Hi all,

I recently had a problem with my VRS. Driving to work the car suddenly lost power, went into limp mode and the EML and Coil light came, with the coil light flashing.

Took it to a reliable VAG service centre who read the codes as an EGR fault but couldn't find anything else.

I took the car out for a drive afterwards and it still felt down on power and there was a hesitancy in power delivery with an almost "pulsing" sensation when travelling along. After my usual 300 mile weekly round trip the car felt terrible. At one point I was down to 50mph and was ready to call the AA.

Took it back the garage again and told them to go over it with a fine tooth comb. 4 days later, nothing, they just could not find anything wrong. I must admit I was questioning the garages competancy.

Anyway, the VRS is being traded in next month so I didn't want to take any chances so gave my car to the wife to drive whilst I took her Kia Ceed. I've never really driven it but lo and behold her car was driving like a bag of spanners. Showing the same symptoms as my VRS, without the limp mode and flashing lights though but it felt crap. The Kia is only just over 12 months old so I was scratching my head as to what could it be. I thought someone had spiked the tanks whilst the cars were parked up or had shoved something up the exhaust.

Then it came to me, the only thing both cars had in common was the feul we were using! Shell Fuel Save! I have used the same garage for nearly 5 years of weekly commuting with over 5 diesel cars without any problems. It's only since Shell switched to this new diesel that I have noticed my car getting gradually worse. I use millers every week since getting the car last feb but ran out and had to use just the Shell on it's own.

I'm on my first full tank of non-shell diesel in the Kia and all fells great again. I plan on switching back to the VRS next week and running a few tanks of BP Ultimate with Redex through it to clean things up.

Search on the net and you'll find I am not the only person who has had this problem.

Has anyone else?

(Sorry this was so long)

Shell are good at this, 1980 Formula Shell, and thousands of cars needed new engines. Never been near a shell garage since.

Blimey. I filled up with a tank of fuel save the other week (was away from home, and we don't get it at the local Shell - yet) I had no problems with it though.

I only ever use V-Power. Never had any problems.

I've only ever used shell fuel and since they changed to the fuel save I've had no problems, maybe a bad batch of fuel ?

Very odd !!!!

I only use shell fuel in both our Skoda's and have never had any problems at all.

My Octy vRS is run only on shell V power, and the wifes Fabia vRS runs on one tank of shell V power derv to every four tanks of shell fuel save derv.

Both cars start and run very well.

Maybe as already said, it was a bad batch of fuel.

Or maybe the garage you use has a problem with its storage tanks.

Bill.

I tried Shell fuelsave diesel in my Superb twice now. First time I ended up with warm starting problems and weird running problems. Putting it down to a bad batch, I tried it again and had the same warm start problems, so have never used it since. Now back on Tesco standard diesel and all is well, the warm start problem is no more.

5 out of the 7 tankfuls my car has had have been Shell Fuel Save, so far no symptoms or ANY running issues at all.

I also ran my MKI Superb almost exclusively on it for 10 months without any issues.

I only use Shell fuel and I've never had any issues with it.

Apart from when I ran out of petrol last weekend, had to get some Sunday walkers to help me push the GTi into a layby

Edited 10 February, 201115 yr by C.D-vRS

I nearly always use shell, as its local and cheaper than even the supermarkets. Touch wood never had a problem, although you've made me paranoid now :S

Could be winter additive related?

I've only hade my vRS for 5 months and have only used Shell fuel save, and have had no probelms with it. I would use V-power if my local Shell garage had it, so never used that. I've heard it makes a noticable difference

Used nothing but Shell diesel for the last 7 years. No problems here at all?

Bad fuel batch I'd say. Were the two cars filled up at the same garage? And within a few days of each other?

I nearly exclusively use Shell as there's a few local stations and I've always found the quality and running to be good. Not noticed any problems either, since they've switched to this new 'blend'. As an aside, I usually run a double-shot of Millers in the tank with it as well.

You could get the tanks flushed through, but to be honest I'd fill the tanks upto the brim (use other branded fuel if you like!) - and I might add some Millers if you have it. If not I'd recommend some - available from Halfords and especially in this case will speed up getting the engine back onto proper running again.

I only ever use shell FuelSave Diesel, and not had any problems. I must've filled up 20 times or more with the new stuff and not noticed a difference.

I might try something else next time though now I've read this to see if I notice any improvement...

I only ever use V-Power. Never had any problems.

Same here, It revs really smoothly and I've done 645 miles since I last re-fueled!

I used to use millers with every tank full, every week but missed a few weeks and got the problems. I'm thinking the millers has masked the problem until now or a bad batch could be right, they were filled up at the same station.

How do I go about contacting shell? Should I ask in the station?

I'm going to run BP with loads of millers or redex for the next couple of weeks.

Incidentally, a mate at work has had the exact same problems and fills up 200 miles away from where I usually do. His wife drove to norfolk and rang him saying the car was running funny, she filled up at tescos on her way back and by the tims she got home the car was running fine. He fills up with fuel save and hey presto, the problems come back.

I have heard that VRSs should be driven with a max of 5% bio fuel but soemone mentioned on another forum that fuel save is using 7% bio fuel in it. Either way, I'm staying away from shell from now on.

Car is going in a few weeks, I'll be sad to see it go.

Hmmm - well I do run tanks sometimes without Millers and still can't say I've seen a problem.

I wouldn't go mad with the Millers when you run some BP through it - just a double-dose will do the trick. Too much can create its own problems.

Check their website, or ask at your local. Presume they'll take a sample and go from there.

If you filled both cars at the same station in a short period of time you could put it down to a fuel contamination issue!

I've never had an issue using shell fuel!

i use shell fuel save and never had any problems

I also use shell fuel save;

funny you mention this as i too had the coil pack light and EML on after stopping at services and coming back to the car on a long trip... my first thoughts were oh uh bye bye power; welcome limp mode... but nothing the car drove exactly as normal (about 3/4 way through the tank)

was on a long journey and had to put esso stuff and then the lights went out?? bit weird that ive just seen this...

Just filled up with shell fuel save again so ill see if it happens again; its going in for a service next week anyway.

Andrew

my wee lupo gti was being dodgy last week. stuttering below 2k rpm....

new tank of tesco momentum and its as sweet as a nut, i usually use shell too, i think contam

It appears that it is not just Skoda owners who are having issue with this fuel. Just google 'shell fuel save problems' and see what comes up! :think:

It seems to contain more ethanol than some other brands and that causes runing issues on some cars. I'm not going to try it.

Hmmm, seems to be a bit more widespread then!

Hope it's enough for them to tweak the blend then, as it's much more convenient for me to use Shell than anything else! Although I do wonder whether my ongoing use of Millers is possibly masking the effect of the increased Bio percentage. That is if our local supply is affected at all - who knows.

Someone needs to come up with a Google map with the affected fuel stations marked...

Someone needs to come up with a Google map with the affected fuel stations marked...

Top idea, that man. I nominate YOU!

I've been using Shell Fuel Save Diseasel in my PD140 and not had any problems.

I have (on the last two fillups) started using V-Power and have noticed an increase of nearly 4mpg using road trip on my iPhone. That's for the same journeys, same times, same speeds etc. Don't know if this is related to similar problems with the fuel or not. Never noticed any bad running etc and I don't use millers.

As it only works out at £4.48 extra to fill the tank with V-Power I'm sticking to that from now on.