Supermarket Vs Branded fuel

grizzly1911

thelawnet wrote: »

I lol'ed at the bloke who fills up every 2 days to get a 'free' coffee.

Wonder how far he goes to get it.

grizzly1911

patman99 wrote: »

Already been proven by '5th Gear'. Shell V-Power and BP Ultimate both give an increase of 5% in power and 8% in MPG over normal branded versions.
From experience, I know that the Diesel Astra I owned would ave. 47 mpg on supermarket diesel and 54 mpg on branded im my case, Shell, as it is the nearest petrol station to me). I like to know what my fuel efficiency is, so keep records. I now drive a petrol Focus and have seen no difference in mpg between branded and supermarket.

One thing I did find in 10 years of diesel driving, if I had filled-up at a supermarket the week before the MOT, the car would always fail the emissions test, however, by driving to the nearest branded station, brimming the tank and driving back, it would then pass.

Any ideas how 5th gear proved it?

Once saw Tiff testing the fuel consumption of a 911 using the trip computer.

I check my fuel every time I fill up too, sad isn't it, and haven't noticed any difference, due to fuel supply only where/how they were driven. The last 15 years, running to two diesels at a time. None have failed the emission test all being clean.

I did have an Astra 1.7CDTI ECO4 (117g/km Co2, low BIK) diesel that did the best part of 5K over 3 weeks and averaged 64 mpg, mostly motorway open road driving with town stuff either end. Can't remember what fuel but would have been the cheapest and most likely supermarket. It averaged around 55mpg over 60K from new.

grizzly1911

Just noticed our local station (Supermarket premium site) now has a spread of 10p with diesel @ 1.44:eek:

Wouldn't mind but it just off the M6. 9 miles away Shell are 1.38:(

Ranger8

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Any ideas how 5th gear proved it?

Fifth Gear diesel test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezjknhwcQXU

Hammyman

Horizon81 wrote: »

Yeah, it was silicon in the fuel, supplied to supermarkets, big man.

Seeing as you've avoided answering my subsequent question because it'll make you look a pratt....

The answer is:

Silicon is added to ALL diesel being transported to prevent foaming. The reason that silicone got into the fuel is because the tankers weren't cleaned correctly and the sections that had previously had diesel in were then filled with petrol which then became contaminated with the silicone. It had nothing to do with how the fuel was made or where it was made or who made it or the brand.

This could happen to absolutely any company at all if the tankers aren't cleaned out properly, regardless of what brand is on the tanker.

grizzly1911

Ranger8 wrote: »

Fifth Gear diesel test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezjknhwcQXU

Thanks for that.

Fairy snuff.

Of course washing the car through with Supermarket fuel may well have cleaned it out.;)

Wonder if they did the "in between" fuel clean before the first sample?

Wonder how many cycles they ran that test over to smooth out any "false" readings either way?

Wonder if it made any difference to the torque, which is really where Diesels normally score rather than BHP?

thelawnet

Hammyman wrote: »

Seeing as you've avoided answering my subsequent question because it'll make you look a pratt....

The answer is:

Silicon is added to ALL diesel being transported to prevent foaming. The reason that silicone got into the fuel is because the tankers weren't cleaned correctly and the sections that had previously had diesel in were then filled with petrol which then became contaminated with the silicone. It had nothing to do with how the fuel was made or where it was made or who made it or the brand.

This could happen to absolutely any company at all if the tankers aren't cleaned out properly, regardless of what brand is on the tanker.

Is it silicon or silicone?

Trebor16

Silicon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon

Silicone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone

gtcelica6

V-Power is top notch and I cover 500+ miles a week, never found tesco's momentum that much cop and got less MPG than standard.....

Run a can of BG44K through and see what you think?

almillar

OP posted about diesel, but we're talking about petrol so here we go.
Know the difference between 95 RON and 98 RON (generally known as standard unleaded and super unleaded). There are higher RON products (V-Power or whatever?) too.
These are regulated standards, and your engine needs to adjust its timing for each of the products, to prevent pre-detination - 98 RON 'explodes faster' than 95.
So, does your car adjust? You need to read your manual. What fuel does it say to put in? If you have a Jap import, it might disallow anything less than 98, and you'd better know where the garages are. UK cars really have to run on 95, but sportier cars (I'll use a 2002 1.8T TT as an example) tell you to put 98 RON in, but that the car can run on 95. This is an indication that the car will adjust.
Another example, the Mazda RX8, does not adjust. It has (at least) 3 different fuelling settings, hardwired into ECUs for seperate markets. This is on the same engine. Japan gets a 250bhp car, UK gets a 230 one, and the US 210. This is due to the fuel that the car gets (Japan highest quality, US lowest). If you put super into an RX8, it WILL NOT go any faster.
Next thing to do, if you switch up, is to run at least a tankful of the good stuff, to get rid of the 95, THEN reset the ECU, so that it will learn the new fuel trims, otherwise your engine might still be running on the old timings.
For an engine that does take account of different RON standards, you will get better performance from the engine. Your driving will determine whether than translates to better economy or better speed.
None of the above has anything to do with additives, which aren't standardised and would be much more difficult to police.