fuel and fuel consumption

Soldato
Joined
13 Mar 2004
Posts
16,649
something just occurred to me. over the last couple weeks i had assumed that the golf was ill due to my tweaking as it was only managing MPG in the low 20s.

since the weekend ive been feeling chirpier as the average is back to 33-34 ish again. i thought that id changed something else and made it all work again.

thinking back, i changed from Tesco SuperUnleaded to BP Ultimate. with the Ultimate it doesnt seem to run any different, but the fuel guage doesnt seem to constantly be in free fall lol

is it possible a fuel could make this difference? how does your motor react?
 
Nobody else believes me about different fuel but two weeks ago i filled up with Morrisons unleaded when i next filled up i used bp normal unleaded, the car took 37litres and that was for 262 miles. Im currently at around about 280 miles and the guage is well above where it was when i filled. Plus im pretty sure that the car runs rougher on Morrisons fuel.

Car is a 98 Rover 416
 
I find this toooooo...

Thought I was going mad!

When I fill up at Asda (24hr pay at pump thinngy) I probly get 200 miles for half a tank (which is when I always fill up!!) but if I go to Texaco/BP/Shell I get maby 230-250 for half a tank!... :confused:

Do Supermarkets Water it sown of summut??... (Ooo Contravercial Question!! :D )

I've got a 2002 1.4 Civic Vision.
 
Simian said:
When I fill up at Asda (24hr pay at pump thinngy) I probly get 200 miles for half a tank (which is when I always fill up!!) but if I go to Texaco/BP/Shell I get maby 230-250 for half a tank!... :confused:

Are you sure? 50 extra miles?

I'm sure the fuel quality isn't that different.
 
Ultimate always delivers better mileage in my MK5 GTI compared to Optimax (which always delivers better performance).
 
I've noticed this too...

A tank of petrol from Asda seems to get me no more than 360 miles, whereas if I fill up from the Shell garage I get 400 miles. The Asda pump does say that it includes a detergent. Needless to say, I won't be using Asda again.

This is over many fill-ups not just one off observations.

It is not because I drive differently when I've filled up at Asda either. My car was filled up by someone else at a Shell garage (without me knowing if it was Asda or Shell) and the same occurred.
 
chino said:
The Asda pump does say that it includes a detergent.

All good fuels should have a detergent in them. I can remember having a conversation with someone at a car club meeting probably 10 years ago and he was saying that he didn't like his wife filling up at the superstore because the fuel didn't have any detergent in it.
Detergents in fuel help to keep the injectors clean and promote a better spray pattern.
As for the more miles per gallon, Its quite possible that supermarket fuel isnt as good. You could always add a little octane booster to the supermarket stuff and see if it makes a difference.
 
I had to force Asda fuel down the neck of my car in an emergency last week, usually it's always Optimax. It knocked a good 30 or 40 miles off the range; even though that tank was pretty much all motorway miles.

If I was boring I'd sit down and work out the price difference with Optimax compared to it's increased range.. but I really can't be bothered ;)
 
When I use normal fuel in my firebreathing, super specialise 2.0 bog standard car, I get 15mpg and it does 0-60 in 15 seconds.

However, BP Ultimate really does work! It changes the car so much, I can now do 60mpg around town and the performance difference is so huge I actually WON the last round of the Touring Car championship in it.
 
[TW]Fox said:
When I use normal fuel in my firebreathing, super specialise 2.0 bog standard car, I get 15mpg and it does 0-60 in 15 seconds.

However, BP Ultimate really does work! It changes the car so much, I can now do 60mpg around town and the performance difference is so huge I actually WON the last round of the Touring Car championship in it.

And your point is...?
 
[TW]Fox said:
When I use normal fuel in my firebreathing, super specialise 2.0 bog standard car, I get 15mpg and it does 0-60 in 15 seconds.

However, BP Ultimate really does work! It changes the car so much, I can now do 60mpg around town and the performance difference is so huge I actually WON the last round of the Touring Car championship in it.

Cool
 
[TW]Fox said:
When I use normal fuel in my firebreathing, super specialise 2.0 bog standard car, I get 15mpg and it does 0-60 in 15 seconds.

However, BP Ultimate really does work! It changes the car so much, I can now do 60mpg around town and the performance difference is so huge I actually WON the last round of the Touring Car championship in it.

LOL :D.
 
sinister_stu said:
And your point is...?

Probably that these fuels have been tested time and time again and shown to make squat didly difference on everyday no turbo'd cars. Make a mild almost unnoticeable difference on your average hot hatch and makes a very small but noticeable difference on a true sports car.

But still people like to believe they are some UBER fuel.. it's all in yer head me son.
 
[TW]Fox said:
When I use normal fuel in my firebreathing, super specialise 2.0 bog standard car, I get 15mpg and it does 0-60 in 15 seconds.

However, BP Ultimate really does work! It changes the car so much, I can now do 60mpg around town and the performance difference is so huge I actually WON the last round of the Touring Car championship in it.

Be sensible, last toca championship was won by the guy with the screw mod.
 
sinister_stu said:
And your point is...?

That it makes nowhere near the quoted differences on regular cars and is only really any use for things like turbocharged petrol engines and imported Japanese cars. Any difference noticed is usually pshycological, as the buyer tries hard to convince themselves they've not wasted extra money on useless fuel, down to something else anyway, or due to the fact that they are a subconciously driving with a little more economy in mind since thinking about what sort of difference they'd get after buying BP Ultimate.

If it makes you feel happy to think BP Ultimate is some sort of super lightening fuel for your 1.2 Corsas, 2.0 Golfs and what have you, then go ahead, but it almost certainly isn't.

People like Drexel etc will probably notice proper gains. Those of us with regular engines from European manufacturers almost certainly will not. All independant testing done so far tends to suggest this is true also.

I mean honestly, 10+ mpg improvement simply from changing fuel on a normally aspirated VW engine? I don't buy that, sorry.
 
There were 2 Saabs in the BP stand at Le mans, the one on ultimate made 10-15hp more than the normal unleaded one.
 
Also, on topic.

I can't tell the difference. However, this is because I siphon it out of other peoples tanks, so i've no idea where they bought it.
 
throttle response is better on my bike with the "ultimate" type brand fuels, cant say ive noticed mpg. and no it isnt pshycological.
 
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