supermarket fuel

[News]

In message , Bill Wright writes

This argument has been going on as long as I have been buying petrol (mid 60s), and doubtless a lot longer. Don't buy cheap brands - they're made from the dregs at the bottom of the tanker's tank. Or they're made from inferior oil. Or they don't have magic additives. Or they have inferior additives. Or they're 'watered down' with something.

To be honest, having driven countless petrol vehicles from old Minors and Anglias to fairly modern sophisticated vehicles, I have never really noticed a difference. The engine either runs well, or not.

[NY]

The first diesel car i had, a Peugeot 306 with the 1.9 non-HDi engine, had a tendency to hiccup slightly as I applied a small amount of power after braking (ie when the accelerator had previously been fully off) and when coming right off the power as I was about to brake. It was as if there was a minimum amount of fuel that the engine could deliver, with a sudden cut-off as you released the accelerator below this point and a sudden delivery of fuel as you pressed the pedal, rather than smooth control right down to zero.

It was this symptom which seemed to be better with premium diesel than normal diesel. However it returned as soon as I filled up with normal diesel again, so any cleaning additives in the premium had a very short-lived effect. A bottle of injector-cleaning additive in the tank had a much more long-lasting improvement on the symptom, which only returned several thousand miles later.

[sm_jamieson]

The comments are interesting. Lots of correlation / causation confusion as usual. Perhaps the fuel companies should be obliged to list the additives they use, like is required for food. If not the exact chemicals due to trade secrets, then some more generic way of describing them I suppose.

Simon.

[Adrian]

Most modern cars will go down from a base map, if knock's detected. But most are set to a 95RON base map. They won't go up from there.

[Bob Eager]

The most amusing car I saw from BMC was the Vanden Plas - 1100! The owners of course swore it was faster, more economical, built better, etc...

[Adam Aglionby]

Remember the silicon contaminated fuel scandal , where supermarkets were found to be buying fuel from the Arthur Daley Refinery...

[Martin Brown]

There are tiny differences in the additive packages with the supermarkets cutting corners a bit but all the fuel is to the British standard and only the tetchiest of engines will see any difference.

It really only matters when they put the entirely the wrong additive package in as happened in 2007 and again in 2014 to a lesser extent.

Petrol engines really don't like the *diesel* additive package.

FWIW I am happy to buy supermarket fuel at the best price I can get.

[Martin Brown]

Some of it real and some imagined. There is a far greater variation between individual filling stations and the state of their tanks.

That would scare the hell out of every car owner on the planet.

There is an exemption for motor fuel that permits it to be sold to the public despite containing around 1% of the known carcinogen benzene. It is the lesser of two evils since tetraethyl lead was banned.

[NY]

Yes, bog-standard 1100 with VdP extras like wooden dashboard and Rolls Royce type radiator grille. Not sure whether there was thicker carpet and deeper padding / lumbar adjustment etc on seats.

Probably different dashboard instruments - maybe circular gauges rather than ribbon speedo with combined fuel/temp gauges in bottom corners. I can never remember - was it the Austin or Morris version that had the ribbon speedo? Which of those two was regarded as the base version and which was one step up?

My grandpa replaced his big Wolseley 16/60 (Austin Cambridge / Morris Oxford body) with a Wolseley 1100 (complete with illuminated radiator badge!) but got rid of it fairly soon after because it wasn't "luxurious" enough - he got a Triumph Dolomite after that.

[tony sayer]

Same thing in the TV field there was a Dynatron just a standard BRC chassis like their lowly brethren but it had a nice "cabinet"

Apparently they had or once had the Royal Warrant to the Queen who supposedly had one at Buck palace....

[Fredxxx]

No the case for petrol engines.

The octane rating represents resistance to knocking, the higher the octane the higher the compression and advanced timing.

A side effect is that the fuel burns slower, so good fuel into a car designed for a poor grade may run snoother but be less efficient and produce less power.

[Charles Hope]

According to the Which? survey on tv at the time, the HMV version was far less reliable that the Fergusson. Only difference was the cabinet.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. Makes not a scrap of difference on my BMW using 97/8 RON to either the performance or economy. When I first got it I did pretty exhaustive tests on MPG using both.

[dennis]

Why?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But the 'nice cabinet' often made room for a larger and better loudspeaker and maybe even facing forward. Rather than the tiny ones most sets used - often facing to the side.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Might well have been better built in at least some ways. As it's often interior trim that gives the impression of good or bad build. And the VDP was considerably different from base models in this respect.

The A Series engine came in power outputs ranging from about 30-75 bhp depending on version. And the output was quoted in the handbook - so easy enough to see if it had more power than a similar looking version.

[Adrian]

Some of the ADO16s had single carbs, some twin. Riley/MG were definitely twin, Austin/Morris definitely single. I seem to recall my brother's Wolseley 1300 having single. I think Austin/Morris lagged in going from

1100 to 1300, too.

Ah, here y'go - the tangled history...

Both base, just in slightly different ways.

Anyway, the VdP ADO16 was never anywhere NEAR as amusing as the VdP

1500... The posh Allegro.

[sm_jamieson]

I use mostly Tesco diesel. I might chuck a bottle of fuel injector cleaner in the tank once in a while, since some of the brand fuels say they include such an additive. Simon.

[The Natural Philosopher]

slower fuel burn usually. less knocky more power.

[Fredxxx]

That is assuming the engine is set up to use that power, or had a knock sensor to advance the engine for higher octane fuels.

Otherwise it means less power. There is really no point in burning fuel later on the downstroke or in the exhaust.