High Performance Fuels- Rip Off?
Discussion
I decided to fill my car with so called "Momentum" fuel today at Tesco. It's a 99RON fuel over the standard 95RON. So far I don't think it's made a difference, so lets see what you guys think. Is Tesco momentum a good fuel? Would it be better to use Shell's V-Power? And does this more expensive fuel last longer.
My car is a Rover 25 1.4, not a performance car! Is it worth the money in a normal car like this?
My car is a Rover 25 1.4, not a performance car! Is it worth the money in a normal car like this?
MikesRover25 said:
I decided to fill my car with so called "Momentum" fuel today at Tesco. It's a 99RON fuel over the standard 95RON. So far I don't think it's made a difference, so lets see what you guys think. Is Tesco momentum a good fuel? Would it be better to use Shell's V-Power? And does this more expensive fuel last longer.
My car is a Rover 25 1.4, not a performance car! Is it worth the money in a normal car like this?
Nope.My car is a Rover 25 1.4, not a performance car! Is it worth the money in a normal car like this?
I have friends that will ONLY use the Shell V-Power stuff as they swear that their cars run better and go faster on it. They also seem to think that they can hear the difference in the engine when they are running cheap supermarket fuel.
Iv done a MPG test between Morrison's fuel and Shell V-Power and there was a .2 mpg difference in Shell's favour. hardly anywhere near their "up to" claims. I personally don't notice a difference either in performance or the sound.
I have heard that for it to make noticeable difference, the car needs to be mapped running the higher rated fuel to take advantage of it. With the cost of a re-map and then the added cost on top of a full tank for the good stuff...is it really worth it for a few extra horse (if that)
Iv done a MPG test between Morrison's fuel and Shell V-Power and there was a .2 mpg difference in Shell's favour. hardly anywhere near their "up to" claims. I personally don't notice a difference either in performance or the sound.
I have heard that for it to make noticeable difference, the car needs to be mapped running the higher rated fuel to take advantage of it. With the cost of a re-map and then the added cost on top of a full tank for the good stuff...is it really worth it for a few extra horse (if that)
MikesRover25 said:
I decided to fill my car with so called "Momentum" fuel today at Tesco. It's a 99RON fuel over the standard 95RON. So far I don't think it's made a difference, so lets see what you guys think. Is Tesco momentum a good fuel? Would it be better to use Shell's V-Power? And does this more expensive fuel last longer.
My car is a Rover 25 1.4, not a performance car! Is it worth the money in a normal car like this?
Unless your car has a knock sensor and adjusts timing of the spark using the knock sensor data as an input, your engine won't do anything different on high octane fuel as it would on regular.My car is a Rover 25 1.4, not a performance car! Is it worth the money in a normal car like this?
The only exceptions to this aren't normal road engines (ie. engines that are mechanically higher-compression than yours).
C
CraigyMc said:
MikesRover25 said:
I decided to fill my car with so called "Momentum" fuel today at Tesco. It's a 99RON fuel over the standard 95RON. So far I don't think it's made a difference, so lets see what you guys think. Is Tesco momentum a good fuel? Would it be better to use Shell's V-Power? And does this more expensive fuel last longer.
My car is a Rover 25 1.4, not a performance car! Is it worth the money in a normal car like this?
Unless your car has a knock sensor and adjusts timing of the spark using the knock sensor data as an input, your engine won't do anything different on high octane fuel as it would on regular.My car is a Rover 25 1.4, not a performance car! Is it worth the money in a normal car like this?
The only exceptions to this aren't normal road engines (ie. engines that are mechanically higher-compression than yours).
C
Most cars have a knock sensor, but only use it to retard the timing to protect against pinking. If you put 97RON in, they don't detect pinking so don't retard the timing. If you put 99RON in, they don't detect pinking so they don't retard the timing....
Have two cars both of which are capable of running on super unleaded. I've had my Celica 190 3 and a half years and have always run it on Tesco 99 so have no idea what it'd be like on 95
I also have a Saab 93 HOT which the blurb in the book says the ecu will recognise 98 octane but until recently I've been a cheapskate and run it on 95.
After a long recent Italian tune up I noticed the Saab was noticeably pokier so I decided to start using 99 to see if that improved things further. After 3 tanks the ecu appears to have adjusted to the fuel an really seems to pull better when on boost. All of this could just be some sort placebo effect though as the minds a funny old thing and will tend to make you believe whatever you want to believe.
I did this test years back on a 1.7 Puma, the ecu of which can't recognise higher octane fuel and noticed no improvement whatsoever. Its's either all subjective hocus pocus or genuinely down to whether an ecu is mapped for higher octane fuels in my opinion.
I also have a Saab 93 HOT which the blurb in the book says the ecu will recognise 98 octane but until recently I've been a cheapskate and run it on 95.
After a long recent Italian tune up I noticed the Saab was noticeably pokier so I decided to start using 99 to see if that improved things further. After 3 tanks the ecu appears to have adjusted to the fuel an really seems to pull better when on boost. All of this could just be some sort placebo effect though as the minds a funny old thing and will tend to make you believe whatever you want to believe.
I did this test years back on a 1.7 Puma, the ecu of which can't recognise higher octane fuel and noticed no improvement whatsoever. Its's either all subjective hocus pocus or genuinely down to whether an ecu is mapped for higher octane fuels in my opinion.
ymwoods said:
I have friends that will ONLY use the Shell V-Power stuff as they swear that their cars run better and go faster on it. They also seem to think that they can hear the difference in the engine when they are running cheap supermarket fuel.
Iv done a MPG test between Morrison's fuel and Shell V-Power and there was a .2 mpg difference in Shell's favour. hardly anywhere near their "up to" claims. I personally don't notice a difference either in performance or the sound.
I have heard that for it to make noticeable difference, the car needs to be mapped running the higher rated fuel to take advantage of it. With the cost of a re-map and then the added cost on top of a full tank for the good stuff...is it really worth it for a few extra horse (if that)
Modern performance cars most certainly don't need to be remapped. Higher octane fuels do make a difference. Fifth Gear did this test few years back on a rolling road.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQghB4asSnIIv done a MPG test between Morrison's fuel and Shell V-Power and there was a .2 mpg difference in Shell's favour. hardly anywhere near their "up to" claims. I personally don't notice a difference either in performance or the sound.
I have heard that for it to make noticeable difference, the car needs to be mapped running the higher rated fuel to take advantage of it. With the cost of a re-map and then the added cost on top of a full tank for the good stuff...is it really worth it for a few extra horse (if that)
I do wonder how much is just a placebo effect.
I have tried so called performance fuels on an Alfa 147GTA, BMW M3, BMW 123d, BMW 530d and never noticed any difference. The performance fuels claim increased BHP and mpg yet none of the cars I've tried them in alter. In fact in the Alfa the mpg was worse even after 8 tanks of the stuff.
Personally I'll keep the extra £5 a tank in my own pocket.
I have tried so called performance fuels on an Alfa 147GTA, BMW M3, BMW 123d, BMW 530d and never noticed any difference. The performance fuels claim increased BHP and mpg yet none of the cars I've tried them in alter. In fact in the Alfa the mpg was worse even after 8 tanks of the stuff.
Personally I'll keep the extra £5 a tank in my own pocket.
My cars a jap import, their fuel is higher octane than ours so I run mine on 99 all the time. If it could run on UK 95 octane fuel with no issues I'd do it, but the one time I had to run it on 95, low fuel and fuel strike on so had to put some in to get it to a petrol station that was a)still open and b) had high octane, it ran like utter s
te to be honest. Would never do it again.
te to be honest. Would never do it again. swerni said:
St John Smythe said:
ymwoods said:
I have friends that will ONLY use the Shell V-Power stuff as they swear that their cars run better and go faster on it. They also seem to think that they can hear the difference in the engine when they are running cheap supermarket fuel.
Iv done a MPG test between Morrison's fuel and Shell V-Power and there was a .2 mpg difference in Shell's favour. hardly anywhere near their "up to" claims. I personally don't notice a difference either in performance or the sound.
I have heard that for it to make noticeable difference, the car needs to be mapped running the higher rated fuel to take advantage of it. With the cost of a re-map and then the added cost on top of a full tank for the good stuff...is it really worth it for a few extra horse (if that)
Modern performance cars most certainly don't need to be remapped. Higher octane fuels do make a difference. Fifth Gear did this test few years back on a rolling road.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQghB4asSnIIv done a MPG test between Morrison's fuel and Shell V-Power and there was a .2 mpg difference in Shell's favour. hardly anywhere near their "up to" claims. I personally don't notice a difference either in performance or the sound.
I have heard that for it to make noticeable difference, the car needs to be mapped running the higher rated fuel to take advantage of it. With the cost of a re-map and then the added cost on top of a full tank for the good stuff...is it really worth it for a few extra horse (if that)
I had a little MGTF 200bhp ( emerald ecu etc)that I used for trackdays, took it to dave at emerald for a remap, he said its a little down on power, sluggish, the fuel is st, whats in it, oops I had filled it with Tescos finest by mistake, had always been on V power, so it does make a difference on some cars.
t, whats in it, oops I had filled it with Tescos finest by mistake, had always been on V power, so it does make a difference on some cars.ymwoods said:
I have heard that for it to make noticeable difference, the car needs to be mapped running the higher rated fuel to take advantage of it. With the cost of a re-map and then the added cost on top of a full tank for the good stuff...is it really worth it for a few extra horse (if that)
If it is remapped for either 99 or 95, you will get better mpg. I estimated that I made the cost of the remap back in 6 months from better fuel economy. It's the remap that is important.Not sure how accurate this is, but was told that modern ECUs may need to "learn" about a new fuel in order to adjust to it, and this process can require a couple of tank-fulls to do it?
My own car (2.2 N/A petrol) and the previous car I had (1.8 N/A petrol) definitely prefer Shell FuelSave to Esso standard petrol. The fuel economy is definitely better. But the car previous to that (1.2 N/A petrol) liked Esso best.
I got a voucher for 10p/litre off Tesco Momentum99 so that's what's in the tank right now (63 litres of the stuff). I have another voucher just the same - will see how the economy compares after the 2nd tank is done.
My own car (2.2 N/A petrol) and the previous car I had (1.8 N/A petrol) definitely prefer Shell FuelSave to Esso standard petrol. The fuel economy is definitely better. But the car previous to that (1.2 N/A petrol) liked Esso best.
I got a voucher for 10p/litre off Tesco Momentum99 so that's what's in the tank right now (63 litres of the stuff). I have another voucher just the same - will see how the economy compares after the 2nd tank is done.
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