Shell V-Power unleaded price premium over standard

[Flibble]

Terzo123 said:

I've been using Costco premium unleaded recently for my C63. The car has been fine using it.

117.9 per litre also helps.

Same supplier as Momentum. I use it, really cheap round here, 116.9 I think.

[to3m]

I think it was 117.9 in Costco in Sheffield today for 99 RON! I've been putting Costco super unleaded in my car the whole time I've had it, and no issues noted - this even though my car is a BMW with the super flaky N53 engine, and even though Costco petrol is so much cheaper than everywhere else that it's almost suspicious. It's so much cheaper that it's basically always worth my while making the 12 mile round trip to fill up there, even if I don't have any other reason to use the car, even compared to going to the petrol station that's literally just down the road...

(What I am getting ripped off on, I wonder, when I go there, to compensate? The annual membership fee will pay for a certain amount, but I don't think it will offset everything. Maybe if I did a spreadsheet it would all become obvious, but offhand, the economics of this aren't clear to me.)

[Shrimpvende]

I've also been using Costco 99 for the past few months after V power became unjustifiably expensive. No issues noted and it's generally a much better experience, nice new quick pumps, loads of lanes and never too busy. Having to pay at the pump makes the whole process far quicker too so I wouldn't now go back to Shell even if the prices dropped.

[hepy]

Usually do 1 fill up of Tesco or Sainsbury’s super for 3 standard fill ups for my Cupra. Weirdly it always seems to run better on Asda fuel?

Recently tried Hydra Petrol Power Blast additive adding it to standard fuel and the car runs like a dream. Bet messy doing it and measuring it is a bit of an faff, so not sure if I will continue to use it. 8 quid from Amazon.

Might be worth someone using if they don’t have easy access to 98 Ron.

[Dickie-D]

I've used BP Ultimate (97 RON) for years in my 2003 Mini Cooper S, but a while ago I tried Shell's performance fuel which I think was shown as being 98 RON at the time. I thought the acceleration was smoother and slightly faster, but over the next month an amber emissions warning light came on intermittently, which had never happened before. I switched back to BP Ultimate and after a while the emissions light stayed off.

I bought Shell V-Power (99 RON) a few days ago at £1.429 per litre. The engine seems to idle more smoothly, rev more eagerly, the supercharger whine reaches a high pitch more quickly, the car feels quicker, accelerates more smoothly and the engine sings a more refined tune. The most noticeable differences are the smoother acceleration and idle, and a persistent and bloody annoying squeaking sound when idling has mysteriously vanished.

[Gerradi]

My Lawnmower prefers tesco Momentum to Asda's standard ...

[xjay1337]

Dickie-D said:

I've used BP Ultimate (97 RON) for years in my 2003 Mini Cooper S, but a while ago I tried Shell's performance fuel which I think was shown as being 98 RON at the time. I thought the acceleration was smoother and slightly faster, but over the next month an amber emissions warning light came on intermittently, which had never happened before. I switched back to BP Ultimate and after a while the emissions light stayed off.

I bought Shell V-Power (99 RON) a few days ago at £1.429 per litre. The engine seems to idle more smoothly, rev more eagerly, the supercharger whine reaches a high pitch more quickly, the car feels quicker, accelerates more smoothly and the engine sings a more refined tune. The most noticeable differences are the smoother acceleration and idle, and a persistent and bloody annoying squeaking sound when idling has mysteriously vanished.

1) The fuel won't be related to your CEL
2) The fuel won't change the squeaking noise.

[gizlaroc]

xjay1337 said:

1) The fuel won't be related to your CEL
2) The fuel won't change the squeaking noise.

1) Why not? My 3.5 v6 Merc would throw a cel everytime I used Sainsbury petrol.

2) The mini has a knock sensor, the advanced timing using the 99ron could well hide any noise I guess. How much difference is there in revs at idle between 95 ron and 99 ron?
I guess it changes? It did when you used to manually advance the timing. A noise at 800rpm might well disappear at 850rpm.
I don't know? Just thinking out loud.

[shake n bake]

Gerradi said:

My Lawnmower prefers tesco Momentum to Asda's standard ...

Showing off with your petrol mower

[cuprabob]

Gerradi said:

My Lawnmower prefers tesco Momentum to Asda's standard ...

Clubcard points too

[WJNB]

Saabaholic said:

Dont forget that with V power you get Tripple Shell points.
I get about £12 back in vouchers every month, Thats for both our family cars.
Not a lot of money, but every little helps !.

Have been sucked into Shells Points scheme for too long, now getting a poncy plastic card to use.
Suspect I have been conned as I have a very ordinary 1.8 turbo engine & rarely drive fast or need to be the first away at the traffic lights so I adhere to whatever the octane rating says on the fuel filler cap - i.e. your basic stuff 95 I think so no point in paying extra for premium go juice.
No way am convinced that mpg would improve to warrant the extra cost of premium stuff.
However I would never want to visit a Tesco site however cheap the fuel is.

[xjay1337]

gizlaroc said:

xjay1337 said:

1) The fuel won't be related to your CEL
2) The fuel won't change the squeaking noise.

1) Why not? My 3.5 v6 Merc would throw a cel everytime I used Sainsbury petrol.

2) The mini has a knock sensor, the advanced timing using the 99ron could well hide any noise I guess. How much difference is there in revs at idle between 95 ron and 99 ron?
I guess it changes? It did when you used to manually advance the timing. A noise at 800rpm might well disappear at 850rpm.
I don't know? Just thinking out loud.

Any petrol in the UK will work with most cars as it all meets a minimum acceptable level! So if it was causing a CEL that's a coincidence, or assuming you were using 95 and the car required a higher octane (would have been on the fuel cap).
Given how many millions of people use Sainsburys petrol it's a safe assumption that the petrol is fine so the issue may be with your car.

I remember one model of the MK5 Golf would throw a hissy fit if you didn't run it on 98 octane, part of it's FSI fuelling and would run a bit crap and sometimes throw a check engine light until it had better fuel. However this was written in the owners manual

Lots of cars have knock sensors, knock detects detonation which tends to occur at higher loads / higher RPM's.

However most cars do not actually know what type of fuel they have (IE there isn't a fuel quality sensor as such)
they have a rubber band set of parameters they can run in based on a variety of outside readings (timing, knock detection, afr etc) and will run to the upper edge of that and only cut back if it detects unwanted things , such as knock , high inlet temp, weird afr, pre or post catalyst temperature too high/low etc)

While yes perhaps a noise may not be present at a slightly different idling RPM fuel does not really impact idling speed and that would be related to other factors such as engine temperature, ambient temperature and load (EG air conditioning) .

Of course I see the benefit of running performance fuel (certainly in turbocharged cars or cars with a high specific output), This also is useful for tuning cars as most cars are running to timing based on 95 octane fuel but if you use 98/99 octane you can increase HP and torque substantially (40hp in some cases I've seen with my own eyes).
You may also get a nicer throttle response (however this will be minor and mostly placebo) and you may get some better MPG as a result of being able to utilise the advanced timing more.

But in a , for example , 1998 Ford Mondeo Ghia , it's not really worth it, but certainly it wouldn't cause a CEL unless you had any underlying issue.

[gizlaroc]

xjay1337 said:

Any petrol in the UK will work with most cars as it all meets a minimum acceptable level! So if it was causing a CEL that's a coincidence, or assuming you were using 95 and the car required a higher octane (would have been on the fuel cap).
Given how many millions of people use Sainsburys petrol it's a safe assumption that the petrol is fine so the issue may be with your car.

It was repeatable every time.

There have been loads of reports of Mercedes replacing NOX sensors that were reading faulty.

Turns out the NOX sensor was not faulty, just too sensitive.

When you scan it it also has a code that says the car has been misfueled.



I have mentioned Sainsbury fuel to loads of the Merc forum user with CEL lights and after using something else they have all had the light go out.


Not talking ron btw. Just something that is in their fuel some sensors may not like.
A few on the 1 series forum had similar issues.

[gizlaroc]

Regarding what happens at idle, the BMW M52 2.8i engine was considerably quieter when it was filled with 99 compared to 95, hence I think there must be some difference at idle.

[SOL111]

WJNB said:

Saabaholic said:

Dont forget that with V power you get Tripple Shell points.
I get about £12 back in vouchers every month, Thats for both our family cars.
Not a lot of money, but every little helps !.

Have been sucked into Shells Points scheme for too long, now getting a poncy plastic card to use.
Suspect I have been conned as I have a very ordinary 1.8 turbo engine & rarely drive fast or need to be the first away at the traffic lights so I adhere to whatever the octane rating says on the fuel filler cap - i.e. your basic stuff 95 I think so no point in paying extra for premium go juice.
No way am convinced that mpg would improve to warrant the extra cost of premium stuff.
However I would never want to visit a Tesco site however cheap the fuel is.

Unless you're looking to maximise your peak power then it's not worth it. Economy is likely to be dubious, given the price increase over 95 too.

I have noticed smoother running in my old M140 and allegedly it cleans so is possibly worth a shot every now and then but otherwise I'd save your money.

[gizlaroc]

Just did a quick search and it seems Sainsbury were using a slightly higher Ethanol percentage than many others.

It seems as well that above the standard 5% ethanol it throws the EML on Mercs.

Sainsbury are now using 5% again.

Never considered Ethanol content before. I think they all have to put on what percentage their fuel is now?

[gizlaroc]

SOL111 said:

Unless you're looking to maximise your peak power then it's not worth it. Economy is likely to be dubious, given the price increase over 95 too.

I have noticed smoother running in my old M140 and allegedly it cleans so is possibly worth a shot every now and then but otherwise I'd save your money.

I saw just over 10% increase in MPG with my 335i and slightly more than that with my E350 using 99ron.

It worked out slightly cheaper to fill up with the higher octane.

The E350 I ran on 95 for a year and 25k miles, then on 98 for 12 months and 25k.
On 99 ron it would get 35mpg on a run without trying, on 95 ron it was more like 31, 32 at a real push.

[SOL111]

gizlaroc said:

SOL111 said:

Unless you're looking to maximise your peak power then it's not worth it. Economy is likely to be dubious, given the price increase over 95 too.

I have noticed smoother running in my old M140 and allegedly it cleans so is possibly worth a shot every now and then but otherwise I'd save your money.

I saw just over 10% increase in MPG with my 335i and slightly more than that with my E350 using 99ron.

It worked out slightly cheaper to fill up with the higher octane.

The E350 I ran on 95 for a year and 25k miles, then on 98 for 12 months and 25k.
On 99 ron it would get 35mpg on a run without trying, on 95 ron it was more like 31, 32 at a real push.

Must be variable as I didn't notice that on my M140, perhaps a few mpg but not worth the extra.

Although I was already getting 35 so may have already been at the limit for my commute.

[The Mad Monk]

SOL111 said:

gizlaroc said:

SOL111 said:

Unless you're looking to maximise your peak power then it's not worth it. Economy is likely to be dubious, given the price increase over 95 too.

I have noticed smoother running in my old M140 and allegedly it cleans so is possibly worth a shot every now and then but otherwise I'd save your money.

I saw just over 10% increase in MPG with my 335i and slightly more than that with my E350 using 99ron.

It worked out slightly cheaper to fill up with the higher octane.

The E350 I ran on 95 for a year and 25k miles, then on 98 for 12 months and 25k.
On 99 ron it would get 35mpg on a run without trying, on 95 ron it was more like 31, 32 at a real push.

Must be variable as I didn't notice that on my M140, perhaps a few mpg but not worth the extra.

Although I was already getting 35 so may have already been at the limit for my commute.

I suggest these results are not statistically valid, as there is insufficient control over the variables.

[anonymous-user]

Life is just too short to spend it worrying about minimal differences in fuel and making special journeys for particular fuels.

As long as it meets the British standard, I'm happy to chuck anything in my cars.