Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

G'day all,

Is anyone else suffering from crook fuel at the moment? I filled up my ZX12R at the twin Caltex servos on the F3 on my way down to Sydney on Saturday night. No dramas. Heading out to Eastern Creek on Sunday morning and things start to go a little pear shaped.

After nearly 3000 glorious, faultless kilometres since my pipe, filters and power commander were fitted for the annual blast to the Phillip Island Supers, all I get is erratic popping and farting and the biggest flat spot that comes and goes at any throttle openning. Bit of a worry I thinks, so pulls to the side of the M4, waits for a clear lane and gives it a fistful to see whats happening............no pops or farts, just mind numbing acceleration. Yeay!!! Back to normal.

Fill her up at the Caltex servo at Eastern Creek and in to the Supers. On the way home, heading up the M7, pull out to overtake........nothing but flat spotting at about 4000rpm. Wind her on a tad more, still nothing then out of nowhere shes off like a rocket and I'm hanging on for grim death!!

Anyways, to cut a long story short, I ran down the old Pacific on the run home and flogged the bejesus out of her to see if it was a plug breaking down (well this used to work with my 351 Falcon when she was a tad upset...lol) and she was back to her usual faultless self and ran like that all the way home to Lake Macquarie.

Went to my tuner today after more erratic behaviour to see if they could alleviate my anxiety...........seems like there is crook fuel around.........LOTS of it. Caltex seems to be the culprit, which is a pity as it has been my choice since new. And here in Newcastle seems like 98 unleaded is in short supply. My tuning shop recommends 95 octane premium at the moment and to keep an eye on the problem. 24000k service in 1000k's so I will let the guys to look into it some more.

I was just wondering if anyone else is suffering?

Cheers

Mick

P.S.

supers were awesome on Sunday.......I reckon nearly as good as World supers at Phillip Island...........especially the Formula Extreme class

i chucked some vortex in the other day and really noticed the foul smell of it, from the exhaust and around the filler cap. it was shitouse!!

no running probs but.

Each state has a local refinery where all the 91 & 95 fuel comes from for all Brands. Here in Victoria the only refinery is Mobile. All the brands take Mobile refined product and put in their own blend of additives. The usual contaminate is water which gets into tanks.

I cannot speak for all brands, but BP refines their own 98 (Ultimate) and trucks it around the country. This is a true 98 octane, it is refined to 98 octane, not a lesser fuel with octane boosters. I have never had any issues with this fuel, but I am biased as I work for BP

I know a few weeks back I had a couple weeks worth of trouble actually getting 95 or higher, especially from BPs around the Creek/Blacktown areas. And also noticed today that I had some flat spots all this morning after filling up from Mt Druitt Woolies which I think is a Caltex from memory. Don't know if the two are connected but it really wouldn't surprise me. If I notice the same kind thing tomoro I'll chuck a dash of metho or something in there and see if that cleans things up a little. You never know.

Thanks peoples ,

Makes me feel better knowing that it's not from spending all that money on the big girl.

Talking to the guys at Bikecare who tune my bike, water can be a huge problem. Can be very hard to clear from filters.

Cheers

Mick

photomike666 wrote:I cannot speak for all brands, but BP refines their own 98 (Ultimate) and trucks it around the country. This is a true 98 octane, it is refined to 98 octane, not a lesser fuel with octane boosters. I have never had any issues with this fuel, but I am biased as I work for BP

So it isn't just my imagination? We normally use Woollies Caltex and it seems to be a toss of the coin that decides whether its any good on any given day. Eventually I'll get the shits and put BP ultimate in and everyone except my purse is happy. I just can't afford to run the stuff all the time - besides the fact that Caltex is 2 minutes away and BP is 20.

Mick, Lots of problems with fuel at the moment, Twin Shells at Wallsend always seem to be out of E10 and the higher octain fuels, I have been running United E10 for the last 10,000 klms and that includes local rides and a couple of long runs to the gold coast, have not had any problems to date. Jamie did the dyno on my 12 with a tank full of E10 and bike put out 180bhp atw so cannot complain. I know a lot of riders suggest that E10 is not good for bikes but I personally have not had any trouble.

Regards
RonnieG

photomike666 wrote:Each state has a local refinery where all the 91 & 95 fuel comes from for all Brands. Here in Victoria the only refinery is Mobile. All the brands take Mobile refined product and put in their own blend of additives. The usual contaminate is water which gets into tanks.

I cannot speak for all brands, but BP refines their own 98 (Ultimate) and trucks it around the country. This is a true 98 octane, it is refined to 98 octane, not a lesser fuel with octane boosters. I have never had any issues with this fuel, but I am biased as I work for BP

Haven't got much choice around here, the local servos are all BP and all owned by the same franchise (price fixing, what price fixing).

I use the Premium or Ultimate, but they often seem to run out of both at the same time, so I'm wondering if it's the same tank . They are out at the moment, bastards .

Mick

QuickaKwacka wrote:I know a lot of riders suggest that E10 is not good for bikes but I personally have not had any trouble.

If your bike is running a bit too rich then E10 could actually make it faster. I'm not surprised that you haven't had trouble

Mick ZX12R wrote:Thanks peoples ,

Makes me feel better knowing that it's not from spending all that money on the big girl.

Talking to the guys at Bikecare who tune my bike, water can be a huge problem. Can be very hard to clear from filters.

Cheers

Mick

Slightly unrelated as it was a while ago but I picked up a load of shit Vortex in my SS from the Caltex at Milperra. The car just pinged like a bastard. When we pulled the fuel filter out it was like mud. Replaced the filter and pulled it out again in a week when it starte pinging again and it was mud again. Ended up draining the tank, the fuel injection rails and everything else in between to finally get it sorted. Cost a fortune. Caltex didn't want to know about it even though I could support every fuel purchase for three years with a Caltex card.

I've been to 4 servos this morning and I can't get premium at any of em....

I recall they were all holding out on the premium till the price goes up again....

I said fuck that and just bought 200L of ELF BFK-07 for $1100...

I have been having problems with my feul system the last couple of times I have ridden my bike. This may explain things. I have booked it in for a service and for attention to be paid to the carbies and gfeul filter I hope it is something that can just be flushed out with out too much expence and time.

zxsixr03 wrote:I recall they were all holding out on the premium till the price goes up again....

I said fuck that and just bought 200L of ELF BFK-07 for $1100...

Cool... where is that from.?

BTW,
I got premium this afternoon, the truck that told them to put there prices up had it in it...

Not funny how the service stations are playing us off a break lately (not saying all of them) Went to the twin Shells at Wallsend yesterday to fill the car up, all unleaded and E10 pumps locked off with tags 'out of service' so just pumped the tyres up and drove down the road to a United servo that rarely changes it's prices and always has unleaded and E10. Took the bike out today and went to the same Shell to check tyre pressure and you will never guess what, BOTH E10 and Unleaded bowsers were working again,fuggin crooks.

Regards
RonnieG