Supermarket Fuel?

[Brown, Jon Brow]

What is the difference between petrol/diesel from supermarkets and the fuel from the likes of BP and Shell?

I've heard that you should make sure that every 3rd 'fill up' should be from one of the big oil companies in order to keep your car engine happy.

[Daniel]

Drive an old car or something which has got a bit of poke and you'll come to the conclusion that supermarket fuel is rubbish. My 504 would run horribly (pinging and getting bad fuel consumption) on supermarket fuel (yet run OK on "proper" fuel), Caroline had a Ford Escort which conked out on the motorway after drinking some Tesco fuel and never ran properly again and Caroline's Subaru mysteriously developed engine problems after being filled up with Tesco fuel.

That's just the experience of two people. I know you've a nice shiney new car. You going to take the risk of the engine being damaged and Fiat telling you to get bent when you tell them you filled up at a Tesco petrol station and it suddenly stopped after? Think of spending 5p more per litre as an insurance policy for your engine plus the fact that at worst you'll get better mileage.

As for the cost. Well I care about my car. I pay quite a bit more for BP Ultimate Diesel or Shell V-Power Diesel than I would for Tesco Diesel because at least I know there's less chance of having problems.

Edit: As for the difference there's a lot more nasties in cheap fuel like benzene and so on. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Smell some AVGAS or at very least some V-Power or BP Ultimate and then smell some supermarket fuel. The supermarket fuel is far nastier on the nose than "proper" fuel.

[sal]

After the turbo went on my Octavia (luckily under warranty) the indie Skoda garage I deal with told me to use branded fuel only rather than supermarket stuff in future. He told me that they leave out things like detergent that save build up of carbon etc and thats what your 3 or 4 pence saving is made up of. If you must use s'market fuel then invest in an additive to clean everything up. I use branded fuel now as a grand for another turbo would negate any savings to be made elsewhere...

[Drew]

I generally buy petrol from the supermarkets, because simply it's cheaper. Every so often I try and put £10/£20 worth of BP ultimate in. The £10 doesn't go so far per litre so I don't do it too often...

[LiamM]

Supermarket Petrol is no real difference from the Big companies, the only problem with it being is that to keep costs down they buy fuel from wherever it is cheapest, therefore there is no consistency. One week you could fill up at Tesco and the petrol has come from a Shell refinery and the next week it may have come from Total. Although its not the same fuel your buying, once bought the supermarkets add their own additives and then ship it to the forecourts.

There should be no difference as all fuels are designed to a certain British Standard which should be on the pumps, its just that some fuels are better than this (ie Shells own stuff)

[Daniel]

Supermarket Petrol is no real difference from the Big companies


Although its not the same fuel your buying, once bought the supermarkets add their own additives and then ship it to the forecourts.

WTF? You say it's not different and then say it's different.

[GridGirl]

I mostly buy from supermarkets, Tesco infact and I dont notice the difference in fuel from when I fill up with a branded petrol. I've never had any mechancial failures due to petrol either. :)

What Car did a survey recently which showed you dont get much more mileage out of super fuels compares to normal ones.

http://www.whatcar.com/news-article.aspx?NA=228257

[Daniel]

I mostly buy from supermarkets, Tesco infact and I dont notice the difference in fuel from when I fill up with a branded petrol. I've never had any mechancial failures due to petrol either. :)

What Car did a survey recently which showed you dont get much more mileage out of super fuels compares to normal ones.

http://www.whatcar.com/news-article.aspx?NA=228257
What? Car? Are one of those crap consumer magazines aren't they? :mark:

Evo (a proper car magazine) have done tests on fuel and found that yes it does give more power and more mileage.

[GridGirl]

Dont have a go at me for linking to What Car's survey. :p Provide an article relating to what Evo have to say.

[LiamM]

WTF? You say it's not different and then say it's different.

What I meant is that the basic liquid is the same, supermarkets just add in their own stuff for example, lets say Tesco put in additive X the petrol would be.

Cheap Shell petrol + X = Tesco 95 Unleaded
Cheap Texaco petrol + X = Tesco 95 Unleaded
Cheap BP petrol + X = Tesco 95 Unleaded.

Therefore, while the petrol has similar properties to the big companies (cos they made it) Tesco make it their own.

[Kneeslider]

One of the great consumer lies propogated by the petrochemical industries since time began has been that somehow the branded fuels are better than anything else. You are only setting fire to the stuff after all. Providing the fuel has not become contaminated with anything, then it doesn't matter where you buy it from.

I have done lots of mileage, always bought the cheapest fuel, and stripped down more than my share of engines, and never ever have noticed benefits from any detergents additives or other sundry gubbins claimed to make the engine make more power, last longer or run 'cleaner'. This from running air and water cooled engines, 1,2,4 and 6 cylinders, two strokes, proper racing engines... anything from a 1941 Ariel W/NG, to a Boxster.

All those pictures you used to see on garage forecourts of exhaust valves which were covered in black gunge, where did they all go? Have you ever seen that on an engine you have taken to bits? I never have. I only wonder how 'they' managed to produce such results.

[Daniel]

Dont have a go at me for linking to What Car's survey. :p Provide an article relating to what Evo have to say.
If my memory serves me right one of the articles was done in early 2006 so will be in my collection in Australia. Consumer surveys are stupid in regards to this sort of thing. Some people profess that magnets help fuel efficiency but nothing is better than a motoring magazine actually doing a test with a car on a dyno and providing a proper graph with the results.

As for supermarket fuel not doing any harm I'll let Caroline post her experience. It'll change your mind.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I usually get get Shell, BP, Esso or sometimes I fill up at the local private garage. I never get the premium unleaded because it wouldn't make any difference to a 1.2l engine.

A few weeks ago 5th Gear tested various fuel additives on a Honda Civic Type R and actually found them to reduce power. :eek:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2jbcCr2ll3c

[J4MIE]

Always bought Tesco cheap fuel and never had any trouble, so will continue to fill up with that.

[Crypt]

To inconsistent to put in my cars, and they all require 92 octane so I don't mess around with inferior or questionable petrol. Even the truck gets the good gas. I try to stick to the big oil companies like Shell or Chevron.

[BeansBeansBeans]

I tend to buy fuel from either my local Tesco or my local Texaco and to be honest, I've not noticed a difference.

[Iain]

Morrisons diesel or Shell Diesel Extra for me. Both the same price near my work.

[Dave B]

Top Gear make my petrol, in a field :p

[Daniel]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2026314,00.html I forgot this happened just earlier this year. Never heard of Shell or BP being involved in something like that :)

[CarlMetro]

One of the great consumer lies propogated by the petrochemical industries since time began has been that somehow the branded fuels are better than anything else.

Precisely. Despite what many think there is no difference between the petrol at you local Tesco to your local BP or Shell, the likelyhood is that they are all supplied by exactly the same refinery or storage depot.

I tend to always buy from Tesco or Sainsburys and the only time I've ever noticed any difference in performance levels was when I filled up with 98 octane rather than 95 the other week. It almost justified the extra 3p a litre ;)

[Daniel]

Precisely. Despite what many think there is no difference between the petrol at you local Tesco to your local BP or Shell, the likelyhood is that they are all supplied by exactly the same refinery or storage depot.

I tend to always buy from Tesco or Sainsburys and the only time I've ever noticed any difference in performance levels was when I filled up with 98 octane rather than 95 the other week. It almost justified the extra 3p a litre ;)
Did BP or Shell fuel cause damage to lots of engines earlier this year? :mark:

[Kneeslider]

The incident to which you refer was due to the fuel becoming contaminated, which happened at the distribution point for the fuel, IIRC it was not just supermarkets which were affected but some 'brand' titles too. The BS or ISO specifications for the fuel are met by all of the suppliers of fuel to you and me, providing the fuel is within those specifications, then it will be OK.

The only differences to be had are if the RON number or octane rating is different. The higher the number, the more volatile the fuel and the faster it burns. 95RON is the minimum specification for fuel in the UK, contrast this to the USA where 92RON is standard. I am presently building up a high compression 900ss engine, and most of the tuning wisdom on the 'net comes from the USA unfortunately, anything to do with ignition timing specifications are worthless when you compare the differing specifications of fuel in the UK vs the US.

[Daniel]

The incident to which you refer was due to the fuel becoming contaminated, which happened at the distribution point for the fuel, IIRC it was not just supermarkets which were affected but some 'brand' titles too. The BS or ISO specifications for the fuel are met by all of the suppliers of fuel to you and me, providing the fuel is within those specifications, then it will be OK.

The only differences to be had are if the RON number or octane rating is different. The higher the number, the more volatile the fuel and the faster it burns. 95RON is the minimum specification for fuel in the UK, contrast this to the USA where 92RON is standard. I am presently building up a high compression 900ss engine, and most of the tuning wisdom on the 'net comes from the USA unfortunately, anything to do with ignition timing specifications are worthless when you compare the differing specifications of fuel in the UK vs the US.
British standards my hairy bumcrack! You tell that to all the people who had problems earlier this year. You tell that to the AA man who recovered Caroline in her Escort on the motorway when he'd had 80 callouts that weekend already due to what appeared to be fuel related problems and all of those people had filled up at Tesco's in the local area. Of course your engine won't die straight after ingesting a tank of Tesco "fuel" but the chances do appear to be a lot higher. You'll probably be fine. But why take the chance?

As for additives I know for a fact in Australia of places that add additives straight into the tanks of the forecourt. Standardise that! :mark:

[Mark]

As far as I know that tesco incident was a one off and does not indicate a general problem.

[Daniel]

As far as I know that tesco incident was a one off and does not indicate a general problem.
Like I said Caroline had a similar experience which then caused her car not to run properly also with Tesco fuel.

[Zico]

Supermarket Fuel is supposed to be the same as the branded stuff.. comes from the same refineries, but only has the additives included as agreed in each price/deal. It can be of a different grade each time and on occasion has even been top grade optimax when stock and logistics dictated what was supplied to keep within the supply agreement. According to one of the Esso station attendants near me.. Up here the Main Fuel companies all use Fuel from a number of refineries and most often the BP Ref in Grangemouth... Esso from BP ??? Hard to believe but She seemed to know what she was talking about..

Supermarkets are also given older stocks of fuel as it would make no sense to supply the competition with the equal quality newer stuff.. think of it as stock rotation, fuel goes off.. all this despite the widely held belief that fuel is standardised, it isnt.. From the horses mouth. ;)

Re- Super 98 RON, Daniel is correct. I find Shell and BP super 98RON to run best in my car (106 gti), far more responsive overall and a measurable mpg improvement. On a cold day when the temp is low enough the sensor changes to another mapping profile due to the cold air being denser.... I get at very least a 10bhp increase as well as much more power higher in the rev range, similar to what I experienced, to a lesser degree, in my old Rallye. If you filled my car from empty with either 95 or 98 Ron without telling me, I'd be able to identify it once the ECU had settled on a Fuel mapping.