Premium/Super Unleaded?

[Deleted User]

Just bought a petrol car, after many years of driving diesels, and have been getting conflicting advice/opinions, about fuel.

Anyone got any factual information, about the benefits (if any) of Premium/Super, over regular Unleaded?

AdrianC

Premium unleaded IS the "normal" unleaded. 95RON. "Vanilla" used to be 91RON, never available in the UK, but available elsewhere in Europe.

For 99.9% of cars, there's absolutely zero point in using 97-98RON Super. Some higher performance cars will take advantage of the higher octane, adjusting the engine map to suit, using knock sensing to tell them when it's safe - but it'll basically just increase upper end performance. There may be a tiny economy increase in normal use, but it's very unlikely to outweigh the increased cost.

If you google it, it's entirely likely you'll get confused with US websites - they measure octane differently, giving a lower figure. Their "regular" (89RON+MON/2) is roughly equivalent to the old European 91RON. Their "premium" (91) is similar to our basic 95.

Johno100

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Just bought a petrol car, after many years of driving diesels, and have been getting conflicting advice/opinions, about fuel.

Anyone got any factual information, about the benefits (if any) of Premium/Super, over regular Unleaded?

What car is it?

wgl2014

Premium (Super, Nitro, Ultimate etc etc) do also have some extra detergents and additives in that purport to keep your engine clean.

You can also get bottles of fuel system cleaner that can be added either at each fill up or just every now and again. Some people say they are pointless snake oil but I have found they do work.

I would recommend miller's or BG44K.

[Deleted User]

Johno100 wrote: »

What car is it?

1.25 Litre Fiesta.

DUTR

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Just bought a petrol car, after many years of driving diesels, and have been getting conflicting advice/opinions, about fuel.

Anyone got any factual information, about the benefits (if any) of Premium/Super, over regular Unleaded?

Nothing really conflicting, many modern petrol cars will run on 95RON, some will benefit from 98RON , these are usually performance type cars, it will show near the petrol cap or on the inside of the door.
For cars that can run on either the difference is not night and day,, for those that show 95RON, the only difference you will notice using 98 is that your fuel costs a little more money.

Johno100

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

1.25 Litre Fiesta.

Nah stick to the standard supermarket stuff and perhaps treat it to some of the fuel system cleaner every six months or so.

AdrianC

I wouldn't even bother with the fuel system cleaner. After all, there's quite a lot of finely-filtered powerful solvent passing through the fuel system all the time...

Injectors do have problems over time, sure - I had a set refurbished some years ago, after near-on 200k miles. They had a professional refurb firm two half-hour sessions in an ultrasonic cleaner, then new nozzles and pintles fitted. A bit of homeopathic jollop every few tanks? Nah.

BeenThroughItAll

Oh no.

Not again.

JustAnotherSaver

I've ran a couple of them for a good number of fill ups just to see what the MPG return was at the end. My driving doesn't really change from week to week so it' snot like one week i was using it only for work & the next i was using it to bomb up & down the country. It's pretty much the same journey, same speed zones, same distances each drive. Yeah there'll be differences but without going overly scientific it was about as consistent as you could get.

I found that BP Ultimate there was zero difference.
Shell V-Power on the other hand i did notice an increase in fuel economy (in that my MPG went UP by a couple. Nothing major but a couple).

I've seen videos of comparisons where the car is on a rolling road which also back up the idea that Shell V-Power is the better one but whether these videos have been doctored in any way who knows.

Supermarket fuel though, i did that for a while also. I wont touch the stuff again. Made my car run like crap. That's another thing that was shown by the video i watched - supermarket fuel gives the worst performance.

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Oh no.

Not again.

A pointless post not helping the OP in any way whatsoever?

Yeah we seem to be getting a few of them. Personally I don't know why people bother responding if they can't be bothered to help in some way.

uknick

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

.....Supermarket fuel though, i did that for a while also. I wont touch the stuff again. Made my car run like crap. That's another thing that was shown by the video i watched - supermarket fuel gives the worst performance...

I've run my performance car mainly on Tesco Momentum for 9 years and had no problems. Economy is about 5% better than with their standard petrol, and the car runs much smoother at low revs. I've tried the other "performance" fuels over the years and never really noticed any difference to Tesco.

I suppose it all depends on the car.