the crap at the bottom

I wish I had a pound for every myth I've pulled off a customers car and had to flush and clean, crap builds in the bottom of the tank where the fuel has very little movement when you run very low this gets dragged out and if you are lucky gets caught in the fuel filter causing the exact symptoms described by the OP.

No myth have seen it both in the tank and when I've flushed the tank, dead easy to avoid just fill up when you get to a quarter tank

 

[HumberMart]

The problem is very evident to anyone who has a petrol powered boat with large inboard tank like myself.

I've just spent a lot of time and effort draining and cleaning out the 120 gal tank on my Princess.

Unfortunately if you leave a boat tank at low level over winter, condensation surprisingly gets in through the vents (so I'm told) and a layer of water builds up on the bottom of the tank. Plus unleaded it seems has a shelf life of around 3 months before it starts to separate. The result is a gloopy orange gel that blocks up all the filters.

Also it's not uncommon for a boat to cut out in rough seas when crap is stirred up from the bottom of the tank and blocks the filters or worse.

Standard practice on all tanks is NEVER take the output from the very bottom of the tank and many have sumps or baffles to stop crap entering the outlet.