Shell Ultimate Super duper Vpower diesel ?

86JR

86JR

86JR

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Any good or just myth ?

I had a spare £15 earlier and nothing to do with it, it was in coins and I couldnt be bothered to go to the bank and pay it in, so I went out to the car to find I had 10 miles of fuel.

So off i went to Shell to bung it in and go for a nice drive, listening to some nice ambient, and ended up buying £15 of shell Vpower Diesel.

Now I have no clue if this is the same as usual, if its better etc etc, but I managed the same journey home as usual but with +5mpg on the DIS.

Car seemed more "agile" on it too.

Am I just thinking its better fuel, or is it ? Is it worth running the car on it all the time ?
 
Sounds like the placebo effect to me :).

A quick read seems to show that V-Power diesel only differs in the fact that it has 'cleaning agents'. I'm sure all fuel has these to an extent?
 
Only ever tried it the once.
Didn't notice anything different TBH, although I have an older car.

At £1.25 p/l is wasn't worth it IMO as regular diesel was £1.07 at the time.
 
twoblacklines said:
Any good or just myth ?

I had a spare £15 earlier and nothing to do with it, it was in coins and I couldnt be bothered to go to the bank and pay it in, so I went out to the car to find I had 10 miles of fuel.

So off i went to Shell to bung it in and go for a nice drive, listening to some nice ambient, and ended up buying £15 of shell Vpower Diesel.

Now I have no clue if this is the same as usual, if its better etc etc, but I managed the same journey home as usual but with +5mpg on the DIS.

Car seemed more "agile" on it too.

Am I just thinking its better fuel, or is it ? Is it worth running the car on it all the time ?
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Knowing you put a better fuel in means you probably tried to get a decent mpg out of it so you may have 'tried'.

Thus giving you a better mpg and thinking it's the fuel.

Definatley a placebo.
 
Vigoro said:
Only better when the car is setup to run it though. If i put it in my clio it wouldnt make a difference to performance at all :p
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ye but with more 'refined' cars that adjust the fueling according to intake temperature and speeds the higher octane reting makes a difference.
im not sayin you get to 60 2 seconds quicker or anything but it is definately more responsive, its like having a mild chip installed :p
plus i get two to three mpg better :)
 
puma luke said:
knowing ive got 'better' fuels means it gets more of a thrashing :p
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Same with me the first time I used Vpower or BP Ultimate (Recommended fuel for the ST220) and I didn't notice a difference :p

I just put in the good stuff once a month for it's cleaning properties. No idea if it actually does anything though.
 
I started putting premium diesel in the other day. Got to £7 before i realised and filled up with regular.

As for Vpower- I definately noticed a difference with my 2.0 Activa, compared to regular petrol. Not sure about MPG difference, but the car was noticeably smoother and more 'preppy'. I could tell what petrol the missus had put in it every time just by driving it.
 
V-Power diesel seems to work. Mine runs smoother on it and is a bit more responsive. Fuel economy doesn't change compared the "normal" Shell diesel extra (or whatever it's called now). The normal Shell stuff is a lot better than Supermarket diesel - it smokes less and I get an extra 5mpg according to the computer.

If the V-power is within a couple of pence a litre of the normal stuff I'll stick it in. Usually it isn't therefore it's not worth the extra. The normal stuff at the same price as supermarket crap is well worth it.
 
I always use shell as it's the cheapest locally. (Card only, no shop)
Never bothered with V-Power diesel in my car as it's a good 20p more.

The only reason I'd try it is if it improves fuel consumption. But i suspect the best way to do that is why a lighter right foot ;)
 
Allow me to wade in. Premium diesel tends to have over regular:

-A higher cetain number, either by refining or cetain improver additive. It really depends on your engine how much of a difference it makes.

-Higher detergent loading. There are two aspects to this, keep-clean and clean-up. As you can guess keep-clean sees that injectors don’t get any worse than they are clean-up does just that. Clean injectors equal better spray pattern so better power/economy. Time for full clean-up depends on usage, the fuel and the engine.

-May contain a lubricity improver to lower friction, so less ware and potentially better economy.

-Further to this it would probably have a better anti-foam performance to stop your pump from clicking off when filling (fooling some into thinking the tank is full) and maybe better water separation (high detergency causes water problems). There may also be anti-oxidants for better storage stability.

There is actually a surprising amount of stuff going on to blend fuels. If it makes much difference to you personally depends on too many factors to predict. In general though European diesel is quite good (American stuff is nasty).
 
Colossus said:
In general though European diesel is quite good (American stuff is nasty).
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Yep. By far the nastiest diesel I've ever filled up with was in Texas about 3 years back. Evil smelling, sticky, nasty stuff. Got some funny looks from the locals too - old Merc W123 estate full of Brits that went to the only diesel pump in the station!

Pre the City Diesel days, UK diesel was slightly nasty when I had my 306 in the late 90s, but not a patch on the American stuff. Texaco used to be great for leaving clouds of black smoke :D
 
I use V power diesel all the time in my car, not because i'm under any illusion it's more powerful but because for the extra cost I don't mind paying if it might keep the engine in better condition. The only comparison I can make is that when I was trying BP ultimate diesel it really changed the way my car drove, the auto gearbox seemed to always be changing gear with the slightest throttle change. Whereas with V-power the gearbox didn't need to change down as much.
 
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