Supermarket fuels

[uprightbrian]

Hello all.
I have owned my 1999 E300 TD for about a year now and although it is a brilliant car and tows our caravan very well I have always thought it was very thirsty on fuel and a bit sluggish at pulling away.
I have always used Tesco diesel.
This week however I filled it up with Shell V power diesel, which incidentally was 1p per litre cheaper than Tesco.
Wow. What a transformation. There is more power. More acceleration from standing start, and so far the fuel guage has hardly moved in fourty miles.
I just wondered if any one else has had a similar experience.
I will definitely not be using supermarket fuel any more.
Regards Brian.

 

[rf065]

I've only ever noticed the difference in price, as for performance, they are all the same. Petrols may run better with higher octane fuels in cars that are highly tuned or turbo charged, but never had any improvement with a diesel.

Russ

 

[Classic C200]

As well as only running my Mercedes C200 and 3.0 Litre Petrol Shogun on Shell Unleaded I also have a Landrover Discovery Diesel That is always filled with Shell Diesel. I once filled the Disco with Tesco Diesel and that ran like a sack of Nuts and Bolts as well as being down on power.

I get a better MPG return with the Shell fuels and would never fill up at a supermarket or unbranded fuel station again................:!:

 

[Parrot of Doom]

I've poured all kinds of crap into mine, can't say I've ever noticed the difference.

Quieter when on veg oil though.

 

[Jimmers]

At work years ago we had a Cummins-engined bus that was allergic to supermarket diesel. Once you shut it off, you'd have to bleed it to start it again.

It was alleged to us by a Cummins specialist that the supermarket fuel has all kinds of rubbish in it that made the fuel literally evaporate as it passed the hot engine - thus getting air in the fuel line.

I've no idea if this theory is true or not, but once we had this bit of advice we never put supermarket fuel in it again, and the problem never happened again.

 

[Young 'Un]

At work years ago we had a Cummins-engined bus that was allergic to supermarket diesel. Once you shut it off, you'd have to bleed it to start it again.

It was alleged to us by a Cummins specialist that the supermarket fuel has all kinds of rubbish in it that made the fuel literally evaporate as it passed the hot engine - thus getting air in the fuel line.

I've no idea if this theory is true or not, but once we had this bit of advice we never put supermarket fuel in it again, and the problem never happened again.

We used to have that on our Dennis Darts sometimes, nothing a bucket of water thrown over the fuel lines couldn't cure

As for supermarket fuels, I've started using Tesco 99RON in my 300se and it runs like a dream now. It isn't too keen on BP Ultimate, but will happily run on Shell V Power. I won't put anything below 97RON in the tank. Used Sainsburys 95RON before and had trouble starting when cold!

 

[A210AMG]

Mine always has supermarket fuel,

Don't know any difference it seem to go well and likes to drink.

Doubt it make much difference unless your into Turbo petrol cars such as a scubby or evo. In fact wasn't there a test on this on 5th gear or topgear. Clio, Golf Gti and Scubby.

Made jack all difference in the Clio and Golf but Scubby added some bhp

 

[MarkCL]

I think there was a proper investigation done in to this somewhere that proved that petrol/diesel from the name brands like Shell etc does actually perform better in the cars etc than supermarket stuff. Although a lot of it may well come from the same refinery initially it comes down to what additives etc are then put in to the tanker before it leaves the depot. Even the supermarkets have their own "blend" so to speak. Myself, after having driven my cars using all sorts I can safely say that (a) in my case they always ran better on branded fuel and (b) Shell's V-Power/Optimax was the best for my cars making a noticeable improvement. BP's Ultimate never seemed to go down well despite technically having a better RON/MON value. Go figure.

Currently though I run mine on normal Shell unleaded but thats mainly just because V-Power is just too damn expensive at the moment. If it ever comes down in price again (yeah right...dream on ) then I'll switch back to that for the added "zip" in the engine and marginally better fuel economy 8)

Cheers,
Mark

 

[kjm975]

I've always run my 220E on Morrisons pertol, runs OK on that.

 

[joem]

My Saab is noticeably quieter and quicker using V Power than Supermarket petrol but it does specify 97RON minimum in the handbook. BP Ultimate is quieter but not noticeably quicker. Car runs like it's ingested a kilo of bolts on ordinary supermarket unleaded after a tank or so of it.

Interestingly my W202 C200K runs quieter on V Power or Ultimate but there is no noticeable difference in performance. Shell ordinaire is noticeably quieter than Tesco ordinaire in this car but that may be because it has done 123k.

 

[moneyman]

Run my CLK 500 on both supermarket and branded fuels, can't say I have noticed much of a difference. When I had a Boxster S ran that on V Power and you could notice the difference in pick up with that engine

 

[stever]

My W123 280CE starts easier, and has more urgency at low revs when using a super unleaded fuel. That said it was designed to run on 98RON 4 star, so perhaps it's not too surprising.

 

[adrefinish]

my 97 c220d ran fine on texico for the two weeks of ownership ,then i spyed asda diesel at 3p per litre cheaper. shall not be doing that again , it misfired and smoked . after panic subsided injector cleaner , fuel filter and a good thrash it now seems ok. the more people i talk to the more i here the words dodgy diesel.

 

[philharve]

Hello all.
I have owned my 1999 E300 TD for about a year now and although it is a brilliant car and tows our caravan very well I have always thought it was very thirsty on fuel and a bit sluggish at pulling away.
I have always used Tesco diesel.
This week however I filled it up with Shell V power diesel, which incidentally was 1p per litre cheaper than Tesco.
Wow. What a transformation. There is more power. More acceleration from standing start, and so far the fuel guage has hardly moved in fourty miles.
I just wondered if any one else has had a similar experience.
I will definitely not be using supermarket fuel any more.
Regards Brian.

Hi uprightbrian

I asked my indie about the effects of super fuels on engines which have hithertoo been run on cheap fuels. He commented that the effects of switching fuels can be quite dramatic. It all depends upon the engine. He added that the engines fitted to Smart vehicles respond very well to high octane fuels. High performance engines seemed to be influenced less.

REGARDS

Phil

 

[rf065]

Hi uprightbrian

I asked my indie about the effects of super fuels on engines which have hithertoo been run on cheap fuels. He commented that the effects of switching fuels can be quite dramatic. It all depends upon the engine. He added that the engines fitted to Smart vehicles respond very well to high octane fuels. High performance engines seemed to be influenced less.

REGARDS

Phil

Are you sure you have quoted him correct?
High performance engines, Subaru & Mitsubishi turbo's etc, have all been proven to show reasonably high HP improvements when used with super fuels.

Any 500 or 600cc engine fitted to smart cars could be described as a high performance engine, i.e. in the same way a small capacity motorcycle engine produces a lot of power for its size.

Russ

 

[nickcc101]

All basic fuels are the same spec, the difference is in the additives added before delivery to the pump. Most supermarket fuel is the basic fuel, most oil company fuel contains additives. I have always found Shell fuel performs better than most other major oil companys. I do have reason for assuming this as i was employed by Shell for 26 years. (tongue in cheek)

 

[television]

All basic fuels are the same spec, the difference is in the additives added before delivery to the pump. Most supermarket fuel is the basic fuel, most oil company fuel contains additives. I have always found Shell fuel performs better than most other major oil companys. I do have reason for assuming this as i was employed by Shell for 26 years. (tongue in cheek)

Have you come out of your shell now

 

[mmu]

Shell V V supermarket fuel test

I currently have a 99 e300DT and I'll give it a try with the Shell V power as it's due for a fill and I'll let you know asap.

 

[carabind]

additives is the answer as quoted alreday for the difference
Way I see it, I go to shell for petrol and asda for food.......but I'm lucky that they match prices locally so I don't pay any premium for shell notived no difference with the V power though

 

[nickcc101]

Have you come out of your shell now

Every month when i recieve my Shell pension i say thankyou.