Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: MrDJ on 05 August 2010, 19:18:37

Title: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: MrDJ on 05 August 2010, 19:18:37
Been reading up on the net and most people seem to think supermarket fuel might not have the additives but is ok to use.

What do people on here think?

Is supermarket fuel as good as esso/texaco/etc?

And what about the super unleaed - will you get more MPG from it or am I better off sticking to the cheap stuff?
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: TheBoy on 05 August 2010, 19:24:32
Generally seems to have high levels of ethanol to get octane rating up I believe.


Certainly with diesel, I found supermarket fuel smoked far worse than premium brands
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Del Boy on 05 August 2010, 20:03:06
I must say, I can notice a difference when I'm running on supermarket fuel and ESSO or equivalent fuel  :y
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Jimbob on 05 August 2010, 20:07:01
Ordinary shell for me.

Dont like the performance / rough running Ive often experience with tesco's fuel.

I occasionally put the vpower through, but for its cleaning properties


http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1258052938

shows some effects we beleive are down to this sort of regime...
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Del Boy on 05 August 2010, 20:08:17
The SAAB and current 5 series are the only cars I've noticed which need Super unleaded, the 5 runs pretty poor of normal unleaded and performance wise I can certainly feel a difference. SAAB was the same.
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: tunnie on 05 August 2010, 20:17:01
you notice the supermarket fuels more on the bike, Tank of tesco fuel and it ran quite rough and lumpy and down a bit of power, soon as a tank of BP went in, smoothness was back, and significant increase power
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: TheBoy on 05 August 2010, 20:27:16
Quote
you notice the supermarket fuels more on the bike, Tank of tesco fuel and it ran quite rough and lumpy and down a bit of power, soon as a tank of BP went in, smoothness was back, and significant increase power
Surprised you notice on your bike - its not like its a refined engine. One step removed from a VW Beetle engine....
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: tunnie on 05 August 2010, 20:40:09
Quote
Quote
you notice the supermarket fuels more on the bike, Tank of tesco fuel and it ran quite rough and lumpy and down a bit of power, soon as a tank of BP went in, smoothness was back, and significant increase power
Surprised you notice on your bike - its not like its a refined engine. One step removed from a VW Beetle engine....

that tank full of Bicester Tesco fuel was awful! Made boxer even worse  :o
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: whitebullet on 05 August 2010, 23:51:06
i allways used to put supermarket fuel through m car tesco/sainsburys, but when i was on the way back from billing i got to the a50 and noticed i need fuel so i went into the shell and filled up, the difference in the carwas amazing, it ran smoother and the throttle response was alot better and power seem'd better aswell, a few people have said there is no difference in the fuel but quite clearly there is, i only run mine on proper fuel now(shell/bp
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Sixstring on 06 August 2010, 10:39:25
ALWAYS run my bike on V-power, and won't use supermarket fuel in the miggy unless there is no other option, then only a tenner to get me to another Shell/BP/Esso/Texaco station. Can feel the difference in "ordinary" and V-power fuel, ordinary just "runs" and V-power actually makes it respond better.

In the bike, it can be really felt, so much better.
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Kevin Wood on 06 August 2010, 11:12:50
Mine runs fine on supermarket fuel.. but then it only runs on petrol until it gets to the end of my road in the morning. ;D

Kevin
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: tunnie on 06 August 2010, 15:54:26
Quote
Mine runs fine on supermarket fuel.. but then it only runs on petrol until it gets to the end of my road in the morning. ;D

Kevin

Same here, £10 of fuel has lasted me 4,000 miles  ;D
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: jerry on 06 August 2010, 22:14:42
you gets what you pays for. supermarket fuels are NOT as good . Most are standard 95 ron but even the likes of Tescos higher octane are poor compared with V-power and bp ultimate. Used to have a jap import Prelude that wasnt set up for uk 95 ron fuel and it was so lumpy when forced to use supermarket fuel .Anyhow, I tend to stick mostly to v-power, yes it is a lot dearer than supermarket stuff but whilst I cant pretend that its the same price overall I reckon I get nearly an extra round trip to work and back (48 miles) each week if I put v-power in and, of course, you get some money off fuel vouchers too when you use their card. Pick up is also noticeably better too as well as the "cleaning" benefits. Only downside Ive heard about-besides price!-is potential wear on valves which I believe to be minimal anyway, but this is something that those on here with far more knowledge than me might be able to shed light on... :y
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Iain on 06 August 2010, 22:32:02
Well i dont know but i do know a guy who drove a tanker out of Grangemouth
He said the tanks that filled his truck which he took to BP stations around Central Scotland was the same tank that filled his mates tanker for Tesco supermarkets in the same area... :question

I fill up at Shell,because it has a Morrisons store across the road, so the Shell station keeps its fuel prices the same (obviously) ! Result!  :y
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: tigers_gonads on 06 August 2010, 22:37:09
i think its more down to whether the garage looks after its tanks then owt else  :y

tend to use wherever is cheapest round here and i can't tell the difference
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: mars on 06 August 2010, 22:47:37
I always use my local Tesco and have had no problems with them. We used to use local Texaco but had problems with both cars after filling up on the same day once. I have found that that using Tesco's finest seems to work out cheaper than normal fuel, (improved mpg etc) :y
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: joshwyatt on 06 August 2010, 23:49:38
An interesting thread to read, I've often thought about sing the more expensive fuel. I tend to use my local Sainsbury's petrol, but there is a shall not so far away, I may try some of their fuel and see what happens.
Interesting to see Jimbob's experience.
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: bappy on 07 August 2010, 12:18:16
supermarket fuel is most definitely lower quality than brand name. That being said I generally use asda as my credit card gets me a penny off every litre.

without a doubt my vectra diesel runs best on esso.

the mv6 manual however... :D

I once bought one of those STP performance booster packs - you know the bottle of injector cleaner and the bright orange bottle of octane booster....

put the injector cleaner in with a whole tank of asda petrol, ran it to almost empty then put the whole bottle of octane booster in (treats 60 litres) and put 20 litres of bp ultimate in. this was back in the day when bp ultimate was 107 octane...

with the octane booster mixed with such a small amount of already potent fuel the performance of the car was significantly improved. best 86 miles of my life!
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: holtender on 07 August 2010, 23:49:32
My best mate worked as a tanker driver for Shell all his working life and he explained to me the difference between supermarket and refinery petrol.

It is quite simple, the petrol you get from the likes of Shell, Esso and BP comes direct from the refinery.

If you buy from the supermarkets you get all the crap that has sat in an oil tanker for who knows how long absorbing all the moisture and rubbish in the air.

I live on the Suffolk coast and from my window I  can see 20 very large oil tankers just sitting there waiting for the price of oil to rise, some have been there for months!
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: MickAP on 08 August 2010, 00:03:45
Same fuel, the difference is the additives they put in when filling the tankers up.

Mick
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: webby23 on 08 August 2010, 00:17:44
I have always been reluctant to believe there is a difference

However recently I have been using only that new Shell fuelsave stuff and I can honestly say it has made a difference.

Car is noticably quieter in my opinion, and on Tesco fuel it would stall after a warmstart which on Shell now it doesnt do

May also be a slight power/throttle response improvement, although i think some of that is just psychological

Will be running now on Shell exclusively, and have noticed that my local Shell (Priory Island, Nottingham) is the same price as Tesco anyway........

 :y
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: shane1000 on 08 August 2010, 16:47:18
wife works at sainsburys and i'm not supposed to say that they keep the water table at peak levels so you get a good mixture of both fuel and water ... and before you all shout "ilegal"   its not. they are within the legal mixture limit.   as do most of the supermarkets
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Road Hog Mad on 08 August 2010, 17:03:47
I don't think there is much difference to be honest, the difference would like purchasing one of those 10bhp extra chips of ebay.
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Lazydocker on 10 August 2010, 08:35:00
Must confess, for the amount of petrol I use I filled up at Tesco when I had a 5p off voucher in February! :o :o

I've put £20 in since then (at Shell) and will fill up in Luxembourg/Switzerland next month on our little road trip... That'll see me through to the new year (unless I miscalculate and run out of Fart juice) :y :y

I tend to use Shell for my petrol though as that's where I get my LPG :y :y
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Sixstring on 10 August 2010, 11:55:39
Nothing technical, but........

I regularly do 1000 miles a week working away/service calls etc and run the car down to the red fuel light a lot, due to the places I have to go (few petrol stations in the new forest and north wales, etc) have found AT LEAST 40 miles per tank more on V-power and fuelsave fuels, and much smoother running on "brand" fuels, but occasional rough running on supermarket stuff. Like I said, nothing technical, but get 500 miles a tank regularly on V-power, only 450-ish on everything else.
(3.0 V6 elite estate with 155k miles. REALLY well serviced.)
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: Sixstring on 10 August 2010, 11:58:04
BTW.............ALWAYS carry a gallon can with spare fuel in it "just in case",   Never had to use it yet, but if I didn't carry it................ :-X
Title: Re: Petrol - is supermarket stuff ok?
Post by: MrDJ on 10 August 2010, 16:58:28
Quote
wife works at sainsburys and i'm not supposed to say that they keep the water table at peak levels so you get a good mixture of both fuel and water ... and before you all shout "ilegal"   its not. they are within the legal mixture limit.   as do most of the supermarkets

Not sure I understand that?