Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering what you feed your VRS TDI (or non VRS for that matter): standard diesel (from the big companies*) or their premium products.

 

I asked my dealer when collecting the car. He said there isn't much difference that he can tell. And so I assume that Skoda aren't expecting me to use anything else than standard.

 

On my Scirocco (2.0 TSI) I used 98RON from the start and over here 98RON standard is pretty rare (only Q8, ESSO and a few others sell it, Total, ESSO, Total, ARAL only sell the premium 98.) so for that one the premium comes automatically.

Cheers

 

*Supermarket fuel is much rarer here than it is in the UK.

Diesel - 1 in 4 fills with premium is all you need to get the benefits of the cleaning agents they add. Premium diesel doesn't add any ability for extra power, only the ability to keep your engine clean and so not lose any power over time.

Petrol - not worth using premium unless your car is tuned to take advantage of a higher compression before any pre-ignition may occur (aka knocking). Only supercars and a few highly tuned sports car (one of the generations of BMW M3 being one I know of, can't remember which - E46 maybe?) are factory tuned to need more than 97RON.

Japanese imports will need 99+ as that is the lowest offered over there, so engines are tuned to take advantage of it (I had a Nissan 300ZX that ran like a dog when I got it, full tank of Tesco Momentum99 and it was a peach).

I run Shell vPower or Tesco M99 in my S1 as it has a tune so is taking advantage of it.

Having said that, even supercars will safely run on 95RON thanks to variable timing and knock sensors, so in an emergency you won't hurt the car using lower grade fuel.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Both my Fabia vrs and Nissan 370Z need 98+ and there is no knock control on the nissan past about 5000rpm you can hurt it if you don't take it easy with 95

Mine all get supermarket diesel thrown in the tank. Not had a problem yet.

BP ultimate diesel most of the time in my octy vRS

I use standard diesel with either millers Eco max or 2 stroke oil as additives.

Even without adding anything standard derv is fine IMO.

Don't think premium fuels are worth the extra money.

Premium stuff has more detergents in it so I tend to fill up with normal most of the time and premium once every six weeks.

Shell super diesel for my baby

I use standard diesel with either millers Eco max or 2 stroke oil as additives.

 

 

New one on me.  Does it help at all or do you just like the smell?

Mine all get supermarket diesel thrown in the tank. Not had a problem yet.

I used to do the same, but switched to standard Shell, (not the V Power stuff as it makes no difference) as I was told I'd get better mpg. I was sceptical, but sure enough an extra 50 miles per fill up is about the average, so around 5mpg more compared to standard Tesco. Even accounting for the 2-3ppl price difference, the saving using Shell equates to £4/tank and in the summer probably nearer to 70 miles extra so around £5 saving. I fill up on average 4 times per month so well over £200 per year saving.

Would using 2 stroke oil not reduce the life of the dpf/cat?

I, too, used to feed my old PD170 with low ash (FC) 2 stroke oil every refill. My engine was silky smooth, so quite you couldn't almost hear it when idling, and very very rapid at gaining revs!

 

Low ash is the key (JASO FC spec, if my memory serves me well) and never an issue or noise on the injectors! (one of the most common faults on PD engines).

Edited 23 February, 201511 yr by Genoa1893

Mine all get supermarket diesel thrown in the tank. Not had a problem yet.

  

I used to do the same, but switched to standard Shell, (not the V Power stuff as it makes no difference) as I was told I'd get better mpg. I was sceptical, but sure enough an extra 50 miles per fill up is about the average, so around 5mpg more compared to standard Tesco. Even accounting for the 2-3ppl price difference, the saving using Shell equates to £4/tank and in the summer probably nearer to 70 miles extra so around £5 saving. I fill up on average 4 times per month so well over £200 per year saving.

There aren't many "traditional" service stations near to me these days,coupled with the fact that there is a Sainsburys almost at the entrance to my estate means that it's a lot more convenient for me to fill up there (which is really one of the main reasons that it gets supermarket fuel). I'd have to go some distance out of my way to fill up at somewhere other than a supermarket now that I think about it.

My annual mileage is also quite low (sub 8k) so I'm lucky that any potential longer term cost savings would be negligible in my case - expecially if I factored in the extra distance to use a service station.

There may be some placebo effect, but I now tend to use a named brand (shell) over the cheaper supermarket stuff as it feels like it runs nicer on it, and seems to report a little increase in mpg on the display doing the same trips.

 I stick some v-power in every 3rd or 4th refill. It probably makes no odds, but I feel happier doing this, and although I have not logged it, it seems to have less DPF regens than when it ran the cheaper stuff.

For years I religiously used to put the cheapest fuel available in, but soon after I got this car I go out of my way to avoid supermarket standard stuff unless absolutely necessary !

Edited 23 February, 201511 yr by Mr Grump

Cheers guys. I quite like the idea of filling it up with the premium diesel every few refills, and sticking to the standard most of the time. While I hate being manipulated into buying something I don't need (especially since the car wasn't designed around premium fuels), treating it nicely once it a  while won't hurt.

I have only added proper additives to our 13 year old Audi with the 1.9 TDI PD engine to clean it out once in a while at 150000km and 200000km, the Octy is very far from that..

I have no experience with the supermarket fuels since those don't seem to be very popular around here. There are around 5 "brand" stations in my town and no supermarket ones. So that is one less dilemma for me.

I use shell regular plus millars ecomax which seems to make mine run more smoothly though that could be just my imagination.....

Petrol - not worth using premium unless your car is tuned to take advantage of a higher compression before any pre-ignition may occur (aka knocking). Only supercars and a few highly tuned sports car (one of the generations of BMW M3 being one I know of, can't remember which - E46 maybe?) are factory tuned to need more than 97RON.

Japanese imports will need 99+ as that is the lowest offered over there, so engines are tuned to take advantage of it (I had a Nissan 300ZX that ran like a dog when I got it, full tank of Tesco Momentum99 and it was a peach).

I run Shell vPower or Tesco M99 in my S1 as it has a tune so is taking advantage of it.

Having said that, even supercars will safely run on 95RON thanks to variable timing and knock sensors, so in an emergency you won't hurt the car using lower grade fuel.

 

Any petrol car over 200hp and using forced induction will benefit from 97+ Ron.  This has been proven many times, the petrol companies claim that any car will improve if using higher octane is rubbish.  Whether you will get the additional miles per tank that justify the additional cost is another matter and seems vehicle specific.

 

Strangely it doesn't work on highly tuned bike engines (let's face it 180+Hp from a naturally aspirated 1 litre engine is highly tuned).  Makes no difference to performance or mpg.

I stick any in mine... supermarket everytime.....14,000 miles never missed a beat

Edited 24 February, 201511 yr by greatdane

 to standard Shell, (not the V Power stuff as it makes no difference)

V Power isn't designed to make a difference to MPG or power on a diesel. Its to keep the engine and exhaust clean. Car should by rights need to regen less, and your DPF will expire later in life.

V Power isn't designed to make a difference to MPG or power on a diesel. Its to keep the engine and exhaust clean. Car should by rights need to regen less, and your DPF will expire later in life.

 

I'm pretty sure the type of fuel you use will have no affect on regenerations & the life of the DPF (unless you put petrol in it .

 

You have to remember than in west-europe the fuel quality is very good & you can buy reliably from a supermarket or branded station & all should conform to required minimum standard.

In many other markets where manufacturers sell the same engines, the fuel quality can be much worse (high sulphur content, water contamination etc).

The systems are designed to be robust to much worse fuel than you could find anywhere in the UK.

 

I have primarily used supermarket fuel in my diesel engines for the last 10 years and have never had any problems.

 

I've seen some good tests by WhatCar or AutoCar in the past comparing the supermarket fuel with V-Power or BP Ultimate suggesting you do get a few extra miles under controlled conditions.

I'll see if I can find the links.

 

However, in general, I've never seen any benefit myself when using branded fuel.

My view is that the additives & stuff are just a marketting gimick to convince you to pay more.

Edited 25 February, 201511 yr by Gabbo

I'm pretty sure the type of fuel you use will have no affect on regenerations & the life of the DPF (unless you put petrol in it .

 

You have to remember than in west-europe the fuel quality is very good & you can buy reliably from a supermarket or branded station & all should conform to required minimum standard.

In many other markets where manufacturers sell the same engines, the fuel quality can be much worse (high sulphur content, water contamination etc).

The systems are designed to be robust to much worse fuel than you could find anywhere in the UK.

 

I have primarily used supermarket fuel in my diesel engines for the last 10 years and have never had any problems.

 

I've seen some good tests by WhatCar or AutoCar in the past comparing the supermarket fuel with V-Power or BP Ultimate suggesting you do get a few extra miles under controlled conditions.

I'll see if I can find the links.

 

However, in general, I've never seen any benefit myself when using branded fuel.

My view is that the additives & stuff are just a marketting gimick to convince you to pay more.

Ive seen it somewhere that it should keep the engine and exhaust cleaner, hence better for the DPF. Ah well, who knows.

 

As for gimmicks. Well if V Power additives etc are a gimmick, I assume the likes of Millers etc must also be a gimmick? Plenty of people using that.

Suffice to look at their composition and to make your mind about that.