 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Car Forum / Toyota / Toyota Cars / March 2007Contaminated fuel and O2/lambda sensors
This is going to seem OT at first; but stay with me. UK supermarket chain Tesco today (28feb07) was reported as having sold, via its associated filling stations, petrol containing some kind of contaminant, nature so far unidentified. This has led to cars up and down the UK having running problems, traced to the O2 (aka lambda) sensor becoming coated by a varnish-like substance. So many cars have been needing replacement sensors, that supplies have been running low in places. However, one garage, which does unusual specialist work, has found a temporary fix for some cars. They put the removed sensors into an ultrasonic bath, which did a good enough job of removing the mystery gunk to allow the cars to continue using the compromised sensors. The garage's chief tech, interviewed on BBC-tv, guessed it would be wise to replace the O2 sensor soon; but said it worked pretty well as a stop-gap. An idea for those (many) in this NG who report O2 sensor trouble?  SignatureAndrew Stephenson > This is going to seem OT at first; but stay with me. > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > An idea for those (many) in this NG who report O2 sensor trouble? During a search of engine-related TSB's for the U.S., I've noticed that the titles of several refer to a replacement ECU to solve frequent O2 sensor-related trouble codes. I suppose that contaminated fuel doesn't help much! SignatureRay O (correct punctuation to reply) Certainly an option depending on what the contaminant is. Mind you people are claiming the contamination is causing their car to "stall and misfire". Now ive run a few cars with the 02 sensor pulled and they didnt drive brilliantly but they still worked well enough for "normal" drivers and passengers to not notice it. Some people are claiming its ethanol - if it was ethanol it wouldnt damage an 02 sensor so id suspect its nothing to do with that. J __________________________________________ http://www.jbuckle.homeip.net << My personal site http://www.aoskc.com << Ainsdale Kitesurf Club FYI: an update on the Mystery of the Car-Choking Fuel... TV news is reporting, with pictures, a possible explanation for the cars that have been conking out after being fed fuel from a range (not just Tesco but Morrisons and other supermarkets too) of el cheapo retailers. It seems those places send the tankers down to a facility by the Thames Estuary, where they load up on petrol sourced from You-Name-It. Even better, once loaded into the tanker it is common for additives to be chucked in as well, to bring the mix to whatever spec each retailer wants. One popular additive is being called "silicone" (after a period of journalistic confusion between that and "silicon") which, it seems, is used to control foaming. An excess produces a crusty white deposit when burned (eg in a hot engine innards) -- which naturally works wonders for any car's O2 sensor performance. The investigation proceeds apace. News at 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, ... SignatureAndrew Stephenson > FYI: an update on the Mystery of the Car-Choking Fuel... Again FYI: another update: at the depot, from which the el cheapo outlets draw their petrol supplies, four tanks have been found to contain unusually high levels of what the media are still calling "silicon" (though it seems as if that should be "silicone", which eventually burns to form silicon dioxide, SiO2, a major component of most sands, as well as common glass). Now filling stations up and down the land are having to empty their petrol storage tanks, clean them well -- and decide what to do about a collossal volume of tainted fuel. Then there are those hundreds of cars with duff engines. Interesting times. (Can we UKians interest anyone in a job lot of el cheapo petrol? You can call it "gas" if you like.) BTW for the tech-heads amongst us: it appears "silicone" is added to diesel, but not petrol. Evidently diesel engines can take it, even need it at times. Does diesel tend to foam? That's the job the additive is said to do. SignatureAndrew Stephenson Andrew Stephenson mumbled incoherently to the rest of alt.autos.toyota: > BTW for the tech-heads amongst us: it appears "silicone" is added > to diesel, but not petrol. Evidently diesel engines can take it, > even need it at times. Does diesel tend to foam? That's the job > the additive is said to do. > -- > Andrew Stephenson D is more viscous than petrol - i'd imagine that makes it foam more, hence the additive. Either way a single tankful of the stuff wouldnt cause your O2 sensor to go boobs up and your car to stall - im not convinced, especially with lots of older cars featured on the TV images - i can run my celica with the 02 sensor pulled completely or fit an old dead one and see almost no change in economy or performance, certainly no stalling or misfires. SignatureJ __________________________________________ http://www.jbuckle.homeip.net << My personal site http://www.aoskc.com << Ainsdale Kitesurf Club |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.