Unleaded vs Superunleaded

I've done about 4,000m in my 3.0se coupe since acquiring it with 8,000 on the clock four months ago. For the first 2,000 miles I used the higher octane rating, but then I found myself at a station where it had run out and was obliged to fill up with standard. I noticed no detectable change in the car's performance, but then I tend to drive smoothly most of the time anyway. I've had points on my licence and had to spend a year or two tiptoeing around the place, and I don't want to be in that position again. The car will still scare the living bejasus out of me if I floor the throttle on the infrequent occasions when I am so minded. :o

I took careful note of the fuel consumption, and was rather surprised to see that from an average of about 29-31mpg on Supreme I am now getting about 33-34mpg on the bog-standard. Odd :idunno:
 
doubting thomas here, could this be in the mind, how can we really tell if the car runs better

i once tried a diesel cars on petrol, that definately is no good, that was not in my mind :)
 
I have a 3.0 litre Z4 and I had hesitation issues with my car, i spent alot of money replacing bit here and there trying to pin down the issue. During my troubleshooting phase i started using SuperUnleaded, my car is now running sooooo sweet that i am scared to change anything now. In reality its probably the idle control valve clean, or the new disa or the dme software update or the coils or the BG44K....... you get the idea.

In fact running the car on super doesn't seem to be costing me more, i guess because i am using slightly less fuel. I will be staying Vpower for the foreseeable future.
 
Get yourselves over to Germany where the V-power is 103Ron. You can tell the difference with that :driving:
 
Eurohooner said:
Get yourselves over to Germany where the V-power is 103Ron. You can tell the difference with that :driving:
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If it is available here, it will cost £1.50/litre. :(
 
Always run my cars on supermarket unleaded 'cheap as chips' stuff (ever since changing from leaded in my 205gti!) - can't notice a difference when I've tried a tankful or so of the expensive stuff, so always swapped back.
Is it in the mind? Will a 10bhp difference be noticable?
Or am I just the being a typical tight arsed yorkshire accountant! :lol:
 
Eurohooner said:
ksher said:
Eurohooner said:
Get yourselves over to Germany where the V-power is 103Ron. You can tell the difference with that :driving:
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If it is available here, it will cost £1.50/litre. :(
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That's virtually what it cost there at 1.59 Euro/l:!:
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I'm off there at the end of August - I might treat the car to the odd tankfull :thumbsup:
 
I work at a speciality chemical company and we make the additive that Shell use in Vpower, I can say looking at pictures of the injectors provided by our R&D people the difference is quite substantial in the amount of crud generated by regular petrol and Vpower, speaks for itself really, Vpower cleans the injectors much better than the standard stuff.

Oh and by the way..I'm collecting my first ever Z4 on Friday
2004 3.0 se with a few extra toys

I'll post some pics once I've completed the 500 mile rountrip!

Dave
 
dgn38 said:
I work at a speciality chemical company and we make the additive that Shell use in Vpower, I can say looking at pictures of the injectors provided by our R&D people the difference is quite substantial in the amount of crud generated by regular petrol and Vpower, speaks for itself really, Vpower cleans the injectors much better than the standard stuff.

Oh and by the way..I'm collecting my first ever Z4 on Friday
2004 3.0 se with a few extra toys

I'll post some pics once I've completed the 500 mile rountrip!

Dave
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Thanks for sharing that. It isnt really costing me more to run my car on Vpower to be honest and it is probably better for the engine. Higher octane does give a cleaner burn, I always thought that using a higher octane cleaned the injectors after all that is pretty much what most injector cleaners do.
 
I do love unleaded/super unleaded/Vpower threads, there is always so much speculation and so many "feelings", that and believing what petrol companies' marketing want us to believe.

On the back of this thread, the last time I need petrol, I put a half tank of Vpower in just to test with and then drove normally for a week. I'm close to having to fill up again and I think I will be sticking with Vpower for now. On normal supermarket unleaded I get between 28 and 30 MPG, but with Vpower I have 32MPG (bearing in mind that it's the same route and the same driving style), but the car "feels" smoother. My only problem is that the Shell station that is close to me is an expensive local one where they charge 126p per litre for Vpower. That's versus 114p for Esso unleaded on my way to work. I haven't done the math yet, but I suspect my extra 2MPG isn't worth the extra 12p per litre.

But hey, it "feels" nicer to drive and I'm sure I'm cleaning the engine out too.
 
SpaceCoyote said:
I haven't done the math yet, but I suspect my extra 2MPG isn't worth the extra 12p per litre.
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if we take it as going from 29mpg to 32mpg that's a 10.3% improvement
and 114p to 126p is a 10.5% increase

so it just about balances out
 
If it makes you feel any better, it was £1.28.9 here last time I went. If you do a lot of miles, Shell have a V Power club with discounts etc
 
I tried that fuel-saving petrol on my way back from the Scotland meet on Sunday - I actually averaged 35mpg on the way back as opposed to the 37mpg I'd got on the way up. It always seems like it's downhill from Scotland too, so I was expecting significantly better MPG figures rather than worse :)

Couldn't really detect any difference in the engine, though I wouldn't expect to on the motorway anyway.

I suspect the engine should perform as well on any fuel that's rated at (or higher than) whatever the manufacturer recommends, though the additives helping keep the injectors clean sounds worthwhile, especially if you can quantify it at under a 100quid a year. :)
 
I tried that fuel-saving petrol on my way back from the Scotland meet on Sunday - I actually averaged 35mpg on the way back as opposed to the 37mpg I'd got on the way up. It always seems like it's downhill from Scotland too, so I was expecting significantly better MPG figures rather than worse

But into the prevailing wind............I always get better consumption heading out of the Southwest than on return :)
 
wegras said:
I tried that fuel-saving petrol on my way back from the Scotland meet on Sunday - I actually averaged 35mpg on the way back as opposed to the 37mpg I'd got on the way up. It always seems like it's downhill from Scotland too, so I was expecting significantly better MPG figures rather than worse

But into the prevailing wind............I always get better consumption heading out of the Southwest than on return :)
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i assume its dearer petrol too
 
Taz x said:
i assume its dearer petrol too
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It's cheaper than the Tesco Super+ I usually fill up with;
Fuelsave was 115.9p/litre at the Dunblane services.
Currently paying 117.9p/litre for Tesco Super+
 
My local Shell station was out of Vpower last night and I had to fill up with Sainsburys Super at 120.9p.

Will be interesting to see if there is a big difference in MPG.

To save me surfing around the Shell site, what is the deal with Vpower? Is it just super unleaded octane with soap in it?
 
Tesco have started advertising this page, there's an interesting PDF that's worth a read: http://www.tesco.com/Momentum99/productBenefits.asp
 
My 2p worth

From all the years running superbikes where a 1000cc is 160-180bhp I only ever put in cheap unleaded .... never had a race track to make any use of the top 20/30% of all that power

The only real difference I have ever noticed was one garage nearby would make my car run like crap and that was due to the crappy tanks they had on site, which they changed a few years back
 
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