Cheap Supermarket Diesel

[studmuffin]

Could be opening a can of worms up here, but here goes anyway!

Having a few problems with my vrs at the moment, with various warnings lights, the latest one is a fault with the exhaust pressure sensor, which hopefully skoda will replace under, 'goodwill'

Anyway, i have also spoken to a vw/audi/skoda specialist, and they said some of the problems could be related to what sort/type/grade of fuel that i am putting in the car. was told to generally to avoid 'supermarket fuel' because its basically the 'dregs' of the fuel left from over the big boys, like bp, shell, etc. etc, and they then sell it cheap to the supermarkets.

I always fill up at Morrison’s, { don’t whether that is bp or what}, about 5 years ago i had a tdi mondeo and always used to fill up at Sainsbury’s, but on the odd occasion i would fill up elsewhere, and when i did, the car always did less mpg to the gallon. the guy i spoke to this morning, said that different brands of fuel can also make a big difference to your average mpg's, he also recommended to use shell, it might be dearer, but he also said that it would cause fewer problems, like dpfs, etc.

So my question is, to you guys with diesels, where do you fill up, have you had any problems, that could be, related to the brand of fuel that you use, and has anyone noticed differant mpgs when they use differant brands of fuel ?

Edited 24 January, 2011 by studmuffin

[octaviaconvert]

Only use sainsburys, shell or BP, have no problems.

On the one occassion I used tesco, the car ran rougher than I felt the day after my brothers wedding until I'd flushed at least half a tank of shell diesel through

[ardandy]

I've used everything with mine, from super derv to ASDA and felt no difference.

[ap0gee1978]

Supermarket fuel isn't dregs; just fuel from whichever refinery is closest, minus the additive packs that the big names put in. FWIW, I try to use Shell, and put Millers in when I fill up at the supermarket. It certainly helps with the smoke compared to before it was remapped (and was run on plain supermarket DERV), which is probably an indication of the good that the injector cleaning compounds are doing. Plus having a PD engine, I don't like the thought of lower lubricity.

OTOH, I certainly never experienced sensor issues and have only noticed marked differences in MPG when using VPower diesel (due to it being semi-synthetic and therefore less dense...)

[JJBS3]

My girlfriend was one of the victims of the bad batch of tesco fuel a few years back (was on the news, loads of cars affected all around the UK)...resulting in a huge bill related directly to the catalytic fines in the diesel grinding the fuel pump bores and injectors. Although, she had used the same garage for most fill ups for a few years without issue.

Personally I find the car is smoothest on BP diesel, and my other car is best on Shell V Power petrol, so always try and find the corresponding station. (Motorbikes generally get fed with BP too)

[cheezemonkhai]

Could be opening a can of worms up here, but here goes anyway!

.....

So my question is, to you guys with diesels, where do you fill up, have you had any problems, that could be, related to the brand of fuel that you use, and has anyone noticed differant mpgs when they use differant brands of fuel ?

No, it's BS EN590 and works just like other derv.

[Coops]

Although it's not a vRS, I had problems at first with my 1.9 TDi and supermarket fuel. We're on a fuel card system at work and the easiest place to fill up at is Morrisons. Started doing this from day 1 and for about the first 12 months, my car had, what I would call, a slight hesitation around 2,000 to 2,500 rpm. At the first service I questioned this with the service department who reckoned it could be something to do with the fuel, again as someone has already said, supermarket fuel is standard fuel without the additives. Technician said it often happens with supermarket fuel and that I should try to fill up with branded diesel for a bit to see if it clears it.

After a while this hesitation did clear, not sure when it was - possibly around 25,000 miles

[M12MKD]

Both mine (Fabia and Octavia) only run on Shell diesel and have done as long as I've owned then (when/where possible).

If I cant get shell I will put in enough to get me to the next shell station. Fabia runs smoother on shell/BP but I've found drinks slightly more BP than shell.

Fabia is remapped and on nearly 101k and the Octavia is coming up to 9k either have any issues

[Lou_O]

Since when was supermarket fuel cheap?

Round here it costs exactly the same as the fuel from the fuel retailers.

[Lou_O]

Since when was supermarket fuel cheap?

Round here it costs exactly the same as the fuel from the fuel retailers.

[M12MKD]

Since when was supermarket fuel cheap?

Round here it costs exactly the same as the fuel from the fuel retailers.

agree, shell around my way is also usually cheaper!

[silver1011]

Could be opening a can of worms up here.

Yes you are!

I've read with interest the many, many similar threads and have come to my own conclusion that there isn't a jot of difference.

Until I see hard facts to the contrary I'll continue to fill up wherever is cheapest!

[studmuffin]

Yes you are!

I've read with interest the many, many similar threads and have come to my own conclusion that there isn't a jot of difference.

Until I see hard facts to the contrary I'll continue to fill up wherever is cheapest!

yeah thought so ! loads of info on the subject....

don't whether if the additive packs may make a differance to the the engine, just wondering where to fill up now....

was getting used to those morrisons vouchers !

Edited 24 January, 2011 by studmuffin

[mannyo]

My superb is run exclusively on diesel from Tesco, since down here its either that or pay nearly £1.40 for standard diesel from Esso. Blandford has the priviledge of having just 2 filling stations, Tesco and the expensive Esso. Not had any issues, diesel is diesel as long as it meets the requirements of the BS-EN then the car will run fine on it.

[vrsadz]

used morrisons in my furby vrs when i first got it and it was rubbish no boost at all really felt like car lost most of its power, i use shell diesel now and thats far better for performance and economy

[wid cg vrs]

have used tescos for the last 7 yrs on my past and present octavias and never had any problems.

[andyvee]

I use Shell standard 90% of the time. Occasional tank of Asda, but can't tell any difference when I do.

Used V-Power a couple of times, and the only difference I noticed was the price!

[PSM]

Used Tesco diesel on my old PD VRs and using Tesco diesel on my current CR VRS with no issues what so ever.

To the person with the hesitation could it have bot better as the engine run in (PD engines do need a fair bit of running in to get the best out of them and a lot of owners report better performance as the miles increase). Hence the fact you changed fuel brands may have just been a coincidence.

[spc]

No, it's BS EN590 and works just like other derv.

For me this about sums it up ... BS EN590 is the specified standard ...

I work for an oil company and deal with fuel everyday, however nearly all my last 150,000 miles have been fuelled without problem by Tesco.

Edited 24 January, 2011 by spc

[eccleshill]

....has anyone noticed differant mpgs when they use differant brands of fuel ?

Look here - I posted this last October. Figures are for a 1.9TDi but show bu66er all difference in mpg.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/177487-an-old-chestnut-but-with-real-data-this-time/page__p__2137663__fromsearch__1entry2137663

[eccleshill]

... my car had, what I would call, a slight hesitation around 2,000 to 2,500 rpm. At the first service I questioned this with the service department who reckoned it could be something to do with the fuel, again as someone has already said, supermarket fuel is standard fuel without the additives. Technician said it often happens with supermarket fuel and that I should try to fill up with branded diesel for a bit to see if it clears it.

After a while this hesitation did clear, not sure when it was - possibly around 25,000 miles

My 2006 1.9TDi had this problem. Under light/medium acceleration on an uphill gradient when the engine was good and warm and especially bad when I was driving 4 up plus luggage. Reported at 1st service, they said it was a known issue with some 2006-7 1.9's and they uploaded some kind of upgrade. Just about cured it but it never fully went away and I got used to it and didn't notice it any more until I had a 58 plate 1.9 Courtesy car for a couple of weeks and it was sooo smoooooth.

Definitely not fuel related - same on the full range from V-power to Morrisons' best. If anything I would say it was weather related! Always seemed worst on warm, humid days but never really tied it down.

[Shifty]

Morrisons fuel. Enough said. My nearest fuel station was a Morrisons when I had the Fabia vRS, and occasionally due to my own bad planning I had to fill up there. I would heartily recommend using Shell, BP, or Tesco as the performance and MPG suffered on Morrisons diesel. Also suffered from water in the fuel which may have been that particular forecourt, but I will never use their fuel again as long as I live.

[onmeheadson]

I've tried different fuels but i'm sticking to V-Power Diesel from now on. It seems to run better but i haven't noticed any difference in MPG.

The reason i use V-Power is more to do with the additives. If you believe what Shell say it keeps the fuel system clean and lubricated. It also has a low sulphur content and doesn't chuck out as much smoke which means less clogging of the DPF.

Edited 25 January, 2011 by onmeheadson

[ap0gee1978]

The hesitation mentioned in a couple of posts could be the '06 stutter' if they were on BLT-engined cars (assuming BLTs weren't just fitted to Fabia vRSes???)

[thlcr1]

As someone as already mentioned the base fuel usually comes from the nearest refinery. There will be a distribution depot near the refinery and all the delivery tankers will fill up there whch does mean that if you are for example near a Shell refinery, that ALL your local garages ill be using Shell base fuel,be they Supermarkets or orther oil companies. The onlydifference will be the additives that are used. This is added at the distribution depot directly into the road tankers using a keycard sytem. The only exeption to this is that I have heard on occasions of some Supermarkets buying cheap fuel on the open market, usually from Roterdam. Not sure if that still happens or not. Although the base fuels maybe the same there can be significant differences in the additives. All of the major oil companies carry out a lot of research into the additives to try and improve running and economy (good for advertising). For example Shell fuel save amongst other additives contains an ignition improver whch has been proven to speed up the flame propogation in the combustion chamber, and due to whch Shell are able to claim improvments in fuel economy. Supermarket fuels will tend to use comercially available additive packages whch they almost certainly won't have been able to do ant independant research on. There is also likley to be less of it. Fuels like Shell V-power and BP-ultimate are different as they use different base fuels, wich burn cleaner and can potentially yeild more energy per unit volume. They also have different additive packages.

Around where I live there is little or no difference in price between Supermarket and brand fuels so personally I wouldnt use supermarket fuel unless I had no option!

Hope that helps

Lee