Supermarket fuel inferior quality says Telegraph. Really?
Discussion
Ari said:
This was in the Telegraph at the weekend. I fill up at Sainsburys (super unleaded) as I was lead to believe it all came from the same refineries and there was no material difference in supermarket fuels versus 'branded' fuels.
Interested in people's thoughts on this - should I be filling up with branded fuel instead?
Mates mum is a manager at a bp petrol station, she says the tanker that comes there is the exact same tanker that goes to sainsburys but i have no idea about additives just thought id mention itInterested in people's thoughts on this - should I be filling up with branded fuel instead?
madbadger said:
However I don't expect actual facts will get in the way of 'my car definitely feels different'. 
As ridiculous as this will sound, my 996 C4S ran like an old dog when I filled up with V-Power. It was enough to scare me into thinking something was wrong. Two tanks of Tesco Momentum (99RON) later and all was fine again.My MG ZT daily driver runs on Asda fuel, as I don't want to be taking 30min mile diversions to Tesco/Shell regularly. I don't notice any difference using the 'cheapo scummy' fuel when compared to other brands.
I'd like some independant facts on the various types of fuel, differences between suppliers' grades etc. to be published, as it all just seems to be anecdotal 'evidence' or that of magazines who could easily be swayed by advretising bias.
WojaWabbit said:
As ridiculous as this will sound, my 996 C4S ran like an old dog when I filled up with V-Power. It was enough to scare me into thinking something was wrong. Two tanks of Tesco Momentum (99RON) later and all was fine again.
to be fair, V-Power and Tesco Momentum are nothing like each other, Momentum uses a lot of ethanol, V-Power used more additives to achieve it's octane.having worked on mapping using both, there requirements are noticeably different both in fueling and timing.
Interesting reading about Momentum here - why can't all suppliers be as helpful?
http://www.tescopfs.com/our-fuel/testing_results
http://www.tescopfs.com/our-fuel/testing_results
Riley Blue said:
Interesting reading about Momentum here - why can't all suppliers be as helpful?
http://www.tescopfs.com/our-fuel/testing_results
yes and nohttp://www.tescopfs.com/our-fuel/testing_results
read the full PDF's, pretty much shows naff all difference, and that being down to fuel density (which can vary quite a lot in batch refining).
Devil2575 said:
Cupid stunt.
I hate to burst your bubble but there is plenty of established science to explain why wearing a coat makes you feel warmer.
But then I wouldn't expect a simpleton like yourself to understand stuff like that.
Just to be a pedant... In lots of fields of science, there are lots of areas of established scientific theory to explain why you would expect something to be a particular way, but when you actually test it, it turns out to be different, often because of some other factor which hadn't been fully considered.I hate to burst your bubble but there is plenty of established science to explain why wearing a coat makes you feel warmer.
But then I wouldn't expect a simpleton like yourself to understand stuff like that.
Of course, with putting on coats the evidence does show it works (and the anecdotal evidence of trying it yourself does give you the correct result), but there are examples where the result is surprising. One example is with bicycle helmets. Physics, and specific testing tells us that wearing bicycle helmets reduces injuries in a crash, thus maybe it would make sense that it is a legal requirement. However, in the best quality analysis that has been done, having that legal requirement actually has little impact on societal health. There are a multitude of possible reasons that I won't go into here, but ultimately, with many (particularly complicated) things, until you actually test the specific thing you want to know, you can't say for certain what the result will be... (obviously)
R2T2 said:
I thought that my car would hate 95 fuel but it seems to run fine with it. I have decided that I will try a couple of tanks of either momentum or BP/Shell. With the 1 or 2 tanks I've used though it seems to drink it a lot faster than normal 95.
Assuming your car is the Punto in your profile then why are you not running it on 95?Scuffers said:
WojaWabbit said:
As ridiculous as this will sound, my 996 C4S ran like an old dog when I filled up with V-Power. It was enough to scare me into thinking something was wrong. Two tanks of Tesco Momentum (99RON) later and all was fine again.
to be fair, V-Power and Tesco Momentum are nothing like each other, Momentum uses a lot of ethanol, V-Power used more additives to achieve it's octane.having worked on mapping using both, there requirements are noticeably different both in fueling and timing.
There is a Shell garage closer to home than a Tesco, so it'd be easier for me to fill up with V-Power. I also ran previous cars which required 98RON+ on V-Power, so I'd be happy to switch back.
As you have previously noted differences between both, which would you recommend?
WojaWabbit said:
Would you say it was likely the (standard, non-mapped) ECU just hadn't fully adjusted to using the V-Power, given the previous owner mentioned he used to run it on the Momentum? Would more time spent running V-Power produce better results than I noted on only one tankful?
There is a Shell garage closer to home than a Tesco, so it'd be easier for me to fill up with V-Power. I also ran previous cars which required 98RON+ on V-Power, so I'd be happy to switch back.
As you have previously noted differences between both, which would you recommend?
can't answer that, it really is car specific, as in what the base calibration and adaptive abilities of the std ECU are, along with the characteristics of the engine.There is a Shell garage closer to home than a Tesco, so it'd be easier for me to fill up with V-Power. I also ran previous cars which required 98RON+ on V-Power, so I'd be happy to switch back.
As you have previously noted differences between both, which would you recommend?
What I am getting at here is that some engines are more sensitive than others to fuel changes, my experience of the difference in fuels is that V-Power requires less advance than Momentum to get to the same place, and is more prone to fall into det because of this, How this panns out is that assuming you take a std conservative calibration, running V-Power will probably get you a little more power without other changes, however, it could well push the ECU into knock control and thus negate any benefit (and quite possibly end up worse off).
Scuffers said:
to be fair, V-Power and Tesco Momentum are nothing like each other, Momentum uses a lot of ethanol, V-Power used more additives to achieve it's octane.
from Momentum spec:Ethanol %(v/v) - 5.0
Is that considered a lot? I didn't think it was and is one of the reasons I use it, to minimise the possibility of damage to my 1963 Riley's fuel system.
Riley Blue said:
Scuffers said:
to be fair, V-Power and Tesco Momentum are nothing like each other, Momentum uses a lot of ethanol, V-Power used more additives to achieve it's octane.
from Momentum spec:Ethanol %(v/v) - 5.0
Is that considered a lot? I didn't think it was and is one of the reasons I use it, to minimise the possibility of damage to my 1963 Riley's fuel system.
Scuffers said:
WojaWabbit said:
Would you say it was likely the (standard, non-mapped) ECU just hadn't fully adjusted to using the V-Power, given the previous owner mentioned he used to run it on the Momentum? Would more time spent running V-Power produce better results than I noted on only one tankful?
There is a Shell garage closer to home than a Tesco, so it'd be easier for me to fill up with V-Power. I also ran previous cars which required 98RON+ on V-Power, so I'd be happy to switch back.
As you have previously noted differences between both, which would you recommend?
can't answer that, it really is car specific, as in what the base calibration and adaptive abilities of the std ECU are, along with the characteristics of the engine.There is a Shell garage closer to home than a Tesco, so it'd be easier for me to fill up with V-Power. I also ran previous cars which required 98RON+ on V-Power, so I'd be happy to switch back.
As you have previously noted differences between both, which would you recommend?
What I am getting at here is that some engines are more sensitive than others to fuel changes, my experience of the difference in fuels is that V-Power requires less advance than Momentum to get to the same place, and is more prone to fall into det because of this, How this panns out is that assuming you take a std conservative calibration, running V-Power will probably get you a little more power without other changes, however, it could well push the ECU into knock control and thus negate any benefit (and quite possibly end up worse off).
Riley Blue said:
from Momentum spec:
Ethanol %(v/v) - 5.0
Is that considered a lot? I didn't think it was and is one of the reasons I use it, to minimise the possibility of damage to my 1963 Riley's fuel system.
It has methanol and various alcohols in there too:Ethanol %(v/v) - 5.0
Is that considered a lot? I didn't think it was and is one of the reasons I use it, to minimise the possibility of damage to my 1963 Riley's fuel system.
http://www.tescopfs.com/our-fuel/specifications
i'm not sure if that's good or bad or how it compares to others as Tesco is one of the few who even publish such detail.
Scuffers...?
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff