fuel brands

supermarket deisel or branded deisels like shell texaco ect. whats the best for more mpg ? anyone compaired them ?

I heard years ago that all fuel comes from the refinery. The supermarket lorries drive straight out but the branded lorries fill up with additives which help to prolong engine life etc. I dont know if this is true but supermarkets dont make fuel.

my father would not fill his disco at supermarkets always used shell Texaco or esso.He told me every time he used supermarket fuel disco ran like ****e and had less power.He used the disco to go on holiday(towing caravan) so same site same mileage.He recons he would use more fuel, less mileage if he filled up at supermarket.One thing he did point out was to use the nearest fuel station to supermarket as prices were either the same or only slightly dearer.

I have used Shell exclusivly for years, but unfortunately the only local petrol station i have no is a tesco, but would hand on heart say shell fuel was/is better and if i am back in north wales its about the cheapest around.

i use morrison most of the time (my "local bp garage" charge 7/8p a litre more) there is a esso garage a few miles away that are only a couple of p more so thought as its about 8/9 miles shorter distance than morrisons i'd give it a go. after 2 tanks full have gone back to morrisons as i seem to get a bettter mpg from theirs and it pulls better

You're opening a big can of worms here, mate. Here goes with my findings.

I have tried various big names and the main supermarkets too. I've driven 600 miles exclusively on each brand. That's Aberdeen to Dover - often.

I travel overland to Croatia and Bosnia 4 times a year - same route - same speeds, same weight. The distances are recorded from Sat-Nav, and the fuel is brim to brim.

I have tried to be as objective as possible.

I shan't bore you with numbers and miles, but here are my conclusions.

I have concluded that supermarket diesel is cheaper because it does not have the extra additives. During the fuel drivers strike it became glaringly obvious that nearly all the fuel we use comes from a very small number of refineries, and you can get tankers from Esso, Shell, BP, Tesco, Asda etc. all loading up at the same depot. Its the brand specific additives alone that are different.

Supermarket diesel is just not worth it - I get less mpg on my journey with it -therefore using more of it - so there is no real saving at all.( Perhaps someone doing only a small annual mileage, in towns only, might get different results.)

Worse though - I get plenty black smoke on overtaking with Supermarket diesel.

I have found little difference between Tesco & Asda, but Morrisons is by far the smokiest.

The conclusion of all this comparing is that I now try to use Shell V-Power diesel whenever possible - I collect the points which do actually mount up quite well. (double points for V-Power)

Little performance difference between Shell and BP Ultimate. Elf/Total/Fina's Excellium is pretty good too, but I encounter less of them so difficult to do a long journey using only Total.

In Europe I stick with Shell or Total, but in Austria there is the best diesel of all - OMV Sprint Diesel - the extra cetane I think does it.

I also now use 300ml of 2-stroke per tankful and the beast ticks over quieter and (perhaps psychologically) seems to run better.

Being a Scotsman I am still sorely tempted by offers such as Tesco's 5p off if you spend £50 in the store etc. However I am resisting.

Hope this is of use to you.

Regards, Sing

I avoid Supermarket fuel like the plague. It isn't just the fuel they sell but the way it is stored, sold, and equipment maintained.
Few years ago there was a lot of bad fuel sold in the Kent area, caused a lot of damage to petrol vehicles that the supermarkets did there best to deny. Honda CBR600 I was riding at that time was totally knackered by this and cost me over £100 to get fixed. Not a huge sum but a lot of vehicles was damaged by this crap fuel. Refunds was offered if you had the receipts!
Whenever possible now I buy Shell, ESSO, etc

i allways used sainburys fuel as it was the cheapest local garage to me.

and recently i have noticed that my MPG had been crap ! as in 150 miles on £50 !!!

so changed fuel stations - tried BP fuel, yes about 4 pence more expensive but the car now feels much better to drive, smoother engine, faster rev pick up and more MPG !!!

after filling up with BP diesel my MPG reading on my dash went straight up another 2 MPG !!!

so the fuel is better quality in BP then super markets ? at the end of the day it makes you wonder, how is it that supermarkets can get it cheaper then BP ??? hmm, skimp on quality maybe ??

Ive ran my td4 on shell, bp and morrisons.

Morrison's diesel made the engine run rougher, had less urge through the rev range, smoked more on pull away and on full boost and had a louder clatter at idle.

Shell was next, good fuel, engine ran very well, pulled cleanly and smoked less than morrions. Was ordinary as V power wasnt available.

I have used BP Ultimate for a year now, would say it has been the best fuel for power, rev smoothness etc.

Using BP, over the summer i was averaging nearly 44mpg on mostly motorway runs with a new best of 585miles to 1 tank. Before i would get about 475-525 miles to a tank.

There have been studies with some car mags, EVO sticks in my mind as saying that between shell/bp and asda there was a 8% difference in mpg alone..
Makes you think as an extra 8% to your mpg is a decent gain, add the "extra" miles you would get for the 8% and the cost normally to cover them against the price of the BP/Shell fuels and you could save a little bit.

Of course, engines that are serviced regularly with decent filters and oils will also help.

thanks for all the replys. the reason i ask is in my old td4 manual on a 400mile round trip i used to get 38+ mpg with a egr by pass & synergy 2 fitted. now on a td4 auto same trip getting very low 30s mpg.with a full service and all filters changed still the same. just put some deisel cleaner through and no better. thanks to Singvogels suggestion on another thread sent my synergy back for a upgrade and switch so i can use the new eco mode, will be fitting this and egr blanking this weekend i know its not going to be a good on fuel as a manual box but would expect more than 30 to a gallon.

Does anyone have similar information/comparisons for a 1.8 petrol Freelander mk1?

Would Redex make a difference in either engine?

I always try to use branded fuels after having buying a tank full of crap fuel from a supermarket-the whole fuel system and tank had to be cleaned out-not on my hippo,but on the van i had at the time-the supermarket paid for the repairs as they had a lot of complaints about their fuel.This was many years ago but still would not go near supermarket fuels again.They blamed the tanks they had installed-[it was a new store] and the tank suppliers had not cleaned the tanks out.---Dave

hi frontosa,
my td4 auto only does 30 mpg on supermarket diesel and 300ml of 2 stroke. I also have blanked off the egr and vehicle is serviced regulary. So i think you are about right with what mpg you are getting. I am going to try shell or bp to see if any difference.
Leemx1.

Roodle said:

Does anyone have similar information/comparisons for a 1.8 petrol Freelander mk1?

Would Redex make a difference in either engine?

Click to expand...

The 8% i mentioned was on a golf GTI, so a petrol model. I would use the BP/Shell fuels before supermarket for yours.

Cant comment on Redex as i have no experience of it in petrol engines but i dont see it harming the engine.

Shell V-Power every time, for me. (Not used BP Ultimate but having read previous comments, would imagine they're the same.)
Much cleaner burning, smoother running and significantly better MPG.

I found the higher the performance of the vehicle, the more noticeable the differences were.

With my old Audi Quattro 2.0T petrol, I likened the difference in power between V-Power fuel and normal fuel to the difference you get when you have the air con off/on.
On the Freelander 2 TD4, I was getting 50 miles to a tank more on V-Power diesel.

Yes, it's more expensive but I personally think it's a false economy with the cheaper supermarket fuel. Maybe not so much on something as agricultural-like as a Discovery 1 but definitely on more modern, powerful engines.

I have always preferred Shell. Diesel or Petrol. Most of the motors I've had (not just Landys) prefer Shell. My RRC's like Optimax/Vpower petrol a lot, n run smoother and start better on it.
Have tried /used supermarket fuel many times....and most times have noticed the difference. For the couple of pence saving I just can't see the logic & wouldn't bother

I always used to work out my MPG every tank and noticed that when the weather was colder the MPG dropped to about 30-33MPG from 36-37MPG, not sure why always thought a colder denser "charge" would be better for the engine... Synergy made no difference to the MPG but did give slight improvement in performance, not quite the transformation i was expecting from previous posts before i bought it.

Fake Elvis said:

I always used to work out my MPG every tank and noticed that when the weather was colder the MPG dropped to about 30-33MPG from 36-37MPG, not sure why always thought a colder denser "charge" would be better for the engine... Synergy made no difference to the MPG but did give slight improvement in performance, not quite the transformation i was expecting from previous posts before i bought it.

Click to expand...

Hi FE,

That's sad - it certainly was not my experience. (The Synergy bit I mean.)

I can understand your disappointment as the Synergy kit is not exactly cheap is it?

I realized about a year ago that I didn't want / hadn't the cash for a new LR, so decided to improve the mpg on, and extend the life of the one I had - which I really love anyway.

Getting a Synergy2 was for me the final bit that made it all worthwhile.

Have you done all the usual other things? - change all filters, new MAF, EGR by-pass, BMW pcv, etc?

Singvogel.

A word of caution in using redex. When I was into Moggie Minors, someone run redex in their tank but after laying the car up over the winter, it congealed and had to be cleaned out.

Do we have any fool tanker drivers on ere who could put us stright on this topic? Or does anyone know anyone in the fool trade who could advise us?