Can "Brand" of fuel really make that much difference??

[daydotz]

ive always wondered about myths about fuel quality theirs been reports about problems with tescos and asda im sure i read they may add or remove things based on their reputations i wouldn't put it past them help them compete on price



i only fill my car up at sainsburys i know it comes from bp normally in a bp tanker mums clio flicks between esso an sainsburys an says it runs better with sainsburys an lasts a longer

the premium fuels may be better for the right cars but this may also be a physco logical thing

 

[mattyw]

I thought all supermarket fuel was meant to be kinda poor in comparison to bp/shell ect...

tesco fuel comes from the same source as shell

i.e v-power is tesco super.

 

[TimR26]

tesco fuel comes from the same source as shell

i.e v-power is tesco super.

Very much doubt Tesco 99 is same as V-power. My car is noiser and returns less mpg when using Tesco 99 compared to V-power.

 

[Fred@BTM]

someone call mythbusters asap!

 

[mattyw]

i used to work at tesco, i was good friends with the petrol stration manager and i was informed all tesco petrol comes from shell....

 

[Fletcher]

I ran my 172 on v-power (super) for 40k..

The old girl runs on ASDA ghetto fuel 90% of the time now, and bloody loves the stuff, no difference IMO.

 

[daydotz]

my digging around tesco gets its fuel from http://www.greenergy.com/index.html its super does it advertised heavy on their site id think the rest of the fuels would come from them as well

http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-companies.html

 

[mattyw]

meh, tis what i have been told, tad ironic tesco and shell are only people with 99ron!

 

[clio carl]

tried them all, and it makes no difference whatsoever, my car runs the same no matter what the petrol i use, been using asdas for a year now and on a run i get 41-45 mpg and 34 round town, went to nw performance yesterday, which is about 70 miles away, so thats a round trip of 140 miles taking traffic conditions into account ect, i had half a tank when i set off and the mark below that when i got home.
i think all this v power ect is just plain nonsense and a marketing ploy by the companies who sell it.

 

[DMS]

On a standard 172 it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever.

 

[Craig Ed]

i had half a tank when i set off and the mark below that when i got home..

lol do you drive the car

 

[aucky]

Very much doubt Tesco 99 is same as V-power. My car is noiser and returns less mpg when using Tesco 99 compared to V-power.

I doubt it as well. I'll ask my uncle, he drives Shell tankers

 

[aucky]

tried them all, and it makes no difference whatsoever, my car runs the same no matter what the petrol i use, been using asdas for a year now and on a run i get 41-45 mpg and 34 round town, went to nw performance yesterday, which is about 70 miles away, so thats a round trip of 140 miles taking traffic conditions into account ect, i had half a tank when i set off and the mark below that when i got home.
i think all this v power ect is just plain nonsense and a marketing ploy by the companies who sell it.

Have you seen an endoscopy of the valve seats etc of 2 cars running the 2 different fuels?
I have.
There is a difference.

And also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDHwCWdrtdg
In terms of power.. not much for N/A cars. But it just proves that aspect of the argument.

 

[Da]

My car was mapped for V-Power (98 Ron) so I try and use that now but it's not always possible as I've got about a 7 mile drive to the nearest Shell garage :dapprove:

I think V-Power made a difference in my car, even before it was mapped.

 

[Nightwalker]

I get through about £25 a week in petrol so I go with premium from Tesco or Sainsbury. I think there are probably some very minor differences in fuels, but like engine oil there are standards that must be met by all companies that produce the stuff so it will all be very similar. Over the life of an engine I think the cheaper fuels may have a slightly more negative affect, but unless you have a very finely crafted and tuned performance engine it's not worth the extra £££s for the higher RON fuels (unless you want that extra bit of power they are supposed to provide).

 

[Knight_Rider]

wish i only spent £25 on petrol a week..... I spend more like £40/50!!!

 

[sideways danny]

meh, tis what i have been told, tad ironic tesco and shell are only people with 99ron!

Tescos were selling 99 two years before shell (optimax was 98 RON) They use a different octane increasing additive. Tescos 99 is meant to be one of the best for knock protection, but with the most synthetic additives, so it's "dirty"

My car HATES BP fuels, I get detonation like a b*****d from BP ultimate, and have to add octane booster to it if i get stuck using it.

 

[Fred@BTM]

plus tesco 99 has 5% bioethanol in it (130+RON if my brain serves me right)

that might explain why some don't see quite as good MPG from it

 

[sideways danny]

well if it's giving knock protection, it should give good economy as that's what governs the ignition timing compensation/adaption.

Dont know what the additive they use is, read about it quite a while back

 

[Fred@BTM]

you have to use a s**t load more ethanol than you do petrol, the energy per unit volume of ethanol is 30odd% lower than for petrol yeah tis only 5% in tescos 99 and its going off on a tangent, but some do say the mpg isn't as good as v-power hence my explanation

 

[sideways danny]

i did say "should". I dont have knock/ignition adaption and i've never had it in any other cars either so i can't give a long term judgement on economy, but i did and do have the best knock limits with tesco 99

 

[Fred@BTM]

i still want to try an F4R on E85 (mapped to suit) i bet a stock engine would do over 200bhp!

 

[sideways danny]

Read about someone who was converting a 200sx a couple of years ago. Looks like a LOT of potential

 

[Fred@BTM]

oh we saw over 100bhp gain from memory from a 4.0L Judd V10, it did use just over 4L per lap though! LOL

 

[sideways danny]

pmsl

 

[Fred@BTM]

F1 engines ran about 50bhp more and used around 0.5-0.7L less per lap on a 2.4 V8, but they were reving upto 20Krpm at the time, we were only going to 12K! thirsty!

 

[MR_PEA]

i still want to try an F4R on E85 (mapped to suit) i bet a stock engine would do over 200bhp!

apart from injectors and a remap, what else would be reuqired to get that done??

 

[ianeire]

apart from injectors and a remap, what else would be reuqired to get that done??

Fuel lines, maybe more. Pal of mine did it on a 200sx and ran smoothly - untill he tanked it on track. The only problem is difficulty in finding E85 in a lot of places and never being able to go for a run up the mountains etc. without a fair bit of pre-planning and him sometimes bringing his own jerry cans.

We can only get 95RON in Ireland. Some places do carry the E5 blend though to bring the 95 to a claimed 99RON.

 

[jamesis2]

I watched Dave this morning and there was a bit about Premium petrol and the differences. In a normal engine designed for 95 RON the premium petrol did nothing to the performance. However, when they did the same test on a golf GTI, apparently recommended 98RON) it had better BHP with the premium fuels! Not a massive difference but an increase of a few bhp.

Anyway, that made me have a search on Google and I found this which I thought was an interesting read:
http://www.fuelsaving.info/knock.htm

 

[jack_davey]

[youtube]dDHwCWdrtdg&NR=1[/youtube]

 

[Jonny1*2]

strange type of RR. But i remember watchin that. Quite a good test really.

 

[jamesis2]

That's the one! My youtube searches are rubbish

 

[Mark One]

Maybe I just got a bad batch of tesco fuel?

most probable answer IMO. what you've written about 99ron making the mixture rich is not true. It should allow a clever ECU to optimise the map and pull out fuel in places where it's used for charge cooling.....afaik. Whether you'd ever notice is another thing.

 

[geordieracer]

Maybe I just got a bad batch of tesco fuel? Although I must say Texaco fuel I have used in a few cars and it is S***e! Supermarkets alledgedly get there fuel from the big suppliers anyway, I know Morrisons used to use Texaco (not sure if thats still the case)

Our big local tesco station just started selling 99ron a few weeks ago.

I filled up my gti and got all sorts of problems! Cutting out when dippoing the clutch, and at low revs. Had to wrestle the car over a roundabout becasue of that. Starting issues and very poor mpg.

I thought it was ICV/map sensor/TPS etc so had them off and cleaned etc.

I then ran the 99ron through, and refilled with 95, and car is back to normal.

Not going to fill up at Tesco ever again tbh.

 

[aucky]

Shell wouldn't be spending millions on R&D if it didnt make a difference..