Duff Fuel

[tarquin]

Hello everyone

I used to think that people who said they had something wrong with their fuel, Or "I wouldn't get it from there" were just imagining it. Well this past week or so, I have been having bad idling on my multidrive. It would suddenly dip to about 400rpm,sometimes a bit lower making the car shudder really badly, it being a 3 cylinder and all. Also slowing down from say 30mph to a stop, it would dip and just recover. I even took out my K&N filter and put back the original but it was the same. I put the K&N back in. I waited until i had about 2 thimbles full of fuel left then filled it up with Tesco's Momentum. After about a mile the car came good, idle is now at 850/900rpm and runs really well and has been for the last half a tank. Looking back, it seemed to run at high revs and accelerate ok just the slowing down to idle. Wierd!! At the moment I can only associate it with the fuel.

David

David

[mr dave]

Where did you get your "Duff" fuel from!.

was it a

independent garage!!.

supermarket!!

Or from a man at the back of a van

[s44gtw]

Check with that last filling station that there were no reported problems at the time you were their customer.

They are going to have to tell you, just imagine how many could have been effected.

Your iQ will love Super Unleaded & Momentum is good as is any 99/100 octane,

but not as good as Sainsbury Super unleaded in my extensive testing. lol

I still went back to 95 ron thow as the economics worked out exactly the same.

I think you might just find that after another tank of the good stuff & putting back on your K&N filter the same thing will happen again.

Best let the engine run as designed,just use the correct filter, the noise from the K&N is what makes you think it performs better IMO,

that is unless you are actually going to be properly tuning it.

george

[tarquin]

I think the Garage in question was a BP. I shied away from Shell because when I had my Diesel, I always ended up in the super duper fuel lane at a million pound a litre. Cant really remember where it came from.The K&N does make a fair difference. With the multi drive, it was a bit sluggish pulling onto a round-a-bout darn right hairy at times, now its no problem. Its far more responsive and I did a comparison on a track.Although I'm not going to be driving at these speeds, Before fitting, it would do 85mph. Now it accelerates at 85 to 112mph. But to be honest the noise is driving me nuts!! It is possible that it might not be the fuel, its just that the "tank" in question, I had for well over a week and the idle was awful. Even into Tesco when I pulled up at the pump it was juddering going from 700rpm to 400 then a quick blip would bring it back then off it would go again, A couple of mins later all back to normal and has been since for the last 200 miles.

P.S George this is with the K&N fitted

David

[s44gtw]

I like the super dooper V Power Diesel when it is going in an engine that gets the benefit of it.

if it is only costing the same as using half a litres extra per gallon in cash terms, but giving better performance & then you get that 5 mpg or so better then it doesnt cost more to my mind.

(that is how using Super Unleaded in the iQ also worked out for me, but only for a couple of tanks, then things were just back to the same MPG with standard un-leaded fuel.)

Remember that the UK diesel & petrol changes late October untill late Feb,

well it does in Scotland to Winter fuel,

(the South is slightly later i believe, but since it will be cold in 3 weeks or so, we will see. lol)

Anti Wax Diesel & slightly better octane petrol.

The change is done at the refinery & it is not worth asking petrol stations or tanker drivers they say it doesnt happen, i bet my house on the fact that it does.

Last winter some small sales stations were caught out with diesel waxing in untreated tanks with imported fuel in.

Your iQ ecu has a memory for driving style like so many modern vehicles now.

Seems that untill they get to be old enough to find out how they survive, it is all an unknown.

george

[tarquin]

To be honest George I have just been playing with it. All the Mods to it was really something to do to keep me off the streets lol. Not bothered with fuel economy at the moment, not using it for commuting etc. Lucky to not have to work cos I'm an old git who got EVR. Got 2 more things to do with it, One is, get on wednesday the illuminated scuff plates and find a way to change the colour in them and the other is to fit a rear camera of my own style maybe near the number plate. I have worked out the wiring of the TNS510 and found a way to feed it with a DVD. Then winter draws in .

David

[Kip]

Different fuels use different additives and they will all have different effects in different engines. Some engines will love BP, some will loathe it. I find Sainsburys super unleaded works well for me. Jet's regular unleaded felt better in my old Mazda Demio compared to Shell's regular, for example.

I highly doubt it would be the filter causing the fault here. Most likely it's either a bad run of fuel or your car just simply doesn't like BP. The other thing it might be (although I think quite unlikely), is that the ECU hasn't adjusted properly to a new fuel, and is still "learning" how to use it. Switching back to it's known fuel would then fix the problem.

I bought my iQ in December last year and it ran much much smoother than my 2008 Mazda 2 1.4 Diesel (can't remember if it was 3 or 4 cylinder). We had quite a lot of snow and low temps in general where we are so I'd say the iQ copes well in the winter. The Mazda 2 may have been rough in the low temperatures due to the fact that diesel is naturally less volatile than petrol (probably why they used to put a small amount of petrol into older diesel cars). The 2 used to have such a lumpy tickover when started from cold in the winter. Had no such trouble with the iQ.

[tarquin]

There is something very sinister about disconnecting the Battery and reconnecting it. Today I was doing some more modifications to my car relating to the rear camera installation. I had to briefly disconnect the Battery for about 3-4 mins. On reconnection after the TNS510 did its usual software load, I started the car. After a Battery disconnection, the car has to be started twice. Its in the manual.It starts for a half a second then cuts out needing you to start it again and all should be well.Well on this occasion,it started ok but was very "lumpy" on tick over going from 900rpm to 700 down to 400 then just recovering. I drove it around the block but it was nearly cutting out. It accelerated ok as normal just the idle was very erratic. I was a bit upset as this was what it was like with the 'Duff" fuel that I reported on here.Thinking back it had been around the time that I had disconnected and reconnected the battery before. I disconnected the battery again and this time left it off for 15mins. After reconnecting it, It was much the same. So I did it again but left it off 40mins. This time on reconnection there was a reasonable spark as the terminal made contact and the car was back to normal. The assumption is memory in the ECU and having to wait for the capacitors to naturally discharge.This is indicated by the spark because there is a potential difference, when the battery is disconnected there is still 11 volts on the terminal you have taken off. when over time it drops to something like 3volts, the car has discharged and should be ready to reconnect to the battery.

So what I'm saying is the 'Duff " fuel may have been the product of having taken the battery off for short period earlier in the day.

David

[tonyishuk]

I echo what Kip says. Fuel is fuel, until the supplier puts additives in to make it "their" fuel. You might have have managed to get a load of fuel with no additives. Its always worth keeping and logging what you get as some fuel can cause problems later than the last tank load.

The worst case a few years ago where cars virtually stopped on the garage forecourt of a well known supermarket whose response was "What us, Never!". Cost them £ thousands in the end, for recovering and repairing cars and engines.

That said, Our IQ3 seems to like Shell, even more so Shell Super. Occasionally I top up with the later if going for a long run, or after a period of quiet running about town.

Seems to tolerate Sainsbury,s fuel but but feels a little lazy. Nothing I could put my finger on. Maybe the IQ is more of a "Waitrose "girl than Tesco

Rgds

[tarquin]

I echo what Kip says. Fuel is fuel, until the supplier puts additives in to make it "their" fuel. You might have have managed to get a load of fuel with no additives. Its always worth keeping and logging what you get as some fuel can cause problems later than the last tank load.

The worst case a few years ago where cars virtually stopped on the garage forecourt of a well known supermarket whose response was "What us, Never!". Cost them £ thousands in the end, for recovering and repairing cars and engines.

That said, Our IQ3 seems to like Shell, even more so Shell Super. Occasionally I top up with the later if going for a long run, or after a period of quiet running about town.

Seems to tolerate Sainsbury,s fuel but but feels a little lazy. Nothing I could put my finger on. Maybe the IQ is more of a "Waitrose "girl than Tesco

Rgds

Ha nice reply

David

[elliottbayes]

To be honest George I have just been playing with it. All the Mods to it was really something to do to keep me off the streets lol. Not bothered with fuel economy at the moment, not using it for commuting etc. Lucky to not have to work cos I'm an old git who got EVR. Got 2 more things to do with it, One is, get on wednesday the illuminated scuff plates and find a way to change the colour in them and the other is to fit a rear camera of my own style maybe near the number plate. I have worked out the wiring of the TNS510 and found a way to feed it with a DVD. Then winter draws in .

David

HI DAVID IM REALLY INTERESTED IN WIRING UP MY SAT NAVE TO PLAY DVD. IS THERE ANY EASY WAY TO DO IT?

THANKS

[tarquin]

To be honest George I have just been playing with it. All the Mods to it was really something to do to keep me off the streets lol. Not bothered with fuel economy at the moment, not using it for commuting etc. Lucky to not have to work cos I'm an old git who got EVR. Got 2 more things to do with it, One is, get on wednesday the illuminated scuff plates and find a way to change the colour in them and the other is to fit a rear camera of my own style maybe near the number plate. I have worked out the wiring of the TNS510 and found a way to feed it with a DVD. Then winter draws in .

David

HI DAVID IM REALLY INTERESTED IN WIRING UP MY SAT NAVE TO PLAY DVD. IS THERE ANY EASY WAY TO DO IT?

THANKS

Hi Elliott I think this is also in the wrong thread Its ok because i have already answered it

David