1st Diesel car - avoid supermarket fuel?

Retrogamer

ChumLee wrote: »

"Premium" costs more so what is the actual cost for the better mpg?

I'm unsure as i've never tried to work it out properly. As my car is on 120k though and i plan on driving it until it dies the lower carbon deposits from the slightly "cleaner" fuel is advantageous as well.

mcpitman

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

The better fuels do have more goodies added, but a dash of Millers Diesel fuel additive should do the same job with standard fuels and at less overall cost...other snake oil if you feel this is so are available.

Exactly this, I have run cars on supermarket diesel for years and well in excess of 500k miles (not the same car.. lol).

Not once have I had a fault relating to "cheap/supermarket" fuel.

I do use Millers, and have had no DPF/EGR or other related issues, so continue to do so.

Ebe_Scrooge

My diesel ( Peugeot 1.6 hDi ) has now done 130K miles, never had any problems with supermarket fuel. I alternate mostly between Tesco, Morrisons and Esso - I pass them all on my regular journeys, and one week one will be cheapest, the next week another will be. I just use whichever one is cheaper when I need to fill up.


I have noticed I get very slightly better MPG when I've filled up with Esso, but not really enough to warrant paying extra for the fuel. And I've never had any problems with the engine ( touch wood ! )

motorguy

mcpitman wrote: »

Exactly this, I have run cars on supermarket diesel for years and well in excess of 500k miles (not the same car.. lol).

Not once have I had a fault relating to "cheap/supermarket" fuel.

I do use Millers, and have had no DPF/EGR or other related issues, so continue to do so.

+1

I've had no issues with supermarket fuel, and i have been doing 25K per year up until the start of the year there.

I've a 10 year old jag diesel now and i still use supermarket fuels in it, but also use Millers just because of the age of the car.

bod1467

Interesting topic. Does it (Millers) provide a real benefit or is it psychosomatic snake oil?

EdGasket

Bro-in-law's jag was written off by Tesco diesel. Build up of silicon contamination. Would have cost too much to replace tank, all lines, pump, injectors etc.. Samples were analysed and the conclusion was the contamination was clogging the injectors. Cleaned/new injectors would just fail after about 4 hours use. Garage said categorically it was using supermarket fuel over a long period that caused the problem.

If you want the best for your diesel, use branded and the more expensive stuff.

gilbert_and_sullivan

bod1467 wrote: »

Interesting topic. Does it (Millers) provide a real benefit or is it psychosomatic snake oil?

For your perusal.
http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=188065

I ran Diesels for years, and during that time Millers additive whatever it happened to be called in the timeline was used, never had a fuelling problem, and i know many others who have who didn't use Millers, whether it helped is up for debate but i'm a fan.
Obviously as well as this i maintained the vehicles well with regular oil changes with quality product, none of this 20k cobblers thanks, they had a new fuel filter annually, and turbo versions were allowed to warm up and cool down before and after using them hard.

I no longer run Diesels because they've lost their core plus points, toughness simplicity and ease of repair.

Steve059

I've used supermarket (usually ASDA) diesel in my Fiesta 1.4L TDCi since I got it in July 2010 without any problems.

I always fill it up until the pump clicks and keep a record of the amount of fuel and mileage readings on a Excel spreadsheet that also calculates my "fill to fill" and overall average fuel consumption. I've been advised that a sudden and sustained decrease in this could be an early warning of an injector problem.

Previously, I've treated her to a tankful of Shell V-Power. I suspect that the slight perceived improvement in running is psychosomatic. The "fill-to-fill" figures for this tankful are in line with all the others.

A dose of Redex (high-tech' "snake oil"?) before the MOT may (or may not) have had an effect on it passing its emissions tests.

However, I agree with the regular oil changes: thanks to my engine's design, I can do these myself "from above" every 6 months (or every 5,000 miles, whichever comes sooner, but this is now my annual mileage). With diesels, even the new oil looks as dirty as used oil from a petrol engine.

As IanMSpencer says, you need to look up at what revolutions it produces the maximum torque. This is much lower for a diesel engine than a petrol one. At first, it seems very odd to not 'rev' it as high as you used to in a petrol car to get the same acceleration.

patman99

I have a Berlingo with the 1.6 HDi engine (90 BHP version) and, thenks to fuelly.com, can confirm that whilst there are no issues with running on supermarket diesel (apart from a slight loss of power and the need to drop down a gear when going up a local hill), the mpg drops from an average of 66mpg down to 57mpg.

My mate has a Picasso 1.6 HDi (04 plate) which the previous owner ran entirely on supermarket diesel.
It ran very sluggish, but after 8 months on regular branded diesel it runs as it should.

Every diesel I have ever owned returned lower mpg on supermarket diesel with the exception of my Octavi 1.9 TDi which returned the same mpg regardless of where the diesel came from.

Mind you, round my way, it is not uncommon for the branded garages to sell at the same, or lower prices than the supermarkets.

Bingolingo

I ran a seat tdi for 6 years on supermarket fuel. It was on 60k when I bought it and 170k when sold recently. Always used the cheapest fuel which was almost always from a supermarket. No issues with injectors, economy or EGR.

Bear in mind though that Diesel engines need to get hot to clean out the carbon and soot. Make sure you use the full rev range every now and again. I always found that a long uphill was good for this as it'd keep the turbo under full load for longer.