Supermarket petrol vs big brand

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
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Over the years I've heard different opinions on this but, just in case anyone is interested, I had the facts confirmed last week. I spoke to a woman who has worked in the lab at the Grangemouth refinery for thirty years.

The base fuel bought by the supermarkets and the big brands is identical. Where they differ is that the big brands add other products to the fuel later. Also, budget retailers tend not to be as rigorous in cleaning their tankers and fuel storage tanks so you are more likely to get contamination.
 

Legojon

I only wanted a remap
Staff member
Moderator
Jul 7, 2015
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Ah right, cheers for that. The other thing I've noticed and not sure if this is nationwide. But my local Shell cone off the station so you can't fuel while the tanker's in. But the local Tesco don't seem to care. I've heard mixed feelings on this: tanker stirring up the sediment vs filters before it gets to the pump. But still, I can't bring myself to go back to Tesco since having problems with my FR after filling up there whilst the tanker was in. Even though it's likely unrelated.
 

KXL

KXL
Dec 15, 2016
1,581
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London, UK
Me personally I've only fuel up at Esso / Shell / Jet / Texaco. I didn't find a difference or the way the engine runs, power or mpg with any of the above 95 RON fuel. I almost went to an AppleGreen fuel station once, but the name put me off, haha..and ventured further to a Shell. Once in a while, I would fuel up with Momentum 99, Esso 97 or Shell Vpower 99. Momentum I felt no difference whatsoever. Esso 97 gave a smoother engine, and Vpower gave more mpg (or so the trip computer says). No discernable power gains.

Diesel on the other hand, when I had the Leon 2.0TDI, usually use Shell/Esso/BP regular, once I used supermarket diesel, and the engine was noticeable more grumpy, trip computer showed lower than usual (worse) mpg, and it felt like 'something' was a little blocked.

Just my experience...
 

ChrisJKM

Active Member
Aug 21, 2018
408
211
North Yorkshire
Over the years I've heard different opinions on this but, just in case anyone is interested, I had the facts confirmed last week. I spoke to a woman who has worked in the lab at the Grangemouth refinery for thirty years.

The base fuel bought by the supermarkets and the big brands is identical. Where they differ is that the big brands add other products to the fuel later. Also, budget retailers tend not to be as rigorous in cleaning their tankers and fuel storage tanks so you are more likely to get contamination.
Do you know if the fuel we put in our car has biocides in it in case of microbial attack? I work on ships and that stuff is brutal. Clogs up all your filters and basically turns fuel into water.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
Do you know if the fuel we put in our car has biocides in it in case of microbial attack?

No. What I posted is pretty much all she said. The base fuel is the same but more expensive fuel has cleaners and other additives added and is less likely to suffer contamination from dirty tanks and tankers.

You might remember the incident some years ago when loads of cars that had fueled up at ASDA suffered failed O2 sensors? I think it was ASDA, not sure but was a supermarket. Anyway, took a while to connect the dots but it turned out that the fuel had been transported in a tanker that had previously carried some silicone product and had not been cleaned out properly. The silicone was getting baked onto the sensors and fecking them.
 

Deleted member 103408

Guest
There are also a number of threads on the VW Forums Momentum vs VPower, my reading of all that chat is that they are both as good as each other BUT.
Fuel and additives have a shelf life and the VPower is much more likley to be sold quickly but the Momentum can sit in the tanks for some time and loose some of the potency.
Got no proof that this is true but I do recall that Unleaded fuel does not have a long shelf life.
 

martin j.

Active Member
Feb 11, 2007
1,996
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Fife
I think some stations shut whilst getting deliveries due to the position of the filling points to traffic, whether it's safety for the tanker driver or fumes and spark ignition engines I don't know, of course this could be p*sh.
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
Diesel on the other hand, when I had the Leon 2.0TDI, usually use Shell/Esso/BP regular, once I used supermarket diesel, and the engine was noticeable more grumpy..

I already knew that all diesel was identical, across the brands and the regular and super. The difference is the additives. The premium diesel has more/better additives which can keep your engine cleaner and running better.
 
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