Esso Super Unleaded change.

Esso Super Unleaded change.

Author
Discussion

W88CHY

Original Poster:

82 posts

202 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Just a heads up, from August Esso are changing their Super Unleaded from 97 octane to 99 octane, this will take a month or so for the 97 to be replenished in the tanks with the 99 hence they are not launching the new product officially until around October.

Prinny

1,669 posts

100 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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This is good news. Been that way on the continent for a while - certainly in NL. I will say that the M6 really liked it, there was a top-end zip that’s never been there with v-power. Not as good as the Aral 102 in Germany mind...

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

187 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Esso goes on the "approved list" then.

cdon

2,124 posts

176 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Prinny said:
This is good news. Been that way on the continent for a while - certainly in NL. I will say that the M6 really liked it, there was a top-end zip that’s never been there with v-power. Not as good as the Aral 102 in Germany mind...
The smell of Aral 102 is something to behold.

Chromegrill

1,084 posts

87 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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And they take Nectar cards too! Vpower has never quite felt the same since Shell stopped their reward scheme and came up with an app that doesn't work on my phone.

SidewaysSi

10,742 posts

235 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Great news! Need more retailers to supply the good stuff.

bgunn

1,417 posts

132 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Chromegrill said:
And they take Nectar cards too! Vpower has never quite felt the same since Shell stopped their reward scheme and came up with an app that doesn't work on my phone.
+1. The new app is dog turd - gives you vouchers that you can't redeem without walking in to pay. The whole point is that you can pay on your phone..

TheAngryDog

12,409 posts

210 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Esso are about 10p per litre more expensive than Tesco Momentum. Think I'll be sticking with Momentum.

Chromegrill

1,084 posts

87 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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TheAngryDog said:
Esso are about 10p per litre more expensive than Tesco Momentum. Think I'll be sticking with Momentum.
Not necessarily. At around £1.10 per litre versus £1.00 it's 10% more expensive so what you need to ask is whether you get 10% more miles per tank on Esso versus Tesco. If you do, you will find they cost exactly the same per mile in which case which one is better for your engine or drives better?

anonymous-user

55 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Chromegrill said:
TheAngryDog said:
Esso are about 10p per litre more expensive than Tesco Momentum. Think I'll be sticking with Momentum.
Not necessarily. At around £1.10 per litre versus £1.00 it's 10% more expensive so what you need to ask is whether you get 10% more miles per tank on Esso versus Tesco. If you do, you will find they cost exactly the same per mile in which case which one is better for your engine or drives better?
I don't think everyone will be buying it for improved mileage so it is 'just more expensive'😄

jamoor

14,506 posts

216 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Is there any production cars sold here that need such petrol? The only car I've ever had was a swift sport that recommended 97 all the others have been 95.

Jimmy Recard

17,540 posts

180 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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jamoor said:
Is there any production cars sold here that need such petrol? The only car I've ever had was a swift sport that recommended 97 all the others have been 95.
The handbook for mine says it’ll be a bit more powerful with 98 but 95 is fine

V6Alfisti

3,305 posts

228 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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jamoor said:
Is there any production cars sold here that need such petrol? The only car I've ever had was a swift sport that recommended 97 all the others have been 95.
My Porsche 997 is recommended to run on 98, thus Esso at 97 is below spec. Equally it can be run on 95 but the one time I had to (no super) it ran noticeably rougher.

I had another car that also needed to be run on 98, either the 4200 or Chimaera. Can't remember which.


Chris32345

2,086 posts

63 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Only one Esso garage around here and that only does plain petrol and diesel

Ron99

1,985 posts

82 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Jimmy Recard said:
jamoor said:
Is there any production cars sold here that need such petrol? The only car I've ever had was a swift sport that recommended 97 all the others have been 95.
The handbook for mine says it’ll be a bit more powerful with 98 but 95 is fine
The manual for my Insignia recommends 98. It says 95 is possible and to drive very gently if using 91.

My Insignia's engine rpms seem to climb faster and smoother with Tesco 99 than with 95 and the car seems happier to pull higher gears at slightly lower rpms. It might not make much more horsepower (I've heard 5-10%) but it seems to climb the power curve more quickly.

Fuel consumption slightly improves but not enough to cover the extra cost per litre, so the cost per mile is slightly more with 99 than 95.


I often wonder why Vauxhall specified 98 octane for the Insignia 2.8 (various outputs from 250 in Vectra to 320 in Insignia) but they only specify 95 octane for the 2.0T 250 which is even more highly boosted (more hp per litre) and ought to benefit more from higher octane.
Yet they specify 98 in the 1.6T 200 which is comparable hp litre to the 2.0T 250.

I would have thought that all modern turbocharged engines could be mapped to run better on 98 compared to 95.

SimonTheSailor

12,615 posts

229 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Is this the change that is going to affect slightly older cars ? Something to do with having more ethanol in it so it might eat through older gaskets or something ?

anonymous-user

55 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Modern engines don't need adjusting at all, they automatically maximise use of whatever fuel is in the car.

donkmeister

8,205 posts

101 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Ron99 said:
Jimmy Recard said:
jamoor said:
Is there any production cars sold here that need such petrol? The only car I've ever had was a swift sport that recommended 97 all the others have been 95.
The handbook for mine says it’ll be a bit more powerful with 98 but 95 is fine
The manual for my Insignia recommends 98. It says 95 is possible and to drive very gently if using 91.

My Insignia's engine rpms seem to climb faster and smoother with Tesco 99 than with 95 and the car seems happier to pull higher gears at slightly lower rpms. It might not make much more horsepower (I've heard 5-10%) but it seems to climb the power curve more quickly.

Fuel consumption slightly improves but not enough to cover the extra cost per litre, so the cost per mile is slightly more with 99 than 95.


I often wonder why Vauxhall specified 98 octane for the Insignia 2.8 (various outputs from 250 in Vectra to 320 in Insignia) but they only specify 95 octane for the 2.0T 250 which is even more highly boosted (more hp per litre) and ought to benefit more from higher octane.
Yet they specify 98 in the 1.6T 200 which is comparable hp litre to the 2.0T 250.

I would have thought that all modern turbocharged engines could be mapped to run better on 98 compared to 95.
Oddly, the 98-RON map came in with the 280bhp Vectra VXR, which as far as I could tell from part numbers had the same hardware as the 250bhp VXR and 230bhp Elite. The sub-280 bhp 2.8T's make full power on 95-RON (no idea about the Insignia Elites). I had a remapped Elite 230 that was pushing around 300, and it ran like poo on 95-RON (I was warned as much).

ETA "ran like poo" is a bit unspecific... I found that with a warm engine, on 95-RON, flooring it from low revs would result in hesitation. No such problem on 98-RON, or with a more sympathetic application of throttle.

ging84

8,916 posts

147 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Ron numbers don't mean that much. Chances are this is part of the move from E5 to E10. Ethanol increases the RON far more than it does the MON, this means it is may not be more stable at high air intake temperatures than 97 RON E5 fuel. Result will likely be slightly more power for some cars, but anything with a high specific output will benefit less maybe will even lose power, particularly when driven in anger or after sitting heat soaking in traffic.

TheAngryDog

12,409 posts

210 months

Friday 31st July 2020
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Chromegrill said:
TheAngryDog said:
Esso are about 10p per litre more expensive than Tesco Momentum. Think I'll be sticking with Momentum.
Not necessarily. At around £1.10 per litre versus £1.00 it's 10% more expensive so what you need to ask is whether you get 10% more miles per tank on Esso versus Tesco. If you do, you will find they cost exactly the same per mile in which case which one is better for your engine or drives better?
Momentum near me £1.16 per litre, Esso 97 is £1.26 per litre. I've never seen any benefits of Esso or Shell V Power over Momentum. Paying extra so you you can tell people you only put in X petrol, as in an attempt to justify it, is needlessly wasteful.