wrong diesel ?

[tupray]

went to fill up at my local Shell filling station ( never been there before ) I normally fill up with bog standard diesel , however on this occasion I filled with " V-Power , a lot more expensive , however I almost immediately found the car ran somewhat better , quicker , smoother , and an increase in MPG , I ask ? am I imagining this or is the fuel I put in that good , I drive a Yeti ( 2012) 2.0 lt tdi , 110bhp

[Llanigraham]

Auto-suggestion.

Psychologically you are teling yourself that since you've paid extra for the fuel then it MUST be better.

Practically, it would take more than one tank to POSSIBLY make any difference, and from experience it doesn't.

[jonceebee]

I always put Super Unleaded in our Octavia and have similar views as you, quicker, smoother etc. but with this engine it does recommend minimum of 97 RON. I have considered filling the Yeti with super but it does seem to run so well on 95 RON and wonder if the extra cost justifies it. When I had the Passats I used to add the Reddex petrol treatment, four doses per bottle and I am sure it always ran better when I added it. Or is it just my imagination?

[kibby]

I used to use the Redex fuel injector cleaner treatment and always got great MOT emission readings, then I read

somewhere additives can damage your CAT so stopped using it, as it's a costly addition.

Still tempted to use it on the Yeti when it comes up for MOT but Skoda doesn't recommend adding such

additives so maybe not.

Edited 26 June, 2013 by kibby

[The Plumber]

Tried various fuels in ours, not sure if it makes a jot of difference to be honest; suspect weather, temperature, chosen route and traffic have more influence than manufacturer of fuel :wonder:

However I do try use Shell regular diesel where I can, even drive through York to fill up at the only Shell garage left on my route to work, rather than use the bypass.

TP

[weasley]

Auto-suggestion.

Psychologically you are teling yourself that since you've paid extra for the fuel then it MUST be better..

So they put the same fuel in both pumps and just jack the price up on one?

[Macdemon]

I use standard diesel, that's about as much as I want to pay, or can afford to pay. :(

[BossFox]

I usually use V-Power diesel.

When I had my tuned Fabia VRS it smoked less when on V-Power, so I'm happy using it now for what feels a slightly smoother running car and hopefully less regens on the DPF.

Worse way it's costing me a few pound per tankful. Not the end of the world.

[rockhopper]

I'm a v-power fanboy :lol:

In my personal experience it does give more power, enabling the car to use a higher gear up a local steep hill than regular shell diesel under the same conditions.

[gadgetman]

I ran Vpower for a while in the Octavia (2.0FSI) and a work car.

Found yes it is sportier, but MPG went through the floor.

[Merlinman]

It's 'Nitro' now!

Happy to pay a small premium.

[BobbyG79]

Today I made the brave step onto regular petrol after having been a Nitro/Ultimate user for some time now.

With God's help I'll conquer this terrible affliction.

[dbg400]

I'm currently running on a tankful of V-Power and I'm still undecided about its benefits. The first time I tried it there certainly seemed to be an improvement in responsiveness and performance, but brim to brim wasn't much better than normal. The second time I used it (the next tankful) the mpg was only the same as usual, and the extra liveliness didn't seem to materialise. I've tried it a few times since, and it looks like there might be a 1-2 mpg improvement on my usual journeys, but it's a bit hit and miss.

Longer runs do seem to benefit more - I got 46mpg on trip 1 (~10% optimistic, so around 42) for the 60 miles coming back from the Midlands meet last night with cruise set at 70 (GPS reading). Normally I'd be seeing low 40s at that speed. I normally sit at 60 if there's no hurry, and the trip down had a maxidot reading of 53.5, which is about the best I've seen on a relatively flat run.

The current tankful is only there because I had a 5p off/litre voucher. The price difference of 8p between V-Power & regular (£4 extra for a fill up) isn't quite enough to justify it for me.

[James I]

I use BP ultimate (lots of nectar points) I find the DPF only makes brief regens with ultimate, when I use super market own label diesel I find regens are at least two per week, this makes sense, BossFox says less smoke on better diesel, so less regens too.

[Expatman]

I started using regular diesel in my Octavia 2.0 Tdi but after 15,000 miles switched to BP Ultimate as a trial after reading that "super" diesels did provide smoother power etc. It certainly made the engine run smoother and quieter - particularly on start up - but I also achieved a 5% decrease in fuel consumption which more or less covered the extra cost of the Super diesel. I kept a log of fuel consumption on a brim full to brim full basis from new so know the benefit was real. When I changed to the 1.2 Tsi Yeti I used regular unleaded to start with and again tried "super" to see if I got a similar result. However, this time I could find no real advantage using the super petrol, fuel consumption was the same and it drove exactly the same. The 1.2 Tsi engine is a very smooth quiet unit anyway. Now back using regular Esso/BP/Shell petrol.

Perhaps diesels are more sensitive to fuel types?

[James I]

I believe the reason for using higher octane petrol is to do with the valves, cheaper or lower octane can cause valves to pit as a result of what used to be called "pinking" I only use 99 ron in the Fabia

I may be corrected

[Expatman]

I believe the reason for using higher octane petrol is to do with the valves, cheaper or lower octane can cause valves to pit as a result of what used to be called "pinking" I only use 99 ron in the Fabia

I may be corrected

In the 'good old days' engines could pink but with modern electronics controlling timing etc it is almost impossible to get an engine to pink. Benefits are claimed to include better additives for cleaning injectors as well as the slightly higher RON rating which could give more power so reduced fuel consumption if you did not use any of the increased power in driving more spiritedly!

[James I]

My lads 1.4 16v Lupo is known to burn valves and the advice for that is to use good quality fuel, be that branded or super, this is something I read on clublupo.

[littleade]

went to fill up at my local Shell filling station ( never been there before ) I normally fill up with bog standard diesel , however on this occasion I filled with " V-Power , a lot more expensive , however I almost immediately found the car ran somewhat better , quicker , smoother , and an increase in MPG , I ask ? am I imagining this or is the fuel I put in that good , I drive a Yeti ( 2012) 2.0 lt tdi , 110bhp

Not quite the same but I've been adding millars ecoboost to normal shell diesel and my vRS seems to both run better and mpg has improved as well, tnough some or all of this could be due to the warmer weather and the engine loosening up. Either way it only adds 2p per litre so seems a good compromise if you don't want to pay the extra for premium diesel or theres no garages selling it close to where you live.

[notyeti]

I read somewhere that additives result in a less calorific value for a fuel (less fuel per litre of course, with the additives), but the additives make up for the loss by promoting better combustion. I also read that modern engines and electronic management systems are optimized for a particular octane rating, and perhaps one could infer that an engine is optimized for the standard fuel and perhaps anything with a higher or lower octane rating might not perform as well. So? I have seen variable results using fuel with additives: sometimes an increase in mpg sometimes the same. Probably all down to road/weather/driving - but perhaps a shot of additive fuel one in a ten fills or so cleans up the engine, and then using normal fuel lets the engine management system do its best?

[AlleyCat`]

On a lower powered engine i'd be amazed if the difference was noticeable in terms of performance.

I tried it on a 105bhp touran and the fuel economy literally tanked on the first fill up.

It was markedly better on the second fill but not as good as regular "derv" for economy.

On that basis i just don't see the point.

Then again i've never had issues with supermarket fuel either.

[Duck_Pond]

When I used to fill up on Texaco or Total diesel, I found that every couple of months a tankful of BP Ultimate seemed to clean the engine out a bit and it ran smoother afterwards. Since the Total garage changed to Esso I've not felt the need to use anything else as it runs fine all the time and seems to have better economy too.

The CR engine seems to be happier with the fuel-save Shell diesel too, which is handy, as my old PD vRS Fabia used to feel rather sluggish and lumpy running on that stuff.

I doubt the engine in mine is affected much by any of the fuels. Apparently it's the highly tuned Greenline or Bluemotion engines that actually need the better quality fuels to run on.

[BobbyG79]

Today I made the brave step onto regular petrol after having been a Nitro/Ultimate user for some time now.

With God's help I'll conquer this terrible affliction.

After filling up with "normal" unleaded last night I've experienced my best ever economy this morning, pushing 55mpg during my commute to York with a projected range of 520 miles (compared with about 50 max/470 miles).

[PastyBoy]

..adding millars ecoboost to normal shell diesel

+1 to this

I found much improved runnign and less smoke when adding millers in my Fabia.

Arguement was "why buy cheap fuel and add stuff; when you can buy expensive fuel with the stuff in it already?"

I found that the additional cost of the Millers didn't equate to the same figure as buying "better" fuels

That said I ran out of Millers months ago and haven't been that inclined to get any more....

[Anzio]

Jonceebee, they are all talking DIESEL fuel.