Some have labelled the move ‘ingenious’
A remarkable video has been shared online of a man deciding to fill up his car with vegetable oil outside a Tesco.
After record rises diesel and petrol prices – in part as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has seen Boris Johnson turn to Saudi Arabia to end the reliance on Russian oil – one man has decided to resort to unique measures to avoid paying for petrol.
The video was filmed by Cheshire resident Mark Rainford, and shows a man with a trolley full of large bottles of vegetable oil.
He then proceeds to pour each bottle into his tank.
Rainford shared the video on Facebook on Tuesday with the caption: “What fuel prices.”
It has since racked up thousands of shares, comments, and reactions.
https://www.facebook.com/mark.rainford.7965/posts/1146287186202691
Speaking to Cheshire Live Rainford said: “I filmed it and as I walked past him he was taking all the tops off the bottles first, that’s what made me laugh. He had clearly thought it through.”
As of Wednesday morning, diesel was at a record price of £1.76 per litre, with petrol ar £1.64 a litre, the Manchester Evening News reports,
In the comments, some have been baffled by the man’s actions, whilst others have praised him for his ingenuity, saying the car will “run just fine,” a theory that some debunked.
One person said: “It’s going to be a busy night for the AA when everyone tries this in their modern diesel engines.”
Another commenter said: “Don’t go putting veg oil in your car or van unless it’s old type diesel engine. You’ll f*** your engine up, it’s too thick and you’ll blow the diesel pump up. And especially don’t put it in a petrol car/van.”
One person posted: “To use veg oil you need a heater in the fuel system and also the glycerine in the oil will eventually clog up the fuel system and homogenise the engine lubrication oil. The only way it works is to convert it to biodiesel using toxic and dangerous chemicals.”
Although cooking oil can be recycled into biodiesel, the process is a much more complicated one than simply pouring it into your car tank.
Because it is so thick and sticky, cooking oil is unlikely to flow properly through your engine, and could cause real damage as it solidifies and builds up.
It therefore needs to go through a process called transesterification, according to cooking oil delivery firm Cater Oils.
They add that this should be left to experts.
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