Bad gas grinds UK cars to a halt

The new face of terrorism?

Investigations gathered pace on Thursday into whether contaminated petrol was responsible for a mysterious problem which has damaged the engines of hundreds of cars across Britain.

Retailers and suppliers said they were carrying out tests on fuel but had so far found no evidence of any abnormalities after trading standards authorities announced they were probing up to 100 complaints from motorists in southeast England.

Broadcasters said they had been bombarded by angry car owners across the country saying their vehicles had suffered breakdowns after leaving gas filling station forecourts.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said it believed suspect fuel might have damaged sensors in some cars' systems, leading them to cut power to prevent damage to the engine.

"It's still fairly unclear what's going on," said SMMT spokesman Nigel Wonnacott.

He said cars about 2-5 years old seemed to be most affected.

"It's affecting all types of cars but it tends to be cars which are 3-years-old plus. It doesn't seem to be so much of a problem as far as we are aware with brand new cars," he said.

For anyone who's ever seen the animated movie "Robots," there could be more than one marketing explanation for this otherwise 'inexplicable' selective destruction.

Ian Hillier of the Trading Standards Institute said the problem only seemed to be hitting cars using unleaded petrol.

"Officers are investigating these complaints, and samples of fuel from some of the affected cars are currently being tested for contamination, as are the contents of the pumps from which the petrol was drawn," he said.

Results of the tests are due by the end of the week.

Motorists pointed the finger of blame at petrol they had bought from supermarket retailers such as Tesco and Morrisons.

Both companies said they had carried out tests and found no evidence that their fuel was contaminated.

"Whilst we cannot currently trace any problem back to Tesco fuel, we will of course continue to urgently work with our supplier to identify what might be behind it," a spokesman said.

Morrisons said it had tested every batch of unleaded petrol to ensure it met British and European standards.

"These found no contamination and confirmed our unleaded petrol met the required standards," it said in a statement.

Clifford Jones, an engineering academic at the University of Aberdeen, said there were three plausible explanations.

These were that a refinery had taken "too wide a cut" with the crude oil allowing other products to mix with the gasoline.

An octane enhancer might not have been added to gasoline which needed one; or perhaps bio fuels were put into cars which were not designed to use them.

"We have no reports of quality issues with petrol supplied from UK refineries," said the UK Petroleum Industry Association (UKPIA), which represents the nine main refining companies in Britain.

It added the source of the problem might be a batch of fuel supplied to "some large independent retail sites".

Independent oil firm Greenergy, which supplies both Morrisons and Tesco, said it was examining whether the problem was related to its supplies.

"We have found they are fully compliant with BSEN 228 -- the independent standard everyone works to," it said in a statement.