Does Supermarket Fuel Produce Lower MPG?

[TorqueTalk]

The truth:

The best fuel is Shell V Power as proven on the dyno, just ask any tuning specialist...

There was a test done by fith gear, using a subaru impreza...

Optimax cam out on top with 14 more bhp & 26 ft-lb more torque over supermarket fuel...

And remember if you get more power your getting a better burn which means more mpg...

[kaese]

TorqueTalk said:

The truth:

The best fuel is Shell V Power as proven on the dyno, just ask any tuning specialist...

There was a test done by fith gear, using a subaru impreza...

Optimax cam out on top with 14 more bhp & 26 ft-lb more torque over supermarket fuel...

And remember if you get more power your getting a better burn which means more mpg...

Vid link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQghB4asSnI

[kev b]

I always use standard Shell petrol in my motorbike, an Aprilia Mille V-twin. On the odd occasion I have tried V-Power the engine seems to run more roughly, ie more vibration through the bars/footpegs. There was little difference in MPG but interestingly the V-Power gave a few MPG less each time. Does anyone have a reason for this? The engine is injected but does not have a knock sensor so maybe the stock timing map is better suited to standard fuel.

[Brigand]

Toaster Pilot said:

Could you actually measure the quantities of fuel used the next time you do it?

Oh yes, I should have added that I'd filled the tank up to the brim before going home or heading back, so the same amount of fuel will have been in the tank at the start of each journey, that might actually mean something now!

Each car will have had a different sized tank, but they all had a full one.

[ryandoc]

R300will said:

The super markets buy up the petrol from refinery's that the main companies like BP and Shell and Texaco etc. don't want. So the quality will be inferior to those brands and some decrease in MPG or performance may be noticed.

Sorry to pick on this post as an example as there's many, but 100% complete and utter bks I'm afraid.

Anyone who thinks a refinery process produces crap fuel 12 hours a day and sticks it in X tank as crap stuff then produces good stuff the other 12 hours and sticks it in Y tank doesn't know what they are talking about.

Road loading terminal, 4-5 filling hoses, all supplied from same tanks. Additive is added at the nozzle/point of entry into the tanker compartment. Base fuel is same generally all third parties get the exact same additives, bigger brands get their own.

Also as of June this year Shell no longer own a refinery in the UK so who's make their fuels for them.

Flow measurement engineer for Shell, extensive knowledge of tanker loading at a certain ex Shell refinery on the wirral.

That's not willy waving before anyone chips in. Just can never get over the conspiracy theories people come up with on fuel in the UK in the 21st century.

V-power uses a GTL (gas to liquid) component which is basically C1 methane converted to a synthetic petrol. All other super fuels use ethanol. Road grade ethanol is not certified water free where as v-power has no ethanol. In some countries v-power can be used in light aircraft.

Edited by ryandoc on Sunday 29th January 11:47

[sinizter]

Shell used to give me most MPG, Tesco 2nd. All the rest were more or less the same. Never really used BP fuel except rarely, so cannot comment on that.

[Toaster Pilot]

kaese said:

TorqueTalk said:

The truth:

The best fuel is Shell V Power as proven on the dyno, just ask any tuning specialist...

There was a test done by fith gear, using a subaru impreza...

Optimax cam out on top with 14 more bhp & 26 ft-lb more torque over supermarket fuel...

And remember if you get more power your getting a better burn which means more mpg...

Vid link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQghB4asSnI

I can't view that video at the moment because I'm at work - but didn't that test also show that in a more run of the mill car it made no difference?

[TorqueTalk]

Toaster Pilot said:

I can't view that video at the moment because I'm at work - but didn't that test also show that in a more run of the mill car it made no difference?

If the engine ecu is basic, and the engine is basic then it makes no difference... your quite right...

[airportparking]

To be honest I have never noticed a real difference in either mpg or performance on any car, I do prefer to stick to Tesco though

[thinfourth2]

TorqueTalk said:

The truth:

The best fuel is Shell V Power as proven on the dyno, just ask any tuning specialist...

There was a test done by fith gear, using a subaru impreza...

Optimax cam out on top with 14 more bhp & 26 ft-lb more torque over supermarket fuel...

And remember if you get more power your getting a better burn which means more mpg...

Thats me convinced

I'm putting only v-power in my micra and i expect a 14Bhp gain

About 25% increase in power just from different petrol

[kaese]

Toaster Pilot said:

I can't view that video at the moment because I'm at work - but didn't that test also show that in a more run of the mill car it made no difference?

Yep - tested with a 80ish bhp Clio - no difference
Tested with a Golf GTi - maximum difference of 5bhp between best / worst
Tested with Subaru Impreza - maximum difference of 15bhp between best /worst

The video was also only comparing the high octane offerings from Shell and BP against standard supermarket fuel.

[Maximum Bobs]

Don't know about petrol because I don't use enough of it to care. For diesel I will only use Esso by choice because I get up to 60 miles per tank more than I do from the Shell equivalent, this has been proved time after time when I used to drive for a living using my own van.

I haven't calculated against supermarket diesel because I hate the queues involved with Tesco, Sainsbury etc in my area. Esso in my area is always the same price as Shell or cheaper so that as well is an added bonus.

[shovelheadrob]

I try to only use the Shell garage at the end of my street because it's the cheapest for miles & I'm a tight cun7.

[va1o]

I've found the opposite, my car seems to get higher MPG on supermarket fuel than it does when running on Shell Fuelsave unleaded for example. However, the engine is smoother on the Shell and more responsive at low revs.

[Garvin]

There is no difference in the basic fuel used, the difference, as stated previously, is in the additives most of which are to do with keeping the engine/injector internals clean etc. I have used many different brands over many different vehicles and there is no significant difference in mpg as long as the everything is kept crud free which the 'expensive' brands tend to do and the supermarket offerings do not do so well. One could use supermarket fuel and run, say, 250ml injector cleaner through every 3k miles or so but the current net savings over 3k miles are ~£18 or about £72 a year (on a total fuel bill of ~£2.4k) for something doing average annual mileage (12k miles) at 30mpg. Indeed, the saving without the injector cleaner is ~£92 per annum - one has to way this saving up against the health of one's engine!

If your vehicle does not have an adaptive ecu with knock sensors etc. then you are pretty much wasting your time buying higher octane fuel if it's tuned to run on 95RON and you're expecting increased mpg.

I would expect those vehicles that have been run on an exclusive diet of supermarket fuel for years to not have their internals in particularly rude health and not be running at optimum mpg. Swapping to some 'better' fuel which starts to clear the crud out could conceiveably result in bad running/worse mpg until it's all cleaned through, especially for the adaptive ecu equipped vehicles which may detect all this crap and start to either wind things back a bit or try and compensate.

For others who experience bad running on certain fuels I would think that this is more to do with the cleanliness of the fuel station storage tanks than anything else.

[mph1977]

TorqueTalk said:

The truth:

The best fuel is Shell V Power as proven on the dyno, just ask any tuning specialist...

There was a test done by fith gear, using a subaru impreza...

Optimax cam out on top with 14 more bhp & 26 ft-lb more torque over supermarket fuel...

And remember if you get more power your getting a better burn which means more mpg...

as long as you have a vehicle with a very sensitive knock sensor or you recalibrate the timing between different octane ratings and calorific values ..

there is so much rubbish talked on the subject of fuel much beyond different brand = different additive mix and the timing / knock stuff with increased / decreased octane ratings

[TorqueTalk]

mph1977 said:

TorqueTalk said:

The truth:

The best fuel is Shell V Power as proven on the dyno, just ask any tuning specialist...

There was a test done by fith gear, using a subaru impreza...

Optimax cam out on top with 14 more bhp & 26 ft-lb more torque over supermarket fuel...

And remember if you get more power your getting a better burn which means more mpg...

as long as you have a vehicle with a very sensitive knock sensor or you recalibrate the timing between different octane ratings and calorific values ..

there is so much rubbish talked on the subject of fuel much beyond different brand = different additive mix and the timing / knock stuff with increased / decreased octane ratings

With my car I run an apexi ecu I can see my knock levels on the apexi comander I only use v power, but over xmas I was not going to make it to the shell station so put £10 of momentum in to tide me over and I could not go over 4000 rpm without my knock levels getting high?

[valverguy]

Without reading everything above, my old man works for a large refinery in our local area. I know that all fuel in the local area regardless of brand comes from the same place, yes additives are added to speification, however he says that getting your fuel from whereever is the busiest garage is the best bet... why? simples because the longer fuel is stored waiting to be used the less combustable it becomes, suddenly your 99ron becomes 95 after a week of not being used. Ive alwas gone to our local asda because its the busiest garage around and never had any problems

[johnpeat]

balders118 said:

I get better economy from morrisons than any other fuel. By 2/3mpg on average. I've got the spreadsheet to prove it. This is over 20,000 miles worth of driving, so not just a couple of tanks.

How do you explain that lovers of Shell? I actually get about 5mpg worse on Vpower.

A difference of 2-3mpg on a car which averages (and I'm guessing) 35-40mpg is a small difference even over 20,000 miles. When you consider that a car's MPG is influenced by a huge range of factors (the driver, the weather, the road surface, traffic, tyre wear, fuel mix, supplying forecourt etc.) it's easily explained away.

Same applies to the others who've found the opposite of course.

End of the day, supermarket 95RON is the same as everyone else's 95RON bar some additives which are mainly intended to clean your engine (and will take time to achieve this).

Anyone who thinks otherwise has been gulled by advertising/brand image and snobbery.

[kambites]

kaese said:

TorqueTalk said:

The truth:

The best fuel is Shell V Power as proven on the dyno, just ask any tuning specialist...

There was a test done by fith gear, using a subaru impreza...

Optimax cam out on top with 14 more bhp & 26 ft-lb more torque over supermarket fuel...

And remember if you get more power your getting a better burn which means more mpg...

Vid link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQghB4asSnI

All that shows is that Octane rating matters if you have a knock sensor, which I don't think will surprise anyone. The OP's question was about different brands of fuel with the same Octane rating.