Supermarket fuels
- Thread starter shifty_uk
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Soldato
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Not a car, but a motorcycle.
I have used Shell v-power +nitro 99.9% of the time for the past 8,000+ miles.
Run an ignition advancer on the bike so needed the higher octane.
only times I haven't used shell v-power have been when I needed to fill up and no shell station near me.
The more miles I did the better the bike ran and the MPG also got better.
Before changing to Shell, I just used whatever was near me at the time, my MPG was always between 53-57, its now in the 60-66 mpg range when riding normally, I will dip in the high 50s if I'm giving it some lol .
it didn't happen with the first few tankful's, it was a slow accumulative affect as the miles clocked up and it slowly cleaned the engine out.
On a bike the extra cost is minimal, per tank really, cars it does hit the wallet more.
I have read posts where people say once a month or every few months I run a tank of v-power to clean the engine, well it doesn't work like that, you need to use it all the time to get the cleaning benefit .
I have used Shell v-power +nitro 99.9% of the time for the past 8,000+ miles.
Run an ignition advancer on the bike so needed the higher octane.
only times I haven't used shell v-power have been when I needed to fill up and no shell station near me.
The more miles I did the better the bike ran and the MPG also got better.
Before changing to Shell, I just used whatever was near me at the time, my MPG was always between 53-57, its now in the 60-66 mpg range when riding normally, I will dip in the high 50s if I'm giving it some lol .
it didn't happen with the first few tankful's, it was a slow accumulative affect as the miles clocked up and it slowly cleaned the engine out.
On a bike the extra cost is minimal, per tank really, cars it does hit the wallet more.
I have read posts where people say once a month or every few months I run a tank of v-power to clean the engine, well it doesn't work like that, you need to use it all the time to get the cleaning benefit .
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Soldato
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It's probably one of your injectors starting to fail, a fairly common issue on the newer 2l engines, my sister has had three replaced. In colder weather the engine started to develop misfires at idle which made the engine vibrate slightly raising the revs slightly would stop this before it progressed to misfires under load.
If you have access to VCDS you can log the misfire counters on each cylinder to find out which one is causing the issue. To rule out the coil pack & spark plugs you can swap them with another cylinder. Her three failed over the course of a couple of years.
Interestingly the Audi dealer told her to avoid super market fuel as they advised the majority of injector failures were on cars that used these fuels. I took it with a pince of salt as this could simply be due to more customers using super market fuel than branded fuel.
If you have access to VCDS you can log the misfire counters on each cylinder to find out which one is causing the issue. To rule out the coil pack & spark plugs you can swap them with another cylinder. Her three failed over the course of a couple of years.
Interestingly the Audi dealer told her to avoid super market fuel as they advised the majority of injector failures were on cars that used these fuels. I took it with a pince of salt as this could simply be due to more customers using super market fuel than branded fuel.
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Same Ron rating, base fuel, additives make sod all difference.
Noted.
With regards to the VCDS logging, is this something you have to set the car up for? As I've had the car scanned on multiple occasions now and nothing suspicious has been logged and no faults occur regardless of driving conditions.
No you don't
However generic code readers won't show up everything - have you actually had it scanned with a proper VCDS system?
Mine had a few codes logged when scanned by VCDS but no EML (they were minor or cleared things) and my generic OBD reader picked up nothing
However generic code readers won't show up everything - have you actually had it scanned with a proper VCDS system?
Mine had a few codes logged when scanned by VCDS but no EML (they were minor or cleared things) and my generic OBD reader picked up nothing
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
All of these cars are sold in California, the most litigious state ever, where the best fuel is 91 (our 95).
I run Vpower or Tesco 99 for my Saab engine nearly all of the time. The rare occasion I put supermarket fuel in, I notice no difference at all. The only difference I do notice is from an LED I have in the dash which flashed when the ECU detects knock. I get a lot more on regular fuel than I do on Vpower, but I'm running a fair bit of power and high boost pressure on a 2.0 engine so knock is a lot easier to come by! On a run of the mill car, it can have whatever in it.
I've read everything about supermarket fuels vs 'branded' stations, and it's all meant to be the same (minus the unique additives for each brand).
My own experience is that Morrisons and Tesco fuel never gives me good MPG - and I stopped using it altogether after one Morrisons fill up where I used half a tank on 130 miles (it's a regular route for me, should have only used a quarter tank).
I now stick to a branded petrol station, or Sainsburys - my car seems not to mind the fuel they use.
I do get better performance out of the 'performance' fuels from BP and Shell - run a full tank through the engine every now and then. I do get better MPG, but not enough to justify the cost.
My own experience is that Morrisons and Tesco fuel never gives me good MPG - and I stopped using it altogether after one Morrisons fill up where I used half a tank on 130 miles (it's a regular route for me, should have only used a quarter tank).
I now stick to a branded petrol station, or Sainsburys - my car seems not to mind the fuel they use.
I do get better performance out of the 'performance' fuels from BP and Shell - run a full tank through the engine every now and then. I do get better MPG, but not enough to justify the cost.
Proper VCDS system.
Soldato
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You just need the software and cable connect to the engine ECU and use the advanced measure values option, with the initial misfires at idle no fault codes were recorded you could only see the misfires if you started monitoring the misfire counters on each cylinder. Once it started miss firing under load it generated fault codes and turned on the EML.
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You can't tease a gentleman's sausage like that then simply run away. You'll get a reputation amongst the boys. Dish up or step out...
Supermarket fuel usually comes from the cheapest supplier at the time and they will mix fuel from different suppliers. The branded names use a regular supplier and do not mix fuel...
The base fuel is the same depending on supplier. It's what additives are added by the company's that make it different. There are big discussions on how good or bad these are but it's generally better to run a branded fuel with additives like Shell, BP or Esso if you drive a diesel with a DPF filter.
The base fuel is the same depending on supplier. It's what additives are added by the company's that make it different. There are big discussions on how good or bad these are but it's generally better to run a branded fuel with additives like Shell, BP or Esso if you drive a diesel with a DPF filter.
Caporegime
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Where is the evidence these additives make a difference?
Dundee has it.
I generally avoid Asda fuel if I can. I find I always get marginally worse fuel economy from their fuel. But I also find I get as good fuel economy from Morrisons as I do Shell.
As far as higher octane fuel goes, Tesco Momentum often has as good a rap as Shell V-Power Nitro + or whatever it's called today. So I wouldn't worry about sticking that in if you can't get to a Shell.
I remember calculating it out a while back that you needed to get an extra ~27 miles in a tank (based on a 60 litre tank) in order to get back the extra cost of the VPower. Whether that is still the case or not, I don't know. But that only takes account of the extra pence per mile, and doesn't take any account of any possible other benefits you may get from using the higher grade fuel.
It's never misfired then - those engines will log misfire counts.
Just checked the manual of my '07 A3 2.0TFSI, it states 98 RON or 95 RON* (* With slight reduction in power).
Mostly run mine on 95 RON Tesco or Esso fuel (although tend to use a few tanks of Super or Momentum 99 if I know I will be doing some longer journeys)
Mostly run mine on 95 RON Tesco or Esso fuel (although tend to use a few tanks of Super or Momentum 99 if I know I will be doing some longer journeys)
I don't get people who use Super occasionally. Either your engine benefits from it, in which case run it 100% of the time, or it doesn't, in which case do not waste your money.
What is the practical purpose behind using it for certain journeys? At many places its only 5p a litre more.
What is the practical purpose behind using it for certain journeys? At many places its only 5p a litre more.
[TW]Fox;28852357 said:
On longer journeys e.g. the rare occasions when I am doing 100 miles+ then the extra mpg (and no reduced performance) is of benefit. The rest of the time my journeys are short (between 5 and 20 miles) and there is very little benefit to be had - therefore the money saved is better off in my pocket.