Club Arnage

Looks like newer cars are less affected, but new French fuel can damage your car. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/5795480/British-tourists-warned-over-damaging-French-fuel.html

Anecdotal stories confirm this is true. Some guy on a forum has a list of compatible cars http://francooldtimers.forumcircle.com/viewtopic.php?t=810

As an aside, he has a great "signature":

Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car, Oversteer is when you hit the wall with the back of the car.
Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall, Torque is how far you take the wall with you ...

 >:( The article says;

Ethanol is highly corrosive and wears away the metal fuel tanks common in cars registered before 2000, leading to leaks. Most new cars have plastic tanks and are therefore not be affected by corrosion.

It was this that screwed the Commer last year. It stripped the lining out of the fuel tank and blocked up the fuel lines. I knew this was the cause, but it's nice to have it conformed offically. Stupid green French bastards.  >:( >:( >:(

Isn't the Commer's tank made out of Bakelite or Formica, or even oiled teak?

Ethanol (drinking alcohol) has far better uses than rotting pipes, but if it burns through metal, what is it doing to my insides.

I'll stick to derv and Tesco 99 thank you

Plain old cast iron I think.  ???

But I do like the idea of a wooden fuel tank, teak would be ideal. My step father tells the story of when he served in the Navy in Egypt during the second world war. He was a deep sea diver, doing clearance and bomb disposal in the Suez and Alexandria Harbour after the fighting was over. They had an Arab driver who took his mob around everywhere in an old Bedford lorry. The Beford would break down about every hour (typical Bedord  ;)) and the old Arab would lift up the bonnet lid and fiddle around for twenty minutes before progress could be resumed. The mob would just sit in the back smoking and staying out of the flys, sand and heat. Eventually, after a few weeks, the breakdowns got the better of my stepfather, so he went to investigate. He was astonished to see the float bowl off the carb and a float made of palm wood sat on the exhaust manifold. Apparently the metal one had broken and so the driver had fashioned a new one of wood. It worked, only the fuel seeped into the wood after about an hour and it sank in the bowl! Hence the breakdowns. He'd dry it on the hot manifold and when the fuel had evapourated, off they'd go again for another hour. Navy life eh!

The super 95 fuel in France (and also Germany) contains 10% Ethanol. The super 98 fuel is still ethanol free.

I knew there had to be an advantage of paying 1.44 Euros per litre for the super 98 fuel

Not wishing to make light of your misfortune, but that last bit made me laugh for ages  :laugh:

You're not the only one to laugh. I'm still subject to ridicule to this very day. And I've  never heard the end of it from Bob U who came and rescued us >:(  ;)

Chaps,

Mr Z is, of course, quite right (in the interests of national security) to be so subtly opaque in declaring the underpinning reason behind the failure of the immortal Commer's fuel system.  Just remember that, some time ago, we developed self-sealing fuel tanks for a reason, and it wasn't just to prevent catastrophic fuel supply failure due to flak, but a prescient decision to avert disaster caused by any inadvertant meddling with fuel formulations......  

But, according to today's news, we are about to embark on a journey into a brave new world of bio-fuels derived from algae.  No, not the stuff that Algy made Biggles drink to beat off the marauding hordes from wherever, but the very stuff that the Commer and her ilk grow naturally during periods of apparently wilful, but deliberate, neglect by exposing them to the vagaries of the UK climate.  Given the Commer's lineage and indubitable provenance, Mr Z could be onto something here that would outperfom even the current overinflated bonuses at Goldman Sachs.......

The Commer fuelled by a natural algae-derived propellant would represent an even more formidable champion of the right and the good.  You have been warned..... ;D ;)

MG Mark  

And do you remind Mr U of his own ethanol precipitated pipe disaster the following evening?

Andy, of course I meant the bit about the French, not the bit about the Commer!  ;)