Possible Gasohol Scam or incompetance ??????

[monsterman]

My friend John Walton works at the Thai oil refinery in Mataput ,he is an industrial chemist and works in a lab where the various oil companies on the eastern seaboard send samples for independant testing .

Recently batches of Gasohol and 95 regular have been submited on a random test basis .... the samples were collected from many retail petrol stations and it was found that many samples of 95 regular was actually Gasohol!!!!!!!

It is thought that unscrupulous companies are selling Gasohol as 95 regular in order to pocket the difference .

or is it incompetance in the storage and distribution of these products.

He also says that production tests on locally mixed Gasohol has often seen variations in quality some Gasohol is actually 15% ethanol instead of 10% and other impurities have been common.

John rides a Harley , he is a Yank although HD says Gasohoil is OK ..John's opinion is that Thai Gasohol is not of uniform quality so he prefers 95 . But is the 95 we buy actually 95 ..... who knows.

 

[daewoo]

monsterman wrote: It is thought that unscrupulous companies are selling Gasohol as 95 regular in order to pocket the difference .

or is it incompetance in the storage and distribution of these products.

My guess is that it would be a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B...

The distribution company may be selling the retail outlet Gasohol at 95 price and pocketing the difference... the operator at the retail outlet may be geting the distributor to drop gasohol in the 95 tank and pocketing/sharing the difference...

Here in Australia, there was a big outcry about unsrucpulous retailers buying Tolulene (mostly used as a paint striper) by the tanker load and mixing it with half empty tanks of petrol because it is much cheaper (doesn't attract any Tax)... We used to mix it ourselves for our race cars as it actually has a higher octane level that petrol, but something to do with the specific gravity stops it being able to push it over about 98 octane once you hit about 20% Tolulene... The downside is that it attacks all the rubber hoses and gaskets, and will eat into soft metal components...

There was a big crackdown 'for public good' (nothing to do with the government missing out on the tax) and my mate who works at the refinery said that sales of tolulene dropped to 10% in a week...

I would probably be a bit surprised if this is how it is coming out of the refinery, as I would have thought things at that end would have been pretty tightly controled... they are here in Australia, but not sure about Thailand...

Cheers,
Daewoo

 

[Franz]

This is Thailand, T.I.T., I prefer to fill up my motors just now with Regular 91, neither Beemer, old XJ-seca nor Focus-S give me any troubles. I think with this uncertity it's the only way to go. I'm not considering but trying straight away and if something messes up, I'm gonna replace the broken parts, simple as that. Cheers, Franz

 

[JohhnyE]

Well here we are 6 months down the track from this post which I just stumbled across.
I use 91 standard all the time in my car and older bikes. However,in the last 3 months I have noticed I am getting 50 km less per tank in the car than ever before. I measure the distance travelled and litres consumed every tank full so I have a good history over the 4 years I've had this car which by the way has travelled only 50k km.
I am now getting less than 10km per litre in city driving compared with over 10.5 in the past and this is after I had all the valve clearances done,new spark plugs,full service etc etc.
I am even driving easier so as to consume less fuel but I am actually using more than before. Why?
Two possibilities come to mind -
1. I am actually getting 91 gasohol which as we know leads to higher consumption and paying more than I should for this privelege.
2. The actual number of litres going into my car is less than stated on the pump. Gas stations manipulating the meters to achieve higher profit.

Are there any checks done on the accuracy of the pumps at gas stations in Thailand? Even if there was and I doubt it, it would be very simple to overcome any negative result, wouldn't it? This is Thailand after all and the consumer doesn't matter.
I'm going to take a known accurate 10 litre can to a station today and have it filled just to see.

 

[JohhnyE]

My gas can indicated 9.4 litres had been put in when the guage on the pump said 9.9
For every 10 litres "sold" I'm getting actually 9.5.
Let's say my can is accurate. So for 50 litres in my car I'm actually getting only 47.5 litres but paying for 50.
Nothing surprises me in the LOS.

 

[883R]

Hi folks,

I am picking up my Sportster tomorrow and I have to refill it on the way home. I am not sure whether I can find 05 reg on the way, so what should I do? Take 91 reg or 95 gasohol, or mix both?
I will ask my dealer, but not so sure whether he can provide me with a reliable answer.

Cheers

 

[883R]

Thanks Buddha I found a PTT pump providing nice clean 95 reg here in Pattaya and my baby just loves it.
As for HD's the choices are

1. 95 reg
2. 91 reg
3. 95 gasohol

I asked some people and they commented that in case you won't be able to access 95 reg you should use 91 reg and 95 gasohol on a 2:1 ratio.
Heaven knows - no guarantee!

Cheers

 

[monsterman]

883R ,

the sportster will run fine on Gasohol 95 or regular 95 , HDs are OK ,i worked on loads of them .

jerry

 

[basjke]

883R wrote: Thanks Buddha I found a PTT pump providing nice clean 95 reg here in Pattaya and my baby just loves it.
As for HD's the choices are

1. 95 reg
2. 91 reg
3. 95 gasohol

I asked some people and they commented that in case you won't be able to access 95 reg you should use 91 reg and 95 gasohol on a 2:1 ratio.
Heaven knows - no guarantee!

Cheers

Hi 883R,

Do you mind to share with us the location of that ptt pump.I tought ptt stopped selling 95 gasoline last year.

 

[rdg_john]

I was in Pattaya 3 weeks ago and found 95 regular at the first Caltex petrol station on Sukhumwit after turning left from the North Pattaya Road (where the bus station is).

 

[Franz]

Filled up the FJR1300A with 95 gasohol all the way down from Chiang Mai to Rayong (PTT, Caltex and Shell) and did neither experience loss of power, higher consumption or any other troubles. So, FJR drivers, I think Gasohol 95 will fit your bikes. Only care I took, fill up at wellknown petrol stations.....don't think there's any danger of a 'cheaper mixture'. Cheers, Franz