Fuel & Fuel Pumps

[Charles Nicholson <CNicholson@domain.elided>]

Greetings!

I have a question about certain types of fuel brands) and their effects on
Alfa fuel pumps.  A colleague of mine related a story in which it was said
that certain brands of gasoline can wreak havoc with the fuel pumps on
imported cars, ultimately leading to their accelerated demise.  The brand in
question was Mobil and the make of the car was not specified other than "an
import," but the implication was that the American gas companies
deliberately alter their fuel to work poorly with and sometimes corrupt the
fuel pumps of imported cars.  Upon hearing such a thing I immediately
dismissed it as rubbish, not being of the conspiratorial mindset, however
now my paranoid gears have started turning.  I'm still taking this with a
hefty bag of salt, but has anyone experienced such a phenomenon?  As the
proud new owner of a 1994 164 Quadrafoglio, I am obviously concerned with
anything that even remotely suggests damage to any part of the car, let
alone something so integral to the operation of the engine.  I hope that I
have not wasted this bandwidth in vain, however I'm willing to sacrifice
megabits/second for peace of mind.  If anyone has any information about this
or anything else relating to additives in fuel, please let me know, either
on or off digest.

Thanks,
Chuck 

- --
"I read about an Eskimo hunter who asked the local missionary priest, 
'If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?' 
'No,' said the priest, 'not if you did not know.' 
'Then why,' asked the Eskimo earnestly, 'did you tell me?' " 
			-- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 1974 

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. 
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." 
			-- R.W. Emerson

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