Just out of curiousity... my cold starting issues seems to have been resolved, by switching fuel providers!

Very bizzare; been using Shell VPower Diesel since i got the car; always stuggled when its <4 deg... had to fill up with BP Ultimate yesterday (no Shell garage for miles)...

was 2 deg this morning, started on first click.....

no idea if this is a contributing factor (as there could be hundreds of possiblities) but just wondered if people were using Shell VPower......?

I think you need to add another few groups.

Shell Derv Extra,

Shell Normal

BP normal

Taxaco Normal

Other large brand

Tesco

Sainsbury

Asda

Morrison

I've found the posh fuels make no difference at all.

Mostly Total, Esso and supermarket brands round here and my routes in rural Derbyshire. Shell and BP are not handy for me and seem to be very expensive. No starting problems and mpg fluctuates regardless of fuel used.

Edited 1 March, 201016 yr by gregoir

I use V Power Derv - would never switch!

The car smokes less, I get about 3MPG more but most importantly, the car drives so much better! I found that with normal supermarket fuels, the car 'chugs' more and the engine just doesn't feel the same. However, I never get any probs with cold starts - first time, every time

Andy

Is there a link between those with bad cold starting and high oil consumption? I'm just thinking about the compression factor on diesels.

I use bp ultimate diesel in my vrs no cold starting problems i get 2-3 MPG more and the car drives better.

I have used taxaco normal diesel and bp normal diesel but bp ultimate is best.

rob

Just filled up with Sainsbury CityDiesel for the first time. Got 5p off for spending lots of money on wine.

Noted a steady 38mpg on the flat at 50mph today and 19mpg going up the Taddington bypass at 70mph. But surprisingly 46mpg overall by the time I'd got up to Buxton. The best achieved recently in that direction.

Edited 2 March, 201016 yr by gregoir

I know it's not strictly useful for derv but on Sports bikes I had to run premium fuel over the winter as otherwise they were harder to start and used to back fire (we're not talking small and quiet here) at 6am. First time I didn't use premium and it was cold I nearly **** myself, after that I always kept some PRO FST just in case my local filling stations ran out of the good stuff as seems to happen round here, it also solved the problem. Also remember that the fuel providers tend to vary the fuel composition slightly over winter to allow for cold weather, Shell may have switched back where as BP hasn't or Shell's slow to shift enough of the good stuff to have had enough batches of cold running derv for you to get the benefit ?

I use V Power Derv - would never switch!

The car smokes less, I get about 3MPG more but most importantly, the car drives so much better! I found that with normal supermarket fuels, the car 'chugs' more and the engine just doesn't feel the same. However, I never get any probs with cold starts - first time, every time

Andy

Just filled up with Sainsbury CityDiesel for the first time. Got 5p off for spending lots of money on wine.

Noted a steady 38mpg on the flat at 50mph today and 19mpg going up the Taddington bypass at 70mph. But surprisingly 46mpg overall by the time I'd got up to Buxton. The best achieved recently in that direction.

I normally fill up on Sainsbury's or the normal Shell diesel and haven't noticed the car chugging or anything like that but it's only got just over 4200 miles on the clock, but I've never used the "premium" diesels in any of my past cars either and never had any issues. I might try a few tankfuls of V-Power and see if I notice any difference, but at 6p a litre more expensive it'll have to be something special to make me keep using it.

19mpg @ 70 mph? Were you in third gear or something??

Edited 2 March, 201016 yr by Raglits