jaja, quit saying im talking conspiracy. to say that 911 was planned is conspiracy not what I'm talking over here.

Here is an example, repair shops are suppose to do a lot of things to meet EPA regulations, some things are ridiculous for example:
_the water they mop the floors with is supposed to be disposed with a special company, never seen a shop that does that and i worked at the dealer for some time.
_they are supposed to keep oil in special, very expensive, fire resistant cabinets... ever been to discount auto?
_and more crap u can research.

Another example, dealerships are one of the best places you could take your car,
_at The collection, one of the most expensive dealers ever, they don't even use a synthetic oil in your jaguar. (they use a semi synthetic Castrol oil)
_at a Mercedes dealer i was at a friend's bay and he showed me a drawer full of parts they never put on the car, brand new compressor, calipers and parts.

I'm not saying somebody is out to get us, but you have to admit it all comes down to money. do gas stations owners meet regulations or dodge them when they can?

I talked to some gas stations owners for them to give me a tour (good idea Mikey) i already talked to 3, the chevron and shell owners agreed and told me to come on the weekend when they refill their tanks (if i can take pics and notes i will post them!) and the Citgo refused, jaja might be coincidence but we ll see.

 

This is getting sillier by the minute. Jaguars don't come from the factory with synthetic oil, nor is it recommended as a replacement oil for the field. Please go read the owners manual.

Each of the examples that you've quoted was an action by one person or at one establishment which you've first interpreted as 'a scandal', then assumed is a nationwide problem. Pretty much all conspiracy theories are born in this manner.

 

i didn't say that there is something wrong, i said that it is not the BEST place to do service. my argument is that they do THE MINIMUM THEY HAVE TO. The part where i said about this guy not changing the parts yes it was his decision, but he is not the only one doing it. i have a pretty decent sample size for this, i know people from deel vw and volvo, the collection, mercedes, bmw dealers, gus machado ford... it just happens. They claim they do it to get hours, since they get paid flat rate, and the current rates are "ridiculous" In an independent repair shop, you can set your own rate.

Im sharing my observations with the forum, and what i think they are coming from. just curious mikey, where do you put gas?

 

and BTW here is the site that says jaguar service intervals:

Jaguar International - Your Jaguar's Service Schedule

every 10 000 miles on a non synthetic oil?

every 15 000 miles on a low viscosity synthetic oil?

 

I thought the pick-up was suspended under a float, which would rise and fall with the liquid level in the tank. When the tank is low the risk of picking up what's in the bottom would be a factor. The frequency of servicing the tanks would likely vary from station to station and possibly some franchises require more frequent servicing. Who knows. There are only a few fuel suppliers and franchises would likely be contractually obligated to buy through the franchise supplier. Independent stations would choose from any supplier. I would think the number of fuel suppliers would be small and generally I would think them to be reputable, but that may not be the case everywhere.

The problem with the concern expressed in this thread is that there are too many variables to develop a reasonable conclusion. It's like finding a good repair shop for our cats. You try them out and stick with what works for you. Concerns about the cleanliness of our gas, oil & water are handled by filters. Maybe this forum needs a thread filter that bumps this thread to "Bob the Gas Guy".

 

That site's not much use for most people with an S-Type!! It's great to be erased from history....

 

In the gas tank- where else?

This is the S-type forum and is the type of car your 'blog' references. Your link here talks about everything else but..............

There is NO requirement to use synthetics or semi synthetics in an S-type.

 

Can we keep the discussion on topic and avoid any personal attacks please?

Thankyou.

 

Back to the issue of gasoline and performance. Not to promote one brand over another, but in our region, we see the best performance from Sunoco, BP, and Rich stations. There are several Chevron and Exxon stations that we completely avoid because of "sputtery" performance. I don't know if it is the supplier or a problem at these individual stations, but the problem is quite noticeable. Our bike is fuel injected and my truck has a 4-barrel carb, and each one performs poorly if fueled at these stations. On a similar note, I have heard that it is best to buy your gas in the cool of evening/morning because gasoline "expands" in heat and "contracts" in cold. Supposedly, filling your car in the heat of day actually yields you less fuel. Sounds good in theory, but aren't the fuel tanks far enough under ground to stay at a near constant temperature?

 

True, I kinda dispell that theory. Only the tubing above ground in the pump would be subjected to temp changes.
"What if" you were just in back of a vehicle that was putting gas in theirs. Wouldn't the tubing be cooled off where you would be getting the underground temp stuff ???
Now, if your gas tank was near empty, you'd be filling your tank with the cool gas and wouldn't that dispell any heat of the day myths ???
Even if you were first in line on a hot day, only the gas that's in the above ground tubing would be warm (probably not more than a couple of gallons), all other gas would be cool.
My opinion only....

 

Rebekah-

There are actually two myths in your post. Gas is essentially gas- it all comes from the same regional refineries regardless of the brand. If you search around there's just as many posts that claim the exact opposite experience as yours. Much like Coke vs. Pepsi and Bud Lite vs. Coors Lite- they're all national brands that can't afford to lose even .000001% market share from perceived quality or performance differences.

The other myth is about buying gas in the morning because it's 'denser' so you get 'more' for your dollar. As you've figured out- the tanks are deep underground and only vary by a few degrees from the hottest day in summer to the coldest day in winter.

 

I have never seen it done here but in the UK the weights and measures inspectors regulary check the quantity of petrol dispensed for accuraccy.
They use a calibrated measuring vessel and check what this shows against the pumps meter, I don't believe that temperature or time of day comes into the equation, they just want to ensure that if you buy a gallon you get a gallon.

 

Norri is correct with regards to pump calibration. By law they are checked regularly at all stations and the date is displayed on the pump. Also, the pumps are temperature compensated to allow for fluctuation in ambient temperature. Mikey is also correct about regional refineries being the local supplier as well. So if you have only one refinery in an area, that's where your gas comes from. They do not truck it long distance from other refinries because of the additional cost and risk.

 

Yet there is an obvious difference when you put gas at some stations. I got some results guys. Sample some gas, this is how we did it.

we got a gallon from different gas stations: Chevron, Shell, BP, Citgo, 7-eleven and U-gas. We let them sit at Miami Dade College Lab which is lower than room temp. with a descicant, to avoid adding our own moisture. we let them sit to take out the top 3/4 of the gas (all the water at the bottom) and sample the last quart for moisture.

I was getting disappointing because non of the gas seemed to have any moisture, until i reached the 7-eleven gas. it reached a wopping 1.108% then the U-gas .587%. I went and got another gallon of these two to make sure we didn't screw it up some how and it gave high numbers again (1.098% and .705%). (these are awesome numbers specially the first). I have to note that the 7-eleven gas station is the oldest, been there forever, u gas is old as well, but all the others are relatively new.

BTW, the pumps are to be inspected every 60 days here in Florida and they all have a sticker. also, i tested some old gas stations to see if that mattered and it didn't, except one shell station. Which i decided to call shell and ask them but they said there was no gas station where i said there was, or there is not supposed to be... (i think the guy is just using the shell name because is the only shell station around that looks like crap)

In case you are curious, the percentage is by volume. I tested that specific 7 -eleven station which was way out of the way because a customer who is very cheap had a Land Rover and he only charged gas at that gas station which was always cheaper, and only charged gas after his light was on for a while, i know right! and he came one day saying his car wasn't running (had it towed) but he claimed there was gas on the tank, when i sampled the gas (after checking ignition compression and proper breathing) it was almost all water, and he had less than a gallon.

Hopefully in the future i ll have more time and do a more extensive test with a higher sample size and make something more official of this, but this is as far as i go for now, but my conclusion is charge at the "new" stations. Oh and mikey was right, most gas stations get the gas from the same place. Here we have three distributors, the one for 7-eleven was the same for Citgo. I'm still going to go and see how they maintain them, since some gas station owners agreed to the tour (the 7-eleven didn't check that out)

 

Over here you could report them to Trading Standards who can take (legal) action. Don't you have an equivalent?

 

Before anyone calls out the sherrif, best find out what the standards and legal limits are for the specific area and for the type of fuel in question. E10 fuel by basic nature, and as a side effect of economical ethanol refining methods contains water in the percentages mentioned by daxter. 1% moisture in gasoline will not affect engine operation in any perceivable way.

By comparison, E100 commonly used in Brazil is approx. 4% water. I suppose it should be called E96

 

yeah..... i ll just put gas at the station i been putting gas in anything else is becoming a hassle. all credit to my teacher, i basically just helped, and came with the idea which he liked... if they open a new station around you just use that one and u ll be fine...

 

What your work confirms, daxter, is that certain gas stations, whether BP, Chevron or whatever, may not be as diligent as others in tank maintenance, with older stations and some not-so-fussy station owners being the most suspect.

Such lax housekeeping could indeed result in additional water and contaminants being drawn into your car's tank, which will eventually result in additional water and contaminants being drawn into your engine.

However, it may not be too useful to take a gallon of gas, evaporate 3 quarts off and then observe the water that is now bound to fall out of solution. That only proves what we already know - water is miscible with gasoline, more so for E10.