When to buy fuel?

[Reallyretired]

Surely that would affect the fuel gauge. Mine shows full at 60 litres.

I don't think it matters too much. It's only when the fuel is low that gauge accuracy matters.

 

[dash300]

There is a restrictor tube on the 60 litre tank models which cuts of the forecourt pump when 60 litres is reached, I have removed it on mine and it now takes 90 litres. The reason Fiat do it is to increase the payload avaliable.

Interesting, fortunately my intended is 90l on the Heavy Chassis.

 

[Reallyretired]

I like to keep all fuel tanks full on all vehicles, always fill my car when it gets down to about half.

 

[pappajohn]

Bought diesel at Morrisons before setting off to Northumberland today ...£149.9
Only got as far as middlesboro and passed a Shell garage £144.9
No logic if supermarkets are 5p more than the big names.
Mind you, on the A19 near Newcastle £156.9

 

[nicholsong]

You in UK will not like this.

Here in Poland the government has cancelled the 6% of fuel tax for the next 6 months, so the diesel price today is equivalent to £1.05/lt

Geoff

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[cyberyacht]

Passed Morrisons, Horndean just off the A3 north of Portsmouth on Christmas day and diesel was £1.429

 

[VXman]

I don't think it matters too much. It's only when the fuel is low that gauge accuracy matters.

Would bugger up the trip computer, mpg, range etc surely?

 

[VXman]

You in UK will not like this.

Here in Poland the government has cancelled the 6% of fuel tax for the next 6 months, so the diesel price today is equivalent to £1.05/lt

Geoff

Labour have suggested the government do this for fuel (as in gas/electricity) bills. It is very unfair tax. The higher the cost of the fuel the more tax the government make. At least reducing the % would be fair as the government would still get the tax it was getting.

To logical for this government to consider though.

 

[VXman]

You are not kidding, I noticed our local garage price has reduced by £0.01, that's 1p Whoopy.

Geoff

1p per litre. 90 litres = 90p. Thats a small bar of chocolate, couple of bags of carrots. well worth it!

 

[emjaiuk]

You'll spend more than the couple of quid saved by driving to get the cheaper diesel so don't bother. A month with a low tank of fuel ain't going to do any damage

Within reason I'll do that. I believe petrol retailers who try and be competitive should be supported, likewise those who rip people off should be shunned, although the number of company car drivers make that difficult.

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[chaser]

I don't think it matters too much. It's only when the fuel is low that gauge accuracy matters.

This tank thing is total nonsense to me, is it April the first, what's to stop you just putting in 60 litres in a 90 litre tank if you are worried about payload, what's the sense in carting a half empty tank around, and have to fill up more often.
Crazy.

 

[EuroTrotters]

Was always taught to fill tank to stop condensation forming in the air space if tank was left low.

That was my thoughts, definitely fill now.

 

[tonyidle]

Would bugger up the trip computer, mpg, range etc surely?

The computer measures fuel flow through the injectors. It would affect the range reading though.

 

[poppycamper]

. I believe petrol retailers who try and be competitive should be supported, likewise those who rip people off should be shunned,

Local Tesco (15miles away) £145.9/ltr....Even more local small independent Jet garage, (only 4 miles away £139.9/ltr... Quess where I go.

 

[chaser]

Local Tesco (15miles away) £145.9/ltr....Even more local small independent Jet garage, (only 4 miles away £139.9/ltr... Quess where I go.

Tesco?

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[Barti Ddu]

I'm intrigued and bemused by this restrictor tube that limits a 90 litre tank to only 60 litres. I can't comprehend how it would work?

A ZVA automatic nozzle (as fitted to 99.9% of dispensers in the UK) is pressure sensing, tripping the nozzle via a mechanical diaphram when the fuel in the tank filler pipe is high enough to restrict the small sensing tube within the nozzle. I can't therefore get my head around how a restrictor could do the same, especially only when the fuel tank contained a particular volume of fuel?

Confused!

 

[chaser]

I'm intrigued and bemused by this restrictor tube that limits a 90 litre tank to only 60 litres. I can't comprehend how it would work?

A ZVA automatic nozzle (as fitted to 99.9% of dispensers in the UK) is pressure sensing, tripping the nozzle via a mechanical diaphram when the fuel in the tank filler pipe is high enough to restrict the small sensing tube within the nozzle. I can't therefore get my head around how a restrictor could do the same, especially only when the fuel tank contained a particular volume of fuel?

Confused!

Got me beat, never heard anything so ridiculous

 

[82125]

Was always taught to fill tank to stop condensation forming in the air space if tank was left low.

pretty sure that only really applies to ye-olde times (or boats!) when tanks were made of metal and condensation build up caused the metal tanks to rust.
My boat had had one of the 4 fuel tanks decommissioned because one of them had rusted right through! Modern tanks are plastic arent they?

I dont see the point of lugging round extra payload unless im planning a long trip @ 1kg per litre unless i see a good price drop that is! (in which case ill offset it with less onboard water).

 

[Barti Ddu]

I was intrigued enough about removing a restrictor to increase the capacity of a Ducato fuel tank from 60 to 90 litres that I did a bit of digging around and found this -

Möchtest du endlich volltanken? - Tankgeber-Tuning am Ducato Typ 250

Wusstest du, dass in deinem 60L Tank in Wahrheit mehr Platz ist? Wir zeigen dir, wie du den Tankgeber umbaust und dadurch mehr herausholst.

www.ducatoschrauber.de

It's in German but auto-translates on my phone. Seems many others are successfully performing this mod, but I'm still puzzled how it works, as altering the sender unit in the tank should to my mind have no effect when filling the tank, after all the ignition is off, and the nozzle cut-off on the dispenser will be unaware of the mod. I still can't see why if the tank is really 90 litres it isn't possible to brim it with or without the removal of the sender restrictor.

Still bemused!

 

[Tonks]

Within reason I'll do that. I believe petrol retailers who try and be competitive should be supported, likewise those who rip people off should be shunned, although the number of company car drivers make that difficult.

When I was a company car driver my department manager/s who signed off all the team's car expenses used to insist that people fuelled up at supermarkets or garages whose fuel was within a few pence range of the supermarket costs, and would check and ask hard questions if they hadn't.

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[Coolcats]

I buy fuel when I need it and just can’t be bothered worrying about it, I see people worry about condensation or low fuel causing ‘sludge’ to be pulled in to the pipework. Modern fuel systems all have filters……the same filters that are periodically changed. Life is to short to worry about things that are not going to happen. Just buy fuel when you need it.

 

[Coolcats]

When I was a company car driver my department manager/s who signed off all the team's car expenses used to insist that people fuelled up at supermarkets or garages whose fuel was within a few pence range of the supermarket costs, and would check and ask hard questions if they hadn't.

The Manager sounds like he was one of those who give appraisal to others to try and change behaviour, it’s just another case of power and positionally ‘Managers’ take.

if you just ask people to use company expenses as if it was their own money and let them know you trust them to do the right thing people in the main will do so. It’s the same if you ask employees how they see the company can save money or be more efficient. The results are often much better than any management team can dream up.

 

[Tonks]

I fill up the van within 5 miles of home on the way back from any substantial trip. The last thing I want to do when setting off on the next trip is have to mess about and waste time filling up.
The car used to get refuelled weekly, but these days with lower usage it's rather less often. I filled it yesterday on the way home from my visit to family for Christmas. The first time for AGES that I've paid under £1.50 a litre locally.

There are several reasons why I do this, one of them being that if I have to make a long emergency journey (I've twice been called in the middle of the night by the hospital to immediate family and once drove a non-driving family member halfway across the country to ICU very early in the morning after her mother had a heart attack) I want to be able to get in the car/van and make the whole trip without worrying about fuel.

 

[Billy192]

Yes there were some modifications that had to be done to the gauge sender, the higher fuel level caused the fuel gauge wiper to go off the end of the windings, which caused the gauge to drop to zero and put the low fuel warning light on, I manufactured a stop so it did not do this, and now it reads full until I have done about 140 miles and then it reads normally, I don't see this as much of a problem.

do you have any pics, i am just about to do this mod

 

[Steve N Tracy]

do you have any pics, i am just about to do this mod

Sorry no I did not take any photos. But while the sender unit is out if you lift the float to its maximum you will see the contact wiper comes off the windings, I just put a cable tie round the stop to prevent this happening, I did not want to bend the float arm as this would have affected the gauge accuracy.

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[Billy192]

Sorry no I did not take any photos.

is it quite oblivious, just to stop the slide going up to far?
thanks by the way

just fond this, can you remember if this is it?

 

[Tonks]

The first place I stopped on my way home from Malvern today had no diesel. I detoured to Sainsburys who did have diesel, and paid £1.839 p.l. (and complained about the fact that the numbers had rolled to £2 before I could feel any pressure in the hose, and about £2.50 before the fuel ran through. I know it takes a few seconds but I think this was taking the proverbial… I said the pump needed checking. They said they don’t check unless there have been three customer complaints on the same pump.)
Anyway, I then pulled into the jet wash at my local garage, to wash off the salt and muck of the last week. They had no diesel either.

 

[Barti Ddu]

The first place I stopped on my way home from Malvern today had no diesel. I detoured to Sainsburys who did have diesel, and paid £1.839 p.l. (and complained about the fact that the numbers had rolled to £2 before I could feel any pressure in the hose, and about £2.50 before the fuel ran through. I know it takes a few seconds but I think this was taking the proverbial… I said the pump needed checking. They said they don’t check unless there have been three customer complaints on the same pump.)
Anyway, I then pulled into the jet wash at my local garage, to wash off the salt and muck of the last week. They had no diesel either.

Retail fuel dispensers are "wet hose" systems, that is - the hose is full of fuel to the nozzle at the start of the delivery, and is still full of fuel at the end of the delivery. There is also a check valve or non-return valve under the pump to prevent fuel from draining back to the tank. The dispenser also contains an air-separator device to prevent it metering air rather than liquid. I'd therefore be surprised if you were being short measured a litre or two at the beginning of your delivery.

If you're convinced that this did happen contact your local authority and ask to speak to Trading Standards / Weights and Measures, who will be able to measure-check the pump.

 

[Figaro]

Ahh, I got a warm fuzzy feeling reading the diesel prices at the start of this thread.
Even 151.9 ppl got me all excited.

 

[Billy192]

Sorry no I did not take any photos. But while the sender unit is out if you lift the float to its maximum you will see the contact wiper comes off the windings, I just put a cable tie round the stop to prevent this happening, I did not want to bend the float arm as this would have affected the gauge accuracy.

thanks

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