Is Premium diesel worth it?

[PaulC70]

So I’m having the van remapped, and he suggests using premium diesel rather than supermarket diesel because of longevity and DPF issues? So I know that it is more expensive than supermarket diesel but I’m just wondering if it is worth considering BP or Shell type diesel in. Has anybody actually noticed any difference in their motorhome or had more or less DPF issues depending on the diesel have been using?

 

[Richard n Ann]

Not put it in ours over the last 40,000 miles, in fact it's just had the cheapest supermarket slops we could find. Never missed a beat.

 

[kevenh]

Some will say yes some no.
We’ve a funster from the fuel trade who’ll say “not worth it”.

In my experience it’s not worth it for petrol. Based on comparisons made over several years of use of both in M4 commuting in an Impreza.

 

[Gaston aires]

At the moment paying even more for Diesel is not on the cards. Our van runs well on any Diesel.
Phil

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Some will say yes some no.
We’ve a funster from the fuel trade who’ll say “not worth it”.

In my experience it’s not worth it for petrol. Based on comparisons made over several years of use of both in M4 commuting in an Impreza.

The best judge is not the science but the seat of your pants. If it makes people feel better then why not?

The science says that premium diesel has a higher cetane index and more detergents, both of which are good for the engine. Financially? Up to the user. The motor, even remapped, is designed for ordinary fuel and comes out of the factory set up for the lowest common denominator. All European fuels are brewed to a high standard so engines can run happily. Other countries? Hmmmmmm…..

Personally I like VPower as it is a semi synthetic fuel - looks and smells different. However I ran a company car for 3000 miles exclusively on premium diesel and the spreadsheet showed no improvement in MPG and there was no noticeable difference in power. I use premium diesel nowadays every now and again only, just for the perceived cleaning qualities

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[KevinTuplin]

The best way to satisfy yourself is to try a couple of tank full of supermarket fuel then a couple of fill ups of premium diesel and compare the MPG and engine performance as everyone's driving habits are not the same so you will get many conflcting opinions over this.

 

[Paul.L]

Costco only sell Premium fuels, and are usually cheaper then supermarket and big player forecourts.
They have opened up fuel sales to non-members for the time being too.

As to whether it's better for engines is another matter - (see post#5 above)

 

[dunnah01]

You really need to find out what's different between the fuels to make a choice. The trouble is none of the suppliers will tell you so on that basis alone I won't buy the dearer stuff.
For petrol at least the super is usually 98RON rather than 95RON so the Smart car has to use the super stuff

 

[Richard n Ann]

Filled the scooter up yesterday with shell V power, was on ¼ of a tank and took 8 quid

 

[Podney]

Premium fuel every time. Better quality, better mpg,better for the engine according my genius mechanic friend.

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[ChrisL]

When Diesel Bob recalibrated the fuel pump on my old Mitsubishi I asked if there was any advantage to using a diesel additive to keep the injectors and pump in good condition, he said just fill up with premium fuel every now and then, he didn't specify an interval but I used to do that every couple of months, at the last mot before I sold it with over 200,000 kms on the clock the mot guy said it ran clean enough to have passed the dpf standard, it was pre dpf of course.

 

[kevenh]

the Smart car has to use the super stuff

Oh! Which Smart car you got?
The fortwo has 95RON listed and fuel can contain up to 10% ethanol (E10).

 

[DuxDeluxe]

You really need to find out what's different between the fuels to make a choice. The trouble is none of the suppliers will tell you so on that basis alone I won't buy the dearer stuff.
For petrol at least the super is usually 98RON rather than 95RON so the Smart car has to use the super stuff

Of course the actual blend is a closely guarded secret…….. however, the way that the specs are written, unless the fuel blender wants to lose his shirt on “giveaway”, to produce a fuel that meets the spec, the standard fuels are little different chemically. The only real variance is the additive suite, but even then they are mostly the same across all suppliers. Premium fuels are, of course, aimed at a different, higher margin, market and the blends can be different. VPower is a good example - the only fuel blended using components made by GTL (gas to liquid) technology which looks and smells different.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Of course the actual blend is a closely guarded secret…

You'd think they'd be keen to tell the customer exactly what's in it and how it can benefit.... That is if the ingredients actually have any benefits, the secrecy makes you wonder.

 

[Jamesh]

Of course the actual blend is a closely guarded secret…….. however, the way that the specs are written, unless the fuel blender wants to lose his shirt on “giveaway”, to produce a fuel that meets the spec, the standard fuels are little different chemically. The only real variance is the additive suite, but even then they are mostly the same across all suppliers. Premium fuels are, of course, aimed at a different, higher margin, market and the blends can be different. VPower is a good example - the only fuel blended using components made by GTL (gas to liquid) technology which looks and smells different.

But is that petrol only??

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[DuxDeluxe]

You'd think they'd be keen to tell the customer exactly what's in it and how it can benefit.... That is if the ingredients actually have any benefits, the secrecy makes you wonder.

Ah….. the marketing people are full of all sorts of wiz ideas to sell more, but the actual blend is necessarily kept confidential for some very sound business reasons. All ordinary fuels are blended to “just” meet but not exceed the spec. Oil traders put huge pressure on the testing companies to squint at the results which may happen with certain companies but not the one I worked for; the checks and balances plus very rigorous auditing kept everyone on their toes. I fired a few people over the years for being a bit liberal on their interpretation of the results. Absolutely zero tolerance

 

[tonyidle]

so the Smart car has to use the super stuff

Mine doesn't?

 

[DuxDeluxe]

But is that petrol only??

I was referring to diesel specifically. Gasoline has a little more scope for variance

 

[dunnah01]

Oh! Which Smart car you got?
The fortwo has 95RON listed and fuel can contain up to 10% ethanol (E10).

Brabus Roadster with 125bhp remap - original 100bhp requires 98RON from the factory

 

[Purrfecttune]

About 10 years ago I owned a Ford Probe for three years and tried all sorts of fuels including Shell, Shell V Power, Sainsburys, Tesco, BP and Esso.

As an exercise (because I love maths and data) I kept every petrol receipt so that I could monitor the amount of mpg for every fill up.

Three things became very clear:
Shell V Power did not return more mpg than standard Shell petrol.
Shell standard petrol and Sainsburys petrol consistently returned similar mpg which was always better than any other.
The worst mpg return was Esso.

As for the ‘engine cleaning’, I cannot comment.

Ever since then, I have generally filled up at Sainsburys (being the cheaper of the two) occasionally Asda for the best price.

I do not know if the same applies to diesel as I have not applied the same exercise again.

Finally, I use a website called petrol prices.com and returning from Norfolk last Sunday I bought diesel from Tesco at Newmarket for £1.75.9 per litre, which was sooooo much cheaper than anywhere else the mpg return was irrelevant!

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[kevenh]

Brabus Roadster with 125bhp remap - original 100bhp requires 98RON from the factory

The devil is in the detail

 

[hornsofallign]

After having an engine warning light and going into limp mode on a 3L Fiat, I called a breakdown service. The engineer couldn’t find a fault but cleared the error message so the engine works at full speed again. He advised using premium occasionally to help “clean the system”, so I use it every 1 in 10 times. Fiat dealer never found a problem. 3 years later we’ve yet to have another warning light, so I’m guessing premium helps a bit.

 

[funflair]

Brabus Roadster with 125bhp remap - original 100bhp requires 98RON from the factory

That sounds fun ours is still standard

 

[PaulC70]

Costco only sell Premium fuels, and are usually cheaper then supermarket and big player forecourts.
They have opened up fuel sales to non-members for the time being too.

As to whether it's better for engines is another matter - (see post#5 above)

Sadly my nearest costco is 20 miles away :-(

 

[PaulC70]

After having an engine warning light and going into limp mode on a 3L Fiat, I called a breakdown service. The engineer couldn’t find a fault but cleared the error message so the engine works at full speed again. Fiat dealer never found a problem. He advised using premium diesel occasionally, so I use premium every 1 in 10 times I fill up. 3 years later we’ve yet to have a warning light, so I’m guessing it’s helped a bit

Yes Im thinking this is what I might do after all the replies here, thanks all.

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[Gaston aires]

Filled the scooter up yesterday with shell V power, was on ¼ of a tank and took 8 quid

Scary. Same here, used to be a fiver.

 

[jockaneezer]

The emissions light has been coming on more and more regularly on my diesel Volvo, it takes a couple of tankfulls with a couple of bottles diesel additive to get it to reset. The thought of paying the price for premium diesel has always put me off, but a bottle of additive is probably adding £6 to every tankfull so maybe worth it ?
I bought a bottle of Dipetane and added that to a few consecutive fill ups, but the light still came on.

 

[dunnah01]

That sounds fun ours is still standard

It's an absolute hoot

 

[iandsm]

Not put it in ours over the last 40,000 miles, in fact it's just had the cheapest supermarket slops we could find. Never missed a beat.

I had the same experience as you when I only used standard deiesl. However, after a fair bit of research I decided to change to premium dieseling for my car, there was a definite change, it was quieter and pulled better and there was a slight increase in MPG. I did the same with the motorhome and had the same improvement. That was on our old non DPF engine. Now we have a newer motorhome with DPF I think the benefits, not least the lesser chance of the DPF becoming clogged are worth paying for.

Yours may have never missed a beat but of course, like me, you wouldn't know if there was a difference unless you gave it a try, you could always revert back after a few fill ups it not convinced.

 

[iandsm]

You really need to find out what's different between the fuels to make a choice. The trouble is none of the suppliers will tell you so on that basis alone I won't buy the dearer stuff.
For petrol at least the super is usually 98RON rather than 95RON so the Smart car has to use the super stuff

There is plenty of information available.

Shell fuels | Shell UK

Explore Shell's fuels, engine oils & coolants. Use our matching tool to find the right engine oil for your vehicle's best performance.

www.shell.co.uk

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