i started a thread a few days a go about the van conking out, it lost power a few times at certain revs and then just stopped and wouldn’t start, it had bubbles in the fuel line, anyway had the rac out today and he managed to get it started. he tried it with easy start and nothing happened, then he just pumped a lot of fuel through with the plunger thingy and kept on turning it over with a jumpstart, after an age it just started. he reckoned new glo plugs, and cheap supermarket fuel is to blame, not got the right additives in, waxing up. now, the question is, how do they know that fuel from one place is different to another, has there been any evidence or is it just myth? shirley most people go to supermarkets for fuel, and doesn’t it all come from the same refineries? sorry for rambling.

Tesco fuel has more horse power……….gets coat..

Different additives depending on the brand etc. Try putting some injector / fuel line cleaner in every now and then and give it a blast once in while.

Tesco fuel has more horse power

Very good. (-:

As I understand it, supermarket fuel used to be crap. These days there’s little difference.

I Am Not An Expert.

Firstly lol at sh.

Next up, most fuel supplied does indeed come only from a handle full of sources the general rule of thumb, which does change by region is,

Supermarket fuel = fuel that Is shipped in from the open market, normally of slightly out of spec grade thAt has additives to bring it back in line, will only be for cetane and lubricity on diesel maybe cold flow improvers. Gasoline will have something to bring the octaves back up. However, you will have locally produced fuel that goes both to supermarkets and the majors, the only difference is the inclusion of performance additives in the major stuff, very rarely like that in Tesco. She’ll is different with its VPower stuff that the base is diesel / gasoline is much better, plus additives.

If the fuel was bubbly it was lacking an anti foaming agent,a big problem with minis actually..

I understand that most additives are added to the tanker, not the at the fuel depot, so the old ‘Ive seen the same tanker go to different garages so it must all be the same’ doesn’t mean it is the same.
I would never put supermarket fuel in my car & with performance fuels I would always use shell over anyone else. I know people that have had problems using Tesco 99 ron fuel, you should check out the price of real 100 ron race fuel to understand the difference.

Obviously the above is just my opinion.

Cheers.

All fuel in the UK has to meet a set standard, suppliers then add additives for people willing to pay even more.

Aftermarket fuel treatments are a false economy, look at how much you spend vs the recommended treat rate and its cheaper to go with a decent fuel in the first place.

Edit, it costs not a lot to make a good 100 / 102Ron fuel,the cost is in the testing and margins are significantly more.

2nd edit, yes all fuel does have to meet the same standard, but as you can drive a bus through them the difference can be big…. it’s still mostly down to additives though.

We use ‘Asda Reference’ fuel for any non-critical testing in our development cars (and critical tests use non-pump reference fuel) and it doesn’t make any appreciable difference. A mix of V-power and other high octane fuels is used to make sure it all goes nicely on higher octane but 90% of the time it’s standard Tesco/Asda unleaded or Diesel.

used, as in about 5 or 6 years ago, to have a diesel with a computer that gave me fuel usage info. at the same time was doing regular long runs in a day, to london for an afternoon meeting then back to west cornwall generally, anyhow consuming latte and m&s scotch eggs only takes a little time so with many idle hours i became quite a spotter on fuel consumpion. the basic result, with regards to diesel… tesco worst by far, shell very best. there were quite a few mpg difference in it as well.

Speed do you work for a big oem, there are vast differences which I am happy to talk about?

What Drac said Its marketting as all fuel has to be a set standard
You can even buy your own additives i you think you have not got enough from the “brand”.

most additives are added to the tanker, not the at the fuel depot, so the old ‘Ive seen the same tanker go to different garages so it must all be the same’ doesn’t mean it is the same.

Not getting your point here- if it is added to the tanker then it must be the same in the tanker

My mate used to make bog roll all exactly the same [ they had budget standard and premium but all made the same but with different colours and patterns. this was not how it was marketted by those they supplied it to.

Tis not all marketing, partly but not all. Same with lubricants as well..

As far as i am aware there are no tests done using a selection of cars driven for 100,00 miles on one fuel and matched to another to see if there is any actual real difference in performance of fuel or engine so i go for measurable but negligible.

You can run a diesel on veg oil so i would not be massively worried personally

I’d be surprised if there was any performance difference, it all comes from the same refineries, meets the same BS standard and the supermarkets sell so much, that any issues/differences would be well documented by now.

supermarket diesel, whats wrong with it?

nothing as far as i can tell, we’ve run two diesel cars for the last 8 years and always been supermarket fuel.

And Magnatec oil meets a different BS standard…

speed12 – Member
We use ‘Asda Reference’ fuel for any non-critical testing in our development cars (and critical tests use non-pump reference fuel) and it doesn’t make any appreciable difference. A mix of V-power and other high octane fuels is used to make sure it all goes nicely on higher octane but 90% of the time it’s standard Tesco/Asda unleaded or Diesel.

can you give us some more details? what area do you work in? cheers

With the poor running and poor starting along with bubbles in the fuel lines, I’d be inclined to think that it’s drawing air in somewhere. Has it had any work done on the fuel system recently like having a fuel filter changed?

The RAC guy’s suggestion that it’s down to dodgy supermarket fuel is a load of nonsense that mechanics come out with when they don’t know what’s wrong. I know that first hand as I’ve heard colleagues of mine use the same excuse in the past when they didn’t know what was wrong with a motor.

Speed do you work for a big oem, there are vast differences which I am happy to talk about?

Sui, I work for a consultancy rather than an OEM, but working with them.

Definitely interested to hear anything you know of (do you work in the industry?). I would agree there is a difference between some fuels from supermarkets and the big fuel vendors, but what I was (badly..) trying to say was that in general it won’t make a massive difference to your average man on the street. As I said, we use Carcal (and others) reference fuel for any critical testing (emissions, knock control, fuel adaption calibration etc), but generally fuel from ‘wherever is closest’ is used for day to day testing on road/track and there is not enough of a difference to effect results so I’d be fairly certain that an average driver wouldn’t notice.

So yes there is a difference. No it isn’t/shouldn’t be a problem. My thoughts anyway! But as said, genuinely interested to hear if you think differently!

notmyrealname – Member

The RAC guy’s suggestion that it’s down to dodgy supermarket fuel is a load of nonsense that mechanics come out with when they don’t know what’s wrong.

Aye, they gave that line to a mate of mine, but he’s put nothing but branded premium in the car from new as he’s easily led.

Go and put veg oil in a new high pressure common rail diesel, it will last 5 mins before damage is done.

Asda don’t make any special types of fuel and it will change significantly seasonally and likely between loads depending on which terminal they decide to take it from, etc etc.. plus no additives which you would want for endurance running applications, mad not to really.

Speed you might inadvertently know me already.. how do you pm?

You can’t PM.

The RAC guy’s suggestion that it’s down to dodgy supermarket fuel is a load of nonsense that mechanics come out with when they don’t know what’s wrong.

i thought it was bs when he said it, after all, how do they know, do they test everyones fuel when they’ve broken down? no course not, this evening it started first time from cold, so don’t think its glo plugs, he tested the current draw on them and it was 29 amps, he said it should be around 60…. gonna try it again in the morning, see what happens

When did that stop then? Must have been back in the dark ages.. at the risk of spam attack. Sui on tour [ at ] hotmailcouk take out spaces.

Junkyard – Member

What Drac said Its marketting as all fuel has to be a set standard
You can even buy your own additives i you think you have not got enough from the “brand”.

most additives are added to the tanker, not the at the fuel depot, so the old

‘Ive seen the same tanker go to different garages so it must all be the same’ doesn’t mean it is the same.

Not getting your point here- if it is added to the tanker then it must be the same in the tanker

My mate used to make bog roll all exactly the same [ they had budget standard and premium but all made the same but with different colours and patterns. this was not how it was marketted by those they supplied it to.

Tankers have separated tanks within the one tank you can see, does that make sense?

several years ago i was a fuel buyer for a large superamrket where every little helped..

the fuel at supermarkets comes from the same distribution centres as all other fuel retailers.. the only differences are slight detail specs on additives but frankly to fulfill quantities we ‘d have to buy anything available so one day you may have a premium product instead of your standard fuel..

the biggest complaint we had was ‘ theres water in your diesel or your pumps are short changing me as my dial has hadly moved..

water levels are very acurately measured as in depth and percentage of fuel in the tank down to a 0.01 of a percent.

i can honestly say I never saw anything other than 0.00% on any measuring equipment in the three years i did the job..
as for your shortchanging me as my dial didnt move.. which do you think is the most accurate measure.. a £10k computerised unit that is serviced twice a year and subject to spot checks probably three times a year from weights and measures.. or that little needle that moves back and forth in your car..

Now I did once have a pump that told me I’d put 19 litres in my 16 litre tank. So it can happen, stuff goes wrong.

Hmmm. well i’m no chemical engineer but we run a fleet of approx 150 ambulances and 100 odd response cars, some will be universally on supermaket fuel, some on big brand stuff. No one minds what gets put in other than a general encouragement to buy cheapest, and no mechanical issues have ever been attributed to crap fuel in the 5+ year(hard!)life of our vehicles. (We have plenty of other mechanical issues mind you, new clutch in your octavia at 23k miles? ouch)

I see nobody has mentioned morrisons diesel, any reason?

Supermarket fuel = fuel that Is shipped in from the open market, normally of slightly out of spec grade thAt has additives to bring it back in line, will only be for cetane and lubricity on diesel maybe cold flow improvers. Gasoline will have something to bring the octaves back up. However, you will have locally produced fuel that goes both to supermarkets and the majors, the only difference is the inclusion of performance additives in the major stuff, very rarely like that in Tesco. She’ll is different with its VPower stuff that the base is diesel / gasoline is much better, plus additives.

Not convinced about the former, the latter I’ve heard but not seen.

Pretty much everything exiting a refinery is to some specification or another. Generally you work out the cheapest way to meet that spec and configure your refinery to that. The margin’s are pretty tight in refining so you’re not going to try and make something ‘better’, it’ll all be the cheapest. V-power is the exception, that’s only made at Stanlow and is different.

V8- we’ve had clutches go at less than 5k on 12 plate wagons… Peugeots though!
Edit- and oil leaks, fuel leaks, and doors falling off.

Spoon, only meant as a rule of thumb, certainly not always.

When did that stop then? Must have been back in the dark ages..

Never started.

I’m sure back in the early days you could,I.e pre change over, either that or I’m thinking of the old choccyfoot site.

With no data or evidence to speak of, Sainsburys fuel (diesel) often seems to make my car sluggish.

Its all in the additives. The fuel from the depot is the same product for each grade. The amount of additive is miniscule but can make a hell of a difference.

In the UK we actually have relatively few kinds of fuel available at the pump and a non volatile market.

As to the poster with a fleet of ambos, youve also got a team of mechanics working almost round the clock and your engine rarely get turned off! And lets not get started on the electrics of the new fiats at NWAS or the batteries in the rrvs 😉

When i got my engine set up on the rolling road at Star performance they advised me to use Shell V-Power for the preceding 2 weeks before i turned up with the car for the session and i’ve only used V-Power since then (1 year ago), unfortunately the local garage that used to have Shell fuels and V-Power has recently changed over to Gulf and i’m not entirely convinced with regard to their premium fuel – it may be my perception but i’m sure the engine is pinking (abnormal combustion) when under hard acceleration, my nearest Shell garage that stocks V-Power is now 35 miles away….. 🙁 . As my engine is not standard and quite highly tuned along with being 25 yrs old and was specifically set up on the rolling road to run Shell V-Power it’s gonna be an expensive trip just for fuel at 25mpg.

I use Tesco because I get Clubcard points. 8)

Used diesel from all major suppliers too and seen little if any difference in performance or economy.