Eeck. I have a Shell fuel station half a mile from my house where I always fill up. And it is now closed until the 24th of June for a refurbishment! Phew so not forever thankfullyl!

And since I got my car it has had a 99,9% diet of Shell only (thanks to the helpful advice on this very forum). Two tanks of the pricey stuff (both by accident) and only one tank of Tesco since we were far from home travelling and had nowhere else to go! I hope that does not ruin my engine!

Build well and build quickly chaps! I want my Shell back!

<looks at picture...>

Old Ford Road turn off on the A12 in East London?

<looks at picture...>

Old Ford Road turn off on the A12 in East London?

Now had this been a competition to guess the station you would win the super first prize!!! Spot on!

We must nearly be neighbours.

I run a Special Needs Transport company called "Fox Transport" 1 minute from that Shell garage.

We have quite a lot of minibuses in the local area, about 100.

We have a shell fuel account and this place being closed is a pain, we're having to use the Esso garage down by the Tower Hamlets town hall.

We must nearly be neighbours.

I run a Special Needs Transport company called "Fox Transport" 1 minute from that Shell garage.

We have quite a lot of minibuses in the local area, about 100.

We have a shell fuel account and this place being closed is a pain, we're having to use the Esso garage down by the Tower Hamlets town hall.

:giggle: :giggle: I have lived in the area for 6 years and yes have seen many a Fox minibus! My, my..... I've never put two and two together re your registration plate! Nor when you kindly offered me some yard space to come change my winter tyres over!

:giggle: :giggle: I have lived in the area for 6 years and yes have seen many a Fox minibus! My, my..... I've never put two and two together re your registration plate! Nor when you kindly offered me some yard space to come change my winter tyres over!

Well the secret is out now!

If you need anything I can assist with, you are welcome to pop by.

Well the secret is out now!

If you need anything I can assist with, you are welcome to pop by.

Thank you very much! I'll keep it mind!

And since I got my car it has had a 99,9% diet of Shell only (thanks to the helpful advice on this very forum). Two tanks of the pricey stuff (both by accident) and only one tank of Tesco since we were far from home travelling and had nowhere else to go! I hope that does not ruin my engine!

Woah!...what advice? I missed it! Can you point me in the right direction?

I use the 99RON stuff from Tesco, car is happy with that, it is also happy with Shell 98RON, but not very happy with 95RON.

Woah!...what advice? I missed it! Can you point me in the right direction?

Oh there are many, many threads on this but perhaps start with this one:

http://briskoda.net/...versial-i-know/

The gist: all fuel comes from the same depots yes, but Shell and other named brands gets more additives added to their trucks at these depots. So people think the Tesco fuel "must be the same" since the source is the same but it sure is not. Furthermore the more mechanically minded have opened up engines after XXXXX thousand miles and a Tesco, etc engine will be black and grimey and a Shell, etc engine will be pristine.

This comment from that thread is quite explanatory:

"Hi Paully, yes...you are quite right about the fuel thing. It's not in your head...the improvement thing. Supermarket petrol is inferior using only secondary cleaners in it, and fewer 'sniffers' which may cause some cars to run rougher and carbon up more quickly. It's fairly common knowledge in the trade, has been reported on by the motoring press many times, and has been an issue for quite a few years now. But it is begining to become even more important with cars like the TSI's and many many more.

The thing to remember is this...when you change fuel, perhaps to experiment with mpg or engine smoothness, performance etc, make sure you don't make any judgements about the fuel until you have allowed your car to consume at least two tankfuls of the new fuel. YES, TWO TANKFULS! The reason for this is that modern cars have a 'LEARNING ECU'. It detects differences in fuel being used especially the octane rating. It does this using the closed loop system to analyse the exhaust gases and the information from the knock sensors. However, it will not change the engine settings to allow the car to optimally run on the new fuel until two tanks of the stuff have been consumed. Then bingo, it'll either run like a turbine or be as crappy as hell!

If you vehicle has been running on supermarket fuel for a while, putting in Shell, which is much superior to anything else pretty much, will often make you engine run badly for the duration of the first tank. This happens because the extra powerful cleaners (1st & 2nd grade cleaners) start to remove the carbon and gum build up inside the fuel system and engine. This just makes the car run rougher. But the second tank will start to make it run not just ok, but better than ever. Many people think the roughness is being actually caused by the new higher quality fuel and don't buy it again, going back to the poorer quality supermarket petrol. Shame, if only they persisted, the reward would be well worth it. "

I too use only Shell unless in an emergency. Stopped using v power diesel as it is so expensive now.

We (kitten & I) either buy from Sainsbury's or Asda's as they are the cheapest. Ivor seems to LOVE the mixes from the supermarkets.

And we get Nectar points at Sainsbury's too

Always put this in both ours after a fill up and I am of the opinion it makes a difference to smoothness/performance and a slightly better mpg in both our cars.

http://www.millersoils.net/M3_cgi/millers2.cgi?product_id=203&exact_match=on&type=automotive&cart_id=

Poo pooed by some on earlier post but possibly similar effect to additive in Shell. Local garage is BP but expensive do use Tesco/Sainsburys when money off but always thought city diesel from Sainsburys was mucky stuff and notice Tesco also now call theirs the same (probably is!). I live near to Millers and bloke on their counter says they sell loads and get excellent comments from their customers. Available from Halfords.

shell fuels have caused quite a few engine's to fail bigtime of late..hence why i dont use shell anymore' tesco's fuel for me,just to clarify the problem with shell fuel is the ethanol is too high and eats away at engine seals with disasterous consequences,

shell fuels have caused quite a few engine's to fail bigtime of late..hence why i dont use shell anymore' tesco's fuel for me,just to clarify the problem with shell fuel is the ethanol is too high and eats away at engine seals with disasterous consequences,

Perhaps thats why Johanns petrol station has shut the fuel has eaten away the tanks!!!!

shell fuels have caused quite a few engine's to fail bigtime of late..hence why i dont use shell anymore' tesco's fuel for me,just to clarify the problem with shell fuel is the ethanol is too high and eats away at engine seals with disasterous consequences,

Any link to this, as I haven't heard about it?

Go back er OMG 30 years Graham and rally cars always avoided Shell petrol too...

Go back er OMG 30 years Graham and rally cars always avoided Shell petrol too...

Before that it was National Benzole that caused seal problems. Old wives tale?

Filled up at an ancient looking National Benzole filling station (one of several) in Stornoway Outer Hebrides 4 weeks ago. £1.53 a litre!!!Amazing I made it as far as Perth without engine failure where I filled up at Tesco.

Are the part of BP now? Not seen it around for years.

Before that it was National Benzole that caused seal problems. Old wives tale?

Probably?

The minibuses have been using that garage for 8 years and some of them have gone over 160k miles.

In the eight years I think we've had one engine failure out of 100 vehicles.

Err..on the planet where I live I wait until the fuel gauge shows low and sort of fill up at next station which appears.Can't say I have ever noticed any difference whatsoever between brands although lots of anecdotal stuff about petrol which will ruin your engine in yards.

My Mondeo drinks sainsburys diesel, and it's very happy on that. I have been told that sainsburys fuel is actually BP. As to how true this is god only knows. I have tried Shell but can see no difference in mpg or performance.

One thing I do know is that morrisons diesel is a lot poorer and the mondeo doesn't like it at all.

Again, I think it is down to engine type and personal choice (Ford recommend BP) What do Skoda recommend?

Have you still got Rix over in your neck of the woods TP?

I've posted this before, but here goes again.

Fuel manufacturers share distribution centres, which is why although the signage may say Esso, you will see other sellers in them. When a tanker goes to load they basically input a code into the system and this specifies what goes in, and what additives are included. Typically the supermarkets do not include some additives, such as diesel anti-foaming agent or some injector cleaners. All get various dyes and chemical traces so that the retailer can be traced, plus whether duty has been paid.

My father was a Bulk Plant manager for Esso, and he would never buy their fuel, because if he did he had to keep the proof of sale. HM Customs would visit plants and randomly dip cars to make sure pilfering was going on.

Personally I buy BP or Texaco as they are my local retailers and never supermarket fuels if I can help it. Certainly on the Freelander I found I got 10% worse consumption using supermarket fuel, plus it smoked more.

I normally run my old 1989 8V GTI on standard (branded) unleaded and get an average reading of maybe 38-40 on a mixed run on the MFA. However I recently tanked up on the ESSO super stuff as I was going away for the weekend camping and it was only a few pence more expensive per litre.

The car was fully loaded with the seats down and I was keeping up with my mate in his new X1 doing up to 80mph in some parts of motorway. So I didn't even think of looking at the MFA until I was almost at the destination and when I did I was very surprised to see an mpg of 44.1 showing! I'm not sure how it works out mpg or even how accurate it is but I've never seen figures like that even when I'm driving very economically without a load.

When I get my Yeti I'll be avoiding the supermarkets fuel although I didn't mind using it in our old Jazz. The only thing

I'm unsure of is whether or not the 1.2 TSI should be run on standard or super?