Supermarket Fuels.

[realscot]

So about 2 months ago ASDA opened up a new store with a petrol station, previously there were just 2 filling stations in town, BP and Shell. Obviously asda fuel is cheaper than the other 2 as they have pretty much the same price nationally where as to haul fuel north of aberdeen costs 5p/litre more on purchase price meaning that asda are selling fuel cheaper than the other local garages can buy it for. This obviously means that most people pretty much abandoned the big names and flocked to the pumps at the supermarket.
Now I work for the biggest independant garage in town and I thought i'd share this little bit of info with you.
Since the opening of ASDA we have noticed a significant increase in cars coming in with engine faults, in particular missfires. Most turn out to be injector related on both petrol and diesel cars.
Granted you'd expect that these things would go wrong more as engines get more complicated but the boss was having a look over the figures this week and in the last month (september) we had 54 cars in with injector/fuel system problems or cat/dpf issues. Looking back pre opening of asda over the last year, the average per month is around 15-20 cars with similar problems.

coincidence?

 

[paradigm]

I'd like to say it was coincidence, as in theory the fuels should be sourced from the same refineries I believe, with the only real difference being the additives in the fuel.

It is one heck of a coincidence though!

Since buying the A4 I've only run the cheapest diesel around (usually Sainsbury's), and I've not had a problem... yet.

 

[d_brennen]

Supermarkets water their fuels down with unicorn blood, which is actually beneficial to diesel lumps. Ever seen a turbo diesel Golf driver hooning about in his tractor like it's some kind of sports car? That's the unicorn blood effect.

 

[Sasso]

Supermarkets water their fuels down with unicorn blood, which is actually beneficial to diesel lumps. Ever seen a turbo diesel Golf driver hooning about in his tractor like it's some kind of sports car? That's the unicorn blood effect.

ahhh so that's what makes my kia rio feel like a veyron....was wondering

 

[ci_newman]

Cat / dpf issues can't be caused by poor fuel

 

[Gambisk]

I know that there is a lot of rumours surrounding super market fuel and its quality but from my experience I gain an extra 40-50 miles from a tank full of standard diesel BP vs Tesco. If I go to BP ultimate diesel I get another 20-30 miles but I'm happy enough with the regular.

My wife also noticed a similar gain in mpg from her little C1, so I am more than happy to pay the extra £2 a tank to go further and rest happy that these boys have been doing it for decades and have the best engineers researching the additives etc. Plus the Spar in the BP station has lots of tasty sweets for sale compared to the sparse tesco shop XD

 

[acemastr]

I know that there is a lot of rumours surrounding super market fuel and its quality but from my experience I gain an extra 40-50 miles from a tank full of standard diesel BP vs Tesco. If I go to BP ultimate diesel I get another 20-30 miles but I'm happy enough with the regular.

My wife also noticed a similar gain in mpg from her little C1, so I am more than happy to pay the extra £2 a tank to go further and rest happy that these boys have been doing it for decades and have the best engineers researching the additives etc. Plus the Spar in the BP station has lots of tasty sweets for sale compared to the sparse tesco shop XD

40-50 miles? so 10% (20% for me) gain from using fuel that comes from the same place?

Have you been tracking this or roughly guessing?

Sounds a bit too good to believe.

 

[realscot]

Cat / dpf issues can't be caused by poor fuel

But missfires / unburnt fuel will damage the cat, and i'm sure the extra soot etc from unburnt diesel won't help a dpf.

40-50 miles? so 10% (20% for me) gain from using fuel that comes from the same place?

Have you been tracking this or roughly guessing?

Sounds a bit too good to believe.

When I had the passat, shell diesel used to raise my average by around 2mpg over even BP fuel, and I only used that car for the same commute daily, yet I consistantly saw the average rise or fall depending where I filled up.

 

[Gambisk]

I haven't been keeping religious tracking on my mileage I have better things to do, but with Tesco fuel I would normally be arround 390-400 miles on the odo when the low fuel light came on. Now with the BP fuel I would be looking at 430-440 before the low fuel light comes on. That's with mainly commuting journeys If I head off for the weekend on a long run with bikes on the back I can easily get 500+ from a tank of BP, cant remember what I got with Tesco.

I might add that both the Tesco and BP stations are on my route to work so I don't have to go 10 miles out of my way to get to one or the other.

 

[Django x2]

Cat / dpf issues can't be caused by poor fuel

Err....back to basics for you then

I consistently get 50 miles more out of a Shell tank than the local Sainsburys, which is fine, because the local Shell is the same price (currently 136.9 for diesel)

 

[Howard]

In my car, I can't tell the damndest bit of difference between using fuel from Shell, Tesco, Sainsbury's or anywhere.

 

[geekman]

In my car, I can't tell the damndest bit of difference between using fuel from Shell, Tesco, Sainsbury's or anywhere.

Likewise - I tend to fill up with Shell fuel when I'm at uni and Morrisons / Asda when I'm at home and I've noticed no difference at all. Have tried it with a variety of cars as well....

 

[Dogbreath]

coincidence?

Probably lazy arsed people driving 0.5 miles to the new Asda and back on a regular basis are contributing to their own cars demise.

 

[bad_ass_neil]

there is no difference in my integra and i keep a track of fuel tank to tank. The only thing that makes a difference is how much motorway driving i do.

i only fill it with super though.

 

[swiftmetal]

Could it not be the increase in cars coming from far and wide to go there that has actually just increased the people who use your gararge so these problems seem to be worse when it is just a pick up in business.

 

[West]

Ran my DS3 on Diesel from Tesco since i've had it. Never had a problem..

 

[stoofa]

My current Octy vRS gets "Tesco Momentum" 99 as did the one previous.
Cannot say I've ever had any issue at all - expected performance/MPG etc.

The only time I've had an issue with supermarket fuel was when Tesco had an issue about 5-6 years back when some petrol became contaminated with diesel.
My Peugeot at the time had a hell of a time and wouldn't hardly run - well it ran enough to get me back from work that day and then to my local garage for repairs.
Tesco of course coughed up for all the repairs and refunded the cost of the fuel etc. But that was a one-off many years ago and it didn't put me off continuing to use them.

 

[Conscript]

I've used a variety of fuels in my old car, both supermarket and branded, and have never, ever been able to distinguish anything between them other than price.

 

[Dis86]

I kept track of fuel in my alfa when i had it.

Standard 95 ron from supermarkets (Asda/Sainsburys) would get me about 28mpg. From Shell would return 30mpg.

97 ron from Shell used to give me 33.2mpg and a much smoother better performing enginer.

No brainer really.

 

[Amos91]

I kept track of fuel in my alfa when i had it.

Standard 95 ron from supermarkets (Asda/Sainsburys) would get me about 28mpg. From Shell would return 30mpg.

97 ron from Shell used to give me 33.2mpg and a much smoother better performing enginer.

No brainer really.

Yep. Thats why in 16k miles I've only filled up with 95 ron three times and that was only because there wasn't a Shell nearby!