Supermarket diesel Good Or Bad? (1 Viewer)

[Portland]

I have just finished a full service on my 3ltr Fiat based Frankia A class. When I removed the fuel filter which had done 6000 miles I was amazed at how black and slimy it was so I asked my Friend of many years who is the manager of a garage that has 100's of vehicles on contract hire and a big user of Ducato's and his answer coupled with that of head mechanic is supermarket Diesel evidently it lacks the additives to clean the system so only propriety brands from now for me!

 

[Langtoftlad]

 

[Charlie]

Supermarket fuel is cheap for a reason .

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[chrisgreen]

its been covered on this forum many times,i never use supermarket diesel,and all the companys i have driven for never use supermarket diesel, sainsbury diesel sold as city diesel=crap

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Can't be bothered to explain (yet again) the chemistry and science behind all this, but having worked in the petroleum industry all my life, with 30 odd years dealing with fuel problems and specifically fuel quality, there is almost more garbage written about this subject of A Frames or gassing, nearly all of it written from a point of lack of knowledge

 

[Janine]

I am no expert but my 12 year old Skoda has done 110,000 miles mainly on Sainsbury's diesel....am I missing something?

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[DuxDeluxe]

I am no expert but my 12 year old Skoda has done 110,000 miles mainly on Sainsbury's diesel....am I missing something?

You are missing nothing. The fuel is required by law to meet with EN228 and EN590 and all engines are designed to give a very long and reliable life on fuel meeting that spec.

 

[Yorick]

I put the cheapest I could find into my racing bike. No problems.

 

[magicsurfbus]

Apparently the Nectar points leak into the pump from the card reader and make the fuel sticky. I read that on the Internet so it must be true.

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[GeriatricWanderer]

Don't all those drivers who pay extra for Super Duper Diesel, also drink Evian?

 

[GJH]

Don't all those drivers who pay extra for Super Duper Diesel, also drink Evian?

Only when they've finished the Super Duper Diesel

 

[Forestboy]

Why would oil companies make a special inferior fuel just for supermarkets doesn't make any sense.

Yet another urban myth methinks

Repeat it on the internet enough times it becomes a fact; Emperors New Clothes anyone.

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[Janine]

Some interesting reading here:
https://www.petrolprices.com/blog/supermarket-fuel-and-premium-petrol-the-lowdown.html

 

[Ranger]

I was a bit sceptical about this until recently when I changed a diesel filter on a vehicle which had been run exclusively on supermarket diesel for one year since its last filter change and I have never seen a filter in worse condition, black and slimy. It looked like it had been in for a lifetime. Keep it in the workshop to show people, convinced me.

 

[Forestboy]

Some interesting reading here:
https://www.petrolprices.com/blog/supermarket-fuel-and-premium-petrol-the-lowdown.html

Confirms what @DuxDeluxe said above.

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[PhilG]

I put the cheapest I could find into my racing bike. No problems.

Did you ever win?

We only run V Power plus, which I think is 100 Octane, but have run VP U4 which was 103 Octane, and the difference is night and day .

Back in the day we back to backed 2 GSXR750's at Bruntingthorpe and it was almost 15mph difference between supermarket fuel and superunleaded.

Cheap fuel is like cheap wine, it fills a space , and then gets emptied, what it delivers in between is the important bit, you always get what you pay for.

 

[treetops1]

I wonder if diesel is the same in France,The engine always sounds sweeter and maybe its the long runs that makes it purr .lol

 

[tonyidle]

I do my own servicing. I've never seen a dirty fuel filter (to the extent that I now change them every five years) and I have never put anything other than the cheapest fuel in any vehicle I've owned. A dirty filter, or water in the filter, is more likely to be the result of leaving the vehicle standing with very little fuel in the tank. A tank full of air or vapour breathes as the outside temperature changes sucking moist air in where it condenses inside the tank causing water in the fuel, corrosion, and dirty filters.

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[tonyidle]

Did you ever win?

We only run V Power plus, which I think is 100 Octane, but have run VP U4 which was 103 Octane, and the difference is night and day .

Back in the day we back to backed 2 GSXR750's at Bruntingthorpe and it was almost 15mph difference between supermarket fuel and superunleaded.

Cheap fuel is like cheap wine, it fills a space , and then gets emptied, what it delivers in between is the important bit, you always get what you pay for.

The Octane rating of fuel is a measure of how quickly it burns. The higher the Octane rating, the slower the burn. It has nothing whatsoever to do with power it can produce. If an engine is designed such that a slower burn is needed then it will need a higher octane fuel. If it isn't then it won't.

 

[chrisgreen]

i have worked in the petrolium industry fo 35 years and can confirm that supermarket diesel is crap,yes it meets all the standards but only at the lower or minimum standard.

 

[PhilG]

The Octane rating of fuel is a measure of how quickly it burns. The higher the Octane rating, the slower the burn. It has nothing whatsoever to do with power it can produce.

Wow.. dyno's all over the world have been lying all this time. Who knew?

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[Portland]

I do my own servicing. I've never seen a dirty fuel filter (to the extent that I now change them every five years) and I have never put anything other than the cheapest fuel in any vehicle I've owned. A dirty filter, or water in the filter, is more likely to be the result of leaving the vehicle standing with very little fuel in the tank. A tank full of air or vapour breathes as the outside temperature changes sucking moist air in where it condenses inside the tank causing water in the fuel, corrosion, and dirty filters.

5 years between changes is asking for trouble, perhaps your mileage is low as I do know something of fuel I was born into a haulage family, served a full indentured apprenticeship as a hgv mechanic and hold quite a few qualifications but when these people tell me something I believe them

 

[chrisgreen]

Some interesting reading here:
https://www.petrolprices.com/blog/supermarket-fuel-and-premium-petrol-the-lowdown.html

a comment on that link confirm's my findings.
I have a motorhome and I keep a record of the mpg I get every time I fill up. Clearly there are a variety of factors that will affect mpg including the prevalent wind, the types of roads being driven and the nature of the terrain (i.e. flat or hilly). I normally use branded diesel and I average 28.9mpg; this being over 25,000 miles. A couple of years ago whilst travelling in France I thought I would try supermarket fuel to see if there was a difference. Within 2 fuel fills my economy was down to 25mpg and I reverted to branded fuel and within 2 fills my economy was back up to 29mpg. Last year I was again in France and tried using premium fuel (it is only 4c a litre more than standard fuel). After about 4 fills I found it was making no difference whatsoever and reverted back to standard fuel.

Likewise with petrol. A few years ago I had a scooter and again I only used branded fuel. One day I was getting low on fuel and the only available source was a supermarket. I filled up and set off and within a few hundred yards my wife, who was riding pillion asked what was wrong with the scooter. It was the supermarket fuel. It took 2 refills of branded petrol before my scooter was running smoothly.

 

[Mack100]

This is what I posted last time this came up.

My daughter-in-laws father is the recently retired Chief Scientist for a major oil company and it was interesting to hear his views on supermarket fuel once I'd filtered out the highly technical stuff.
Essentially he said that all branded fuel contains "a shot" of additive, premium fuels contain 2 shots. It was when it came to supermarket fuel it got interesting.
Basically he said it depended where you lived or where the supermarket was situated.

Supermarkets in and around large towns and cities for the most part got their fuel in exactly the same places as branded, essentially the same fuel. There were however "anomalies " where some supermarkets bought from suppliers who obtained their fuel on the spot market. While all these fuels conformed to standards it was doubtful that many contained additives which he insisted on calling "detergents". In a nutshell, he said that while it was most likely that your supermarket fuel did contain additives they may not, if you wanted to be 100% certain then always use branded fuels.

When I asked what he did he replied that it didn't really matter as long as you used some branded fuel every 4 or 5 fill-ups. When pushed about what would happen if you never used branded and took pot luck he just shrugged and said "probably nothing"!

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[Puddleduck]

Well the tanker that filled the local supermarket tanks then went on to fill the tanks at the only other fuel station near here.

Having said that there is one supermarket where I never ever buy fuel.

 

[Enword]

Only ever used best you could buy then Tesco started doing a high octane unleaded so tried it bike felt ok but lap times were down, came in after the last race & 3 of us got pulled for weight check & fuel test, fuel tester came out to me & said we had all past, but enquired where I got my fuel! because its shit he said worst of the whole weekend, funnily we never used it again.

 

[Enword]

Only ever used best you could buy then Tesco started doing a high octane unleaded so tried it bike felt ok but lap times were down, came in after the last race & 3 of us got pulled for weight check & fuel test, fuel tester came out to me & said we had all past, but enquired where I got my fuel! because its shit he said worst of the whole weekend, funnily we never used it again.

This was at BSB so they had tested hundred's of samples,

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[Madcaravanner]

I was a bit sceptical about this until recently when I changed a diesel filter on a vehicle which had been run exclusively on supermarket diesel for one year since its last filter change and I have never seen a filter in worse condition, black and slimy. It looked like it had been in for a lifetime. Keep it in the workshop to show people, convinced me.

But isn't the filter there just to clean out the gunk ???
all a gunky filter proves is that it's working we have run a number of diesels and what we have found is that the engines still run
the mpg doesn't vary too much except when you put Super Diesel in you get more mpg
we have tugged many many miles without fuel problems

Anyway that's what we pay the mechanic for to change filters etc I'm retired I don't do work anymore (Yeah right tell Steph that)

 

[vwalan]

i like to add a few doses of soltron enzyme treatment once or twice a year.
it stops diesel bug , thats very often the black slime .
first came across diesel bug in ford truck diesel tanks years ago. and then found it was very often common in the boating world .
have seen it very bad in some vehicles .
in older diesel engined vehicles adding a gallon of petrol in a tank of diesel used to help. but these days even the petrol as been changed . .these days either a sparex soltron or fuel set are the ones i use.
possibly if living near a very busy fuel station is your best thing . if in the country or by the sea it does seem its more prevalant.

 

[DuxDeluxe]

I wonder if diesel is the same in France,The engine always sounds sweeter and maybe its the long runs that makes it purr .lol

Nope - it is exactly the same and the components could even be from the same refinery

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