Shell diesel vs supermarket diesel

[dom63]

Has anyone been using the v power diesel in their Leon and noticed a difference?

Used to use supermarket diesel with a shot of redex diesel in every tank, have changed to shell standard diesel with a shot of Millers ecomax diesel additive - which has definitely helped. MPG is about +5 more than it used to be, and the engine feels smoother (2.0 TDI 150PS with a stage one chip)

Would v-power diesel make a difference too? A tank full before hasn’t made any noticeable difference.

 

[Mr Pig]

I looked into this years ago. With diesel, the base fuel is the same across the board. The difference is that with the more expensive stuff you get better additive packs which help keep your engine healthy long term.

One guy ran his Transit on Asda diesel and had been getting issues for years. He switched to branded fuel and they all went away!

 

[ZK_FR150]

When I had my BMW diesel I could notice the difference straight away from using supermarket fuel and Shell, the engine would rattle more and it would be less smoother on the supermarket fuel.
When I got some Shell in it then it would quieten down and drive better.

When I got my Leon I've only ever used Shell in it.
I've used V-power in it as well occasionally but the difference isn't as noticeable for me.

 

[RADIOTWO]

I think its a big con, I used to have a (well about 5) Merc Sprinter van and ran it on what ever I could, all the supermarket
stations and never had any problems, as it was my own complany I needed to keep the costs down but no problems with
performance, and was getting 40+ MPH

 

[Shaady]

I ran mine on Asda diesel for a little while as it was so so cheap at the time compared to even the normal shell stuff and it was horrible, used way more fuel and was doing DPF regens all the time.

Switched to the normal shell stuff and its miles better, more MPG and fewer regens. I sit on motorway 90% of the time with the cruise on so personally dont see the need to use V Power

 

[BigJase88]

It won't make a difference in an old diesel jalopy, in a petrol that is designed to run better on 98 RON than standard 95 RON then it makes sense. On a donkey won't make any difference. Think they call it snake oil

 

[Joshua Oakes]

So I’m currently doing an experiment, using the different mode (DSG 184) and using shell/bp normal fuel with and without adding millers.

I do the same journey weekly 370 mile up north and 370 mile back to work down south. So been filling up before the journey and after and manually calculating the MPG.

So far the worst combo I’ve had is Eco mode and Millers. Based off of 4 trips, however I will try this again to be certain, the best I’ve got is normal mode (surprisingly) and no additive, just the standard fuel. Purely from a calculated MPG point of view, whether it’s better for the engine or not I’m not sure.

I’ve done the calculation by getting the average of 4 trips, 2 Northbound and 2 Southbound of all my calculated MPGs.

 

[KXL]

When I had the 2.0TDI DSG, I normally use every diesel that was not supermarket, usually Shell and Esso, but sometimes Texaco and BP. The sales person who sold me the car said, it would be in the best interest of the engine to use good diesel not from supermarkets. One day I decided to use £10 worth of supermarket diesel. I tested it on my normal Sunday 830am trip from east to west London, hardly any traffic, and I would always pick up a friend on the way. Now my friend didn't know what fuel was in the car, but he commented, 'what's with your car, sounds a bit grumpy today!' The one time i put supermarket diesel he notices! also usually I would do 'from start' 48-51 mpg low traffic city drive with a short 40 mph zone. Done this same trip for every Sunday for almost 2 years, worst every 48, and best ever 51mpg. With the supermarket diesel, 45mpg!

 

[black_sheep]

In the interests of balance, when working in the product development department for a global diesel engine manufacturer, we used to put Sainsbury’s diesel into all of the vehicles we provided to the press, as the engines had better performance and economy on the low sulphur diesel.

In my experience the V-Power Nitro fuel has a smoother power delivery, with less knock, but no significant mpg/performance gains, especially when you look at in terms of £/mile.

As a rule of thumb, Esso fuels have good lubricating properties, whereas Shell has good cleaning additives.

The V-Power Nitro diesels have a higher cetane rating than standard diesel fuel (similar to octane figures); a higher cetane fuel combusts more quickly which means that detonation prior to the piston reaching top dead centre can be more easily controlled, hence the smoother operation.

In addition, from the bench strip downs performed, engines run with fuel additives had a tendency to gum up the injector nozzles. This reduced the effectiveness of the fuel atomisation, which would be corrected by the ECU, thus resulting in a drop in performance despite what the marketing would indicate.

 

[BigJase88]

In the interests of balance, when working in the product development department for a global diesel engine manufacturer, we used to put Sainsbury’s diesel into all of the vehicles we provided to the press, as the engines had better performance and economy on the low sulphur diesel.

In my experience the V-Power Nitro fuel has a smoother power delivery, with less knock, but no significant mpg/performance gains, especially when you look at in terms of £/mile.

As a rule of thumb, Esso fuels have good lubricating properties, whereas Shell has good cleaning additives.

The V-Power Nitro diesels have a higher cetane rating than standard diesel fuel (similar to octane figures); a higher cetane fuel combusts more quickly which means that detonation prior to the piston reaching top dead centre can be more easily controlled, hence the smoother operation.

In addition, from the bench strip downs performed, engines run with fuel additives had a tendency to gum up the injector nozzles. This reduced the effectiveness of the fuel atomisation, which would be corrected by the ECU, thus resulting in a drop in performance despite what the marketing would indicate.

So basically put the cheapest stuff in (diesel)

 

[Mr Pig]

In addition, from the bench strip downs performed, engines run with fuel additives had a tendency to gum up the injector nozzles.

So the 'better' fuels gummed up the nozzles? I thought the cleaners in the fuel was supposed to help prevent that?

 

[black_sheep]

So the 'better' fuels gummed up the nozzles? I thought the cleaners in the fuel was supposed to help prevent that?

No, the fuel additives that you add-in to the tank from a bottle cause this.

 

[black_sheep]

So basically put the cheapest stuff in (diesel)

Put whatever brand of fuel works best for your vehicle.

All fuel in UK/EU has to perform to certain standards. The cost of supermarket fuel is not proportional to quality, i.e. supermarket fuel is generally cheaper because of:

i) the bulk in which it’s bought;
ii) the supermarkets generally don’t have the advertising and marketing overheads for fuel vs major brands; and,
iii) supermarkets use cheap fuel as a loss leader which is recovered at the till when you complete you weekly shop!

 

[Mr Pig]

No, the fuel additives that you add-in to the tank from a bottle cause this.

Got you. Don't you think the factory additives in branded fuels are worth having then?

 

[AndrewJB]

For everyday TDI's no. If your running highly tuned TDI's then yes, but were talking big turbo ones.

I have always run Shell Fuelsave in mine and occasionally a bottle of booster/cleaner. Only reason for Shell is its the nearest garage.

 

[SRGTD]

I owned 3 diesel VW Golfs from 2002 to 2016 (a 2002 mk4 1.9 150 bhp, a 2007 mk5 2.0 170 bhp and a 2011 mk6 170 bhp). I almost always used supermarket diesel - predominantly Tesco diesel. I never experienced any issues, nor did I notice a difference in terms of fuel economy or engine refinement if I occasionally treated them to few tankfuls of more expensive branded fuel instead.

 

[Mr Pig]

For everyday TDI's no. If your running highly tuned TDI's then yes, but were talking big turbo ones.

My attitude is that I want our cars to be as reliable and trouble free as possible. I don't mind paying a bit extra for that, just as I pay more to have good tyres so that I have confidence I the grip I'm going to get.

Maybe Asda fuel would make little difference to the car but if there was an issue caused by it you're only going to know about it when it's too late. How many people have changed injectors etc but never made the connection that it might have been avoided if they'd used better fuel?

Our last car was sold at 75K miles and it ran sweet and smooth its whole life. I don't know if that was because I only put branded fuel in it of if it would've ran that way regardless. Am I going to run cheap fuel in the new car to find out? No.

Some of you may remember the silicone contamination scandal years ago with Asda fuel? They don't use dedicated tankers and the one used to get their fuel had just been used to transport silicone and had not been washed out properly! So a hundred or so drivers got fuel with silicone in it. Which melted onto their O2 sensors and cost them hundreds! Took ages to make the connection and figure out what had happened. Some of the drivers got compensation but not all. I'm sure some of them had no idea why their car had gone kabluey.

Ok, so unlikely that's going to happen to you but it gives you an idea of the standards at work. There are many reasons Asda fuel is cheap and some of them are reasons for not using it.

 

[KXL]

Forgot to add that when I had my Leon TDI, my flatmate had a Clio Dci 1.5. That always drank supermarket diesel. After my pestering of her to try Vpower (she said it's soo expensive) diesel for 2-3 tankful, she gave in so I would shut up. As her journies to and from work are near identical 30+ miles roundtrip everyday. A full tank before it goes to the red needed X number of miles before it would go red. Usually this would be within 10 miles from each fill before it goes red everytime. 1st tank of Vpower, it went about 20 miles more before red light, and 2nd tank it added almost 50 miles more on a tank. 3rd tank, it didn't add anymore. Now she runs Vpower exclusively as it was cheaper...I suspect the cleaning agents after 3 tanks did their magic and made the engine more efficient, or rather restored the efficiency. However I would never know if the Clio would get + 50ish miles on any diesel (even supermarket) thereafter.

 

[martin j.]

I remember told that in the case of petrol supermarket fuel would the stated Ron and no more where as Shell etc would hit the Ron figure as a minimum, so supermarket fuel was kept cheaper doing only as much as required ,it did what it said at the pump maximum.
Don’t know if cetane ratings in diesel would be the same?

 

[Mr Pig]

Don’t know if cetane ratings in diesel would be the same?

From what I understand it is. Only the additives differ.