Brand cars get together and “fire off the door” How to get justice for consumers

Recently, the car of Mr. Tang of Kunming citizen went out of trouble: First, he could not start up and he could not light up. When he was driving, the interior of the car had a strange sound of “dangling and jingling” and the body was shaking violently. 4S shop staff found that the engine valve has been damaged, maintenance costs up to 30,000 yuan.

Mr. Tang's Toyota Ruizhi had run more than 8,000 kilometers and had never experienced a major failure. Such a high maintenance cost made him very angry, but the technician told him that the car waiting for repair due to the same breakdown had already lined up.

Before and after the Spring Festival this year, many car brands 4S stores in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other places received a lot of such rework vehicles. The symptoms were basically the same: when the cold starts, there is no fire, the engine vibrates at idle, and the exhaust gas alarms. Through inspection, it has been found that a large amount of colloidal matter accumulates in the engine of these faulty vehicles, causing problems such as valve seizure, lax valve closing, and displacement of valve guides.

Auto manufacturers and maintenance companies have consistently pointed to the quality of gasoline. However, a number of refined oil distributors immediately issued a statement, emphasizing that the oil sold had no quality problems. In late February, the quality supervision and industry and commerce departments involved in the investigation, but the results have not been announced so far.

On March 19, the relevant person in charge of the Yunnan Administration for Industry and Commerce told the China Youth Daily reporter that the testing of "problem gasoline" samples had not yet been completed. After the results came out, they would be released to the public.

Suspected disaster "problem petrol"

Since April of last year, Yunnan Yingmao Yuezhong Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. has been repairing similar failure vehicles one after another. Before the Spring Festival this year, the problem has been concentrated. At most, the company received 5 failed vehicles one day.

After opening the engine cover, the Shanghai Volkswagen franchised dealer’s technicians found that the vehicle's valve area gathered a large amount of brown, yellow-brown gum.

"Glial adhesion makes the valve's movement resistance too large, valve opening and closing lag, the light is difficult to start or not move, heavy valve guide tube is pulled out, valve stem, valve seat ring, hydraulic deformation, and even cam cam Damage to the shaft and damage to the piston cylinder head after the valve was broken,” the company explained in a publicity material it sent to its customers.

Why the engine will gel? According to Bi Jiawei, the service director of Yingmao, who has been engaged in technical work, the content of colloid and asphaltene in major crude oil in China is about 10 to 40 percent. After refinery refinement, the colloid content should be reduced to national standards. The value, ie 100 g of gasoline, does not exceed 5 mg. Despite bad driving habits and the car's frequent low-speed, idle speeds and other poor working conditions, it can also lead to glial accumulation in the engine. However, in view of the large-scale outbreak of such failures, the use of unsatisfactory gasoline should be used.

"If it is only in our car, this situation can be attributed to the quality of the car, but now different brands of cars get together and 'fire' and check out that there is a gum accumulation on the engine. We have to suspect that the gasoline is not qualified. "Bi Jiawei said.

In order to verify, on February 24, Zhu Yamin, deputy director of the Shenzhen Wuhua Petrochemical Additives Applied Technology Research Institute, conducted a combustion experiment. He lit the 100-milliliter gasoline bought from a nearby gas station and 100 milliliters of "problem gas" sampled from a faulty car into an aluminum basin and ignited. After the burnout, both oils left a gum at the bottom, but the "problem gasoline" left significantly more gum after combustion.

Zhu Yamin stated that the process of burning gasoline in the air is not the same as the process of burning in the interior of a car. Therefore, it cannot be used as a basis for judging the pros and cons of gasoline. However, it is certainly not normal to leave excess gum.

Bi Jiawei said that on the basis of feedback from customers, the source of suspected “problem gasoline” is very extensive, covering several major brand oil companies and some small private oil companies, as well as most parts of Yunnan Province. As the engine failure is not within the scope of insurance claims, these are as low as a few hundred dollars, and as many as tens of thousands of dollars in maintenance costs all require the owner to pay for his own money. The complaints are endless. In addition, due to carbon deposits in car engines that travel more than 50,000 kilometers, gums are not easily adhered, so the cars that fail are mostly new cars.

Illegal companies illegally add other substances to dilute the cost of "problem gasoline" not the first time. From 2010 onwards, owners of Henan and Hainan have reported that the valve of the vehicle has been damaged after refueling. Inspection by related departments is indeed a problem of oil quality. In early 2011, there were several thousand taxis in the Hong Kong area that had "dead fire." In April 2011, “Problem Gasoline” triggered a breakdown of nearly 10,000 vehicles in Yueyang, Hunan. Eventually these events were confirmed to be caused by excessively high proportions of oil additives and reduced purity.

An industry insider speculated that the “extinction” that occurred in the southwest region was likely to be caused by the addition of other substances in gasoline. And this additive should be illegally added in circulation.

"A certain percentage of additives are permissible, because gasoline's antirust, antiknock, antifoaming, etc. all require the assistance of additives to meet the standard, but generally refined oil products produced by refineries have basically reached the limit. Adding additives to the link is basically for profit,” he said.

Because additives are much cheaper than gasoline, doing so can dilute the cost and gain more benefits. For example, one ton of methanol is about two or three thousand yuan, while one ton of gasoline is more than 8,000 yuan. Some oil companies add too much methanol to the gasoline to make up for the difference. However, when the methanol content exceeds a certain proportion, it will corrode the engine, increase the swelling rate of the rubber material, and cause the engine to shake or accelerate.

Another common practice is to add octane improvers. Because the octane number is an important indicator for judging the number of gasoline, adding a certain amount of octane improver to the gasoline No. 90 can increase the octane number to a level higher than that of No. 93 gasoline. Some unscrupulous companies make profits from this. To get the difference, one ton of oil can earn around 1,000 yuan.

"It's a bit like the 'melamine' incident. Because the content of protein in milk powder needs to be measured, the value of 'nitrogen' needs to be measured, and dairy companies add illegal substances in order to increase nitrogen content." Zhu Yamin, an expert in the research of petrochemical additives, said that adding too much Octane modifiers have many side effects. For example, if you add a little more N-methylaniline, you may generate a lot of gum. Another additive that is prone to gum formation is dienes.

Zhu Yamin said that truly reflecting the quality of oil products should not be an indicator, but rather a bench experiment to simulate the combustion process of gasoline in the engine while monitoring various types of data. However, this experiment is expensive and not desirable in practice, so it is still only possible to use some static detection indicators.

Zhu Yamin pointed out in particular that since the national standards are formulated in accordance with the normal crude oil refining process, some illegal additives are not within the national standard inspection index. He has brought some “problem gasoline” and colloidal samples back to the institute in Shenzhen for component analysis.

Consumers are concerned that there is no way for complaints. When major auto makers and car owners spoke to the oil companies, major oil companies made statements and insisted that the refined oil products sold at their gas stations "have absolutely no problems." The head of the media of the Yunnan Kunming Sales Office of China National Petroleum Corporation told the China Youth Daily reporter that “our oil quality is in line with the national quality standards.” Yunnan local oil company Qianglin Petrochemical pledged to welcome consumers to go to the petrol station for sampling and testing. "If there is a problem with the oil, we are willing to pay the owner a new car!"

It is understood that the quality supervision and industry and commerce departments have been involved in the investigation. The relevant person in charge of the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision told the reporter that according to the division of functions, the quality supervision department only monitors the quality of products in the production and processing links, and the quality of the circulation links is supervised by the industrial and commercial department. There is no oil refinery company in Yunnan Province, and all refined oil comes from outside the province. Therefore, the quality supervision department did not conduct random inspection on the quality of refined oil. However, the quality supervision department has been keeping a close watch on this matter because its subordinate Yunnan Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Institute has qualifications for refined oil testing and has undertaken inspections of gasoline products for inspection.

The person in charge said that recently, 4S stores, oil companies, and industrial and commercial departments have sent hundreds of sample inspections.

The related personnel of the Kunming Administration for Industry and Commerce stated that as of late February, more than 150 complaints and inquiries related to “problem gasoline” had been received, and the administration of industry and commerce had increased the qualifications and oil products of major gas stations. Inspection of legal sources, product qualification reports, and spot checks on the more concentrated gas stations reflected by consumers.

A person in charge of the Consumer Protection Association of Yunnan Province stated that at present, car dealers are pushing the problem to oil companies, and oil companies are kicking the “ball” to the car dealers. Nobody can tell exactly what they are waiting for. "Whether it is a car problem or a gasoline problem, we will do our best to help consumers safeguard their rights."

However, he pointed out that if it is indeed oil quality problems, consumers may face the dilemma of “difficulty in obtaining evidence”: Some consumers do not request invoices when refueling, or because the intervals are too long, it is difficult to prove that the gasoline that caused the malfunction is a refueling Station to buy gasoline. "If there is no evidence, there may be problems with it."

Since March, a text message has been widely forwarded between Kunming owners, reminding people not to go to a few gas stations to refuel.

An observer believes that the country does not mandate that every batch of gasoline products be submitted for inspection. The industrial and commercial department regulates the production and sale of refined oil products. It can only supervise whether it has qualifications, whether it has a business license, but lacks professional technical supervision to purchase goods. , transportation and sales channels. The quality inspection department has technology, but it does not have the authority to supervise the refined oil that has already entered the oil station sales link. How can the oil companies not hide or transfer "problem gasoline" after the accident, because management supervision is so inefficient? How can we guarantee that the gasoline to be checked is the same batch as the "problem gas?" Even if consumers keep the invoices and get enough evidence, they may still have no way to complain.

After Li Xiaomeng, a Kunming owner, refueled at a gas station of China Aviation Oil, the vehicle malfunctioned. He returned to the gas station for compensation, but the other party gave him a quality inspection and inspection institute of Yunnan Province and the National Quality Supervision and Inspection Center for Tropical Agricultural Products. Test report issued. After this test report carried out non-entire inspection on the sample submitted by CNAF Yunnan Petroleum Co., Ltd., the conclusion was: "The sample was tested according to GB 17930-2011 "Vehicle Gasoline." The inspection item was qualified."