Follow up to mpg drop and loss of umph

From : geekboy

Q: suddenly without warning jmc exclaimed 03-apr-07 606 pm my truck recently had a massive mpg drop - from almost 17mpg down to just a tad over 13mpg and i was noticing today that its lacking in power too - used to practically create g-forces when i accelerate now its decidedly sluggish. id written off the mpg change to the opal gas were forced to use in our vehicles here in central australia dont get me started -grr- but in short opal is unsniffable. it also destroys engines built before about 1986 but is *supposed* to be safe for newer vehicles snip jmc well turns out it was *only* the opal. but got to that in a roundabout way. called an autoshop one i wanted to try cause theyre closer than my regular one gave symptoms said id like to get my sparks/wires checked. she asked if i was using opal. yes. she said that id need a fuel system service cost au$220 and switch to premium and thatd put all to rights. after a quick convo with a clued coworker called my usual service center gave the same spiel. he immediately told me that *all* i needed to do was switch to premium - that the symptoms are only because of the fuel. didnt need any service. said something to the effect that you cant get high from sniffing it and neither can your vehicle i didnt get that right but close enough. he did say my truck probably needs new sparks anyway as the truck has 50k on it now and theyve never been changed. does that seem right end of story put premium in my last fillup. truck engine hasnt blown up as warned in my user manual. yea i exaggerate a mite and runs much much better. still too early to see whether the gas mileage returns to something reasonable... anyway i had noticed that all the propaganda about opal didnt mention two things performance and mileage. just kept saying how its safe for newer vehicles meets whatever requirements blahblahblah. everyone ive talked to whos used it is now reporting the same symptoms i experienced. every single one has noted reduced mpg or kilometres/100 litres if theyre aussie. most noticed a loss of power as well. hell i even noticed loss of power in the *lawnmower*! which reminds me. gotta go mow that 1/4 acre i now have before sunset. temps probably dropped down to 90 by now... reading up it seems australia has a problem with the aborigines sniffing gasoline in central au. i also came across this ------------------------- last year there were reports about opal fuel causing problems with vehicles. have these reports been addressed after these reports came to light bp australia pty ltd spoke to the customers and mechanics who were involved in these complaints. they then conducted tests on fuel samples taken from the vehicles reporting difficulties and where possible on engine parts. the results of these tests revealed that the mechanical problems were attributed to issues that were not uncommon to the vehicles being tested - doing low mileage; minor age related defects; and corrosion debris from metal fuel lines. fuel samples were taken and showed that the first vehicle was actually running on premium unleaded petrol - not opal unleaded fuel. the fuel sample from the second vehicle was a mix of different fuels that showed signs of ageing and loss of light components. this is not unusual for cars that do low mileage. the fuel had past its use by date. ------------------------- .

Replies:

From : jmc

suddenly without warning geekboy exclaimed 23-apr-07 410 am suddenly without warning jmc exclaimed 03-apr-07 606 pm my truck recently had a massive mpg drop - from almost 17mpg down to just a tad over 13mpg and i was noticing today that its lacking in power too - used to practically create g-forces when i accelerate now its decidedly sluggish. id written off the mpg change to the opal gas were forced to use in our vehicles here in central australia dont get me started -grr- but in short opal is unsniffable. it also destroys engines built before about 1986 but is *supposed* to be safe for newer vehicles snip jmc well turns out it was *only* the opal. but got to that in a roundabout way. called an autoshop one i wanted to try cause theyre closer than my regular one gave symptoms said id like to get my sparks/wires checked. she asked if i was using opal. yes. she said that id need a fuel system service cost au$220 and switch to premium and thatd put all to rights. after a quick convo with a clued coworker called my usual service center gave the same spiel. he immediately told me that *all* i needed to do was switch to premium - that the symptoms are only because of the fuel. didnt need any service. said something to the effect that you cant get high from sniffing it and neither can your vehicle i didnt get that right but close enough. he did say my truck probably needs new sparks anyway as the truck has 50k on it now and theyve never been changed. does that seem right end of story put premium in my last fillup. truck engine hasnt blown up as warned in my user manual. yea i exaggerate a mite and runs much much better. still too early to see whether the gas mileage returns to something reasonable... anyway i had noticed that all the propaganda about opal didnt mention two things performance and mileage. just kept saying how its safe for newer vehicles meets whatever requirements blahblahblah. everyone ive talked to whos used it is now reporting the same symptoms i experienced. every single one has noted reduced mpg or kilometres/100 litres if theyre aussie. most noticed a loss of power as well. hell i even noticed loss of power in the *lawnmower*! which reminds me. gotta go mow that 1/4 acre i now have before sunset. temps probably dropped down to 90 by now... reading up it seems australia has a problem with the aborigines sniffing gasoline in central au. i also came across this ------------------------- last year there were reports about opal fuel causing problems with vehicles. have these reports been addressed after these reports came to light bp australia pty ltd spoke to the customers and mechanics who were involved in these complaints. they then conducted tests on fuel samples taken from the vehicles reporting difficulties and where possible on engine parts. the results of these tests revealed that the mechanical problems were attributed to issues that were not uncommon to the vehicles being tested - doing low mileage; minor age related defects; and corrosion debris from metal fuel lines. fuel samples were taken and showed that the first vehicle was actually running on premium unleaded petrol - not opal unleaded fuel. the fuel sample from the second vehicle was a mix of different fuels that showed signs of ageing and loss of light components. this is not unusual for cars that do low mileage. the fuel had past its use by date. ------------------------- yes its a real problem. and theres quite a propaganda machine trying to convince the nt public that opal isnt a problem. dont believe it. ive been talking with mechanics gas station attendents and people whove put opal in their vehicles. im *here* and can say definitively that opal does affect mileage and power. two vehicles out of hundreds/thousands is hardly definitive and sounds very much like an issues we had at my last base - vehicles started dying at or near the pump and it was said that there was water in the gas. aafes denied it vehemently giving reports very much like the second paragraph. but after about a month of this i walked by the station one day to find them pumping gallons of water from around where the tanks were. the next day they admitted there was a problem. had to since they had to close the station again to fix it. oh and i dont know how old the above is. at first bp said opal was safe on all vehicles - until older cars started dying on the road. enough did that the propaganda machine shifted slightly - and started recommending that opal not be used in vehicles older than 1986 and theres lots and lots of them around. jmc .

From : snoman

on mon 23 apr 2007 062357 +0930 jmc nogroupsspam@nojodibody.homeus wrote oh and i dont know how old the above is. at first bp said opal was safe on all vehicles - until older cars started dying on the road. enough did that the propaganda machine shifted slightly - and started recommending that opal not be used in vehicles older than 1986 and theres lots and lots of them around. from what i have been able to find out about the chemical design of opal they reduced the vapor pressue and aromitc content of the fuel and this reduced its rate of vaporization. a carbed vehicle 86 and earlier generally would likely do very poorly with opal because of this. tbi would be effected as well though a little less becuase it has some postiive pressure at injection and multi point or port injection would be effected the least because higher injection pressure would help vaporize the fuel better. in theory it has same btu content but it does not vaporize as well. another side benifit of opal and why it may be widely used one day every where is that there is reduced loss of fuel to evaporation in storage and refueling due to lower vapor pressure which mean less polution and fuel lost to evaporation when you consider the 100s of million of cars in use world wide. ----------------- thesnoman.com .