A bloke has been filmed filling his car with cooking oil amid the surge in fuel prices. Check it out:
The man was spotted in a Tesco car park in Congleton, Cheshire, by a shopper who couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
Sharing the clip on social media Mark Rainford joked: “what fuel prices?”
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Since posting, the video has attracted plenty of attention from social media users, with some praising him for his smart move and others warning fellow motorists not to try it themselves.
One wrote: “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."
Another commented: "Don't go putting veg oil in your car or van unless it's old type diesel engine . You'll f***k 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."
Others claimed it would ‘run just fine’ using the cooking oil.
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But will it? Well, while vegetable oil can potentially be used as a biodiesel if your vehicle has a diesel engine - it’s certainly not recommended, particularly not when poured directly from the bottle like the fella in the clip above does.
Cooking oil firm Cater Oils explains that cooking oils are ‘very thick [and] sticky’, meaning it's not going to flow nice and smoothly through your engine.
It warns: “It will solidify and build up in the engine and other parts of the vehicle, reducing the flow of fuel, damaging the engine and causing it to burn out or stall.”
The website goes on to state that cooking oil can be turned into fuel, using a process called transesterification, which involves mixing it with other chemicals to make it car-friendly - but Cater Oils recommend you leave this to the experts.
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Whether this man's car managed to run on the cooking oil or if he’s currently waiting on a visit from the AA remains to be seen - but it gave shopper Mark a laugh, either way.
Speaking to CheshireLive Mark 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."
Claire Reid