Supermarket Super Unleaded

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alistair64
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Post by alistair64 »

Apologies if this has been covered many times before, but are you guys ok with using supermarket Super Unleaded, as oppose to normal 95 octane from a trusted brand (Shell, Esso, BP, etc.)?
I figured any 98 octane fuel will be 'better' in that it will contain more detergents to clean the engine.
Today I put in half a tank of Sainsbury's Super at £1.70 per litre, which was only 8p more than their standard unleaded, so pretty good in today's climate so I thought.
Am I misguided and should I stick to the well-known brands?
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Lunar
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Post by Lunar »

Any fuel should be fine really - it’s not like the supermarkets refine their own after all.
Shell / BP have additional additives but I’m happy using Tesco Momentum 99 Ron for the F, and Shell Vmax for the old Mustang - I just don’t tell it I’m using unleaded fuel and the iron block is fine with that.
I’d concern yourself more with using a fuel that’s max 5% ethanol.
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Post by mickjaguar »

I prefer to use super unleaded for the reasons you state. My V6 would return approx 5% better mpg, which offset the at least half of the price difference. It'd be OK just to put an occasional tank of super in to watch the pennies, if necessary. We only have premium fuels in the UK really.

My local filling station has Esso 99, which I've heard can be ethanol free. Whilst the prices there are pretty competitive I still managed to hit £105 for a bit more than 3/4 of a tank today 😯.
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Post by Cluck »

mickjaguar wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 6:18 pm I prefer to use super unleaded for the reasons you state. My V6 would return approx 5% better mpg, which offset the at least half of the price difference. It'd be OK just to put an occasional tank of super in to watch the pennies, if necessary. We only have premium fuels in the UK really.

My local filling station has Esso 99, which I've heard can be ethanol free. Whilst the prices there are pretty competitive I still managed to hit £105 for a bit more than 3/4 of a tank today 😯.
Less a case of "can be" but "is". Esso's own web-site on that fuel states that it contains 0% ethanol but, by law, has to show the E5 label. In a similar vein it's worth noting that an E5 sticker means the fuel contains 'up to' 5% bioethanol, but can be 0%, and the same is true for the E10 being 'up to' 10% bioethanol.

Whats been interesting over here in Portugal is that BP's 'Ultimate' 98 RON fuel is labelled E10, whilst their 95 RON is E5. Almost all the BP garages are asking over €2.10 for Ultimate here in Portugal at the moment, That said, I haven't looked for 5 days because I'm currently in hotel quarantine having contracted Covid (no ill effects thus far).

If you want to feel sick, I filled up at a Spanish motorway services on the way down and paid €1.87 for Shell Optimax 98-RON.
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Post by Volley »

You need to keep using super unleaded fuel (Shell, BP, Tesco, Costco etc) as the ECU "learns" the higher octane and allows more compression before ignition... more power and also better consumption.
95 RON should only be used if 97-99 is not available and certainly don't use E10 in F Type or any high performance engine.
I once ran a project on a petrol terminal and although the raw fuel may be the same the distribution tankers selected their company's recipe at the terminal, each having their own blend of detergents etc etc
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Post by mono-uk »

I always use super unleaded - I'm not fussed from where, tesco's is my nearest

this week i put in £118 to fill it up, that gets me 340ish miles
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Post by Tel »

alistair64 wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 6:00 pm Apologies if this has been covered many times before, but are you guys ok with using supermarket Super Unleaded, as oppose to normal 95 octane from a trusted brand (Shell, Esso, BP, etc.)?
I figured any 98 octane fuel will be 'better' in that it will contain more detergents to clean the engine.
Today I put in half a tank of Sainsbury's Super at £1.70 per litre, which was only 8p more than their standard unleaded, so pretty good in today's climate so I thought.
Am I misguided and should I stick to the well-known brands?
It's personal choice.
95 and 98 (Premium) or 3 star and 4 star in old money, I believe have the same amount of additives in, it's the Ethanol (not Bio) content that changes to raise the RON.

My mind was made up when I started hearing of injector failures from various online sources.
I decided then to run a high concentrate PEA cleaner through the injection system every now and then, plus run the best fuel I could - At the time it was Tesco Momentum that I settled on, as it gave, what I could feel was the best throttle response.

Having had a few issues with my motorbikes and subsequent carburettor strip downs to see the damage caused to rubbers (Caused I think by the Bioeth), I found that Esso sold (luckily for us in this county) 0% Bioeth, i.e 'normal' neat petrol.
My vehicles have lived on that since.

So it's a gamble, as nobody knows the long term effect of Sainsbury's Super Vs whatever brand.

My top-tip would be to use the best fuel you can afford, with the least amount of Bioeth in it, and also (as it's cheap) run a cleaner through he system now and then too.
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Post by RPSN »

alistair64 wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 6:00 pm Apologies if this has been covered many times before, but are you guys ok with using supermarket Super Unleaded, as oppose to normal 95 octane from a trusted brand (Shell, Esso, BP, etc.)?
I figured any 98 octane fuel will be 'better' in that it will contain more detergents to clean the engine.
Today I put in half a tank of Sainsbury's Super at £1.70 per litre, which was only 8p more than their standard unleaded, so pretty good in today's climate so I thought.
Am I misguided and should I stick to the well-known brands?

Supermarket Super Unleaded is A-OK and I mostly use Tesco Momentum 99. Occasionally I do visit a Shell fuel station and fill up with their Shell V-Power.

Taken from https://www.tesco.com/help/petrol-stations/ - “What are the benefits of using Tesco Momentum99?”......

“Momentum 99 contains a special blend of additives to help keep the fuel system clean and working at its best. Additionally, the higher octane level (99 compared to 95 for regular unleaded petrol) gives improved overall engine performance for those cars that are able to take advantage (generally sportier models).”

I don’t use any other fuel additives, cleaners etc as Jaguar specify not to do this, and for those within the warranty period they state that it could affect the warranty coverage (exhaust emission control systems).

Taken from https://www.ownerinfo.jaguar.com/ "Fuel and Refuelling – Petrol Engined Vehicles" (screenshot attached)

"CAUTION"

“Use high quality fuel with detergent that meets the specification defined by EN228, WWFC5 cat. 5 or the national equivalent. Low quality fuel can damage the engine and reduce engine performance.”

“Do not use leaded fuels, fuel additives, or fuels with lead substitutes, e.g., manganese-based. Doing so may adversely affect the vehicle's exhaust emission control systems and the warranty coverage.”

“Fuel system cleaning agents should not be used, unless approved by the vehicle manufacturer. Inadequate cleaning agents may damage the fuel system.”

Also, Auto Express has a section entitled "What do car fuel additives do and are they any use? Fuel additives claim to improve your car's economy, performance, or both - but do they really work?" https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/ ... aste-money

Included in the link...."In general, these additives work best on older, high mileage engines that have either been neglected or missed out on regular maintenance. You're unlikely to see any benefit on a newer, well-maintained vehicle."

"The reality is that if you own a car that's less than 10 years old that has been well maintained, there really isn't any need to use any of these kind of additives, as the car's electronics and fuel system will be optimised to deliver the best mix of performance and efficiency in the first place. And if that's the case, it begs the question - if fuel additives are so good, why don't car makers recommend them? And why are they not commonly found at petrol stations across the country? In reality, they sort of are. If you feel like your car could do with a bit of a boost, then a better value alternative than an additive could be to use a higher octane forecourt fuel than regular 95 octane. Even supermarket chains offer 99 octane fuel these days for a few pence more than regular petrol, and leading fuel retailers make grand claims about the effective 'cleaning' that high-octane fuels can achieve."

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kevc
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Post by kevc »

The fuel filler cap says 95Ron or better is fine. I vary 95Ron and 99Ron from Tesco depending on what I'm up to. No point filling up with 99Ron if I'm just going to burn the lot up on a motorway run.
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RPSN
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Post by RPSN »

kevc wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 7:26 pm The fuel filler cap says 95Ron or better is fine. I vary 95Ron and 99Ron from Tesco depending on what I'm up to. No point filling up with 99Ron if I'm just going to burn the lot up on a motorway run.

95 RON is fine but 99 RON (e.g. Tesco Momentum 99) is better, irrespective of whether or not you’re on a motorway run.

As Tesco states....“Momentum 99 contains a special blend of additives to help keep the fuel system clean and working at its best. Additionally, the higher octane level (99 compared to 95 for regular unleaded petrol) gives improved overall engine performance for those cars that are able to take advantage (generally sportier models).”

All down to personal choice at the end of the day. No harm in using Tesco regular 95 and the occasional tank full of Momentum 99 for its special blend of additives....a few quid saved too!
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