I've owned my mondeo st tdci for almost a year now and as a rule I've always used premium fuel in all my cars. The car is in great shape with no mechanical issues and is standard apart from h&r lowering springs.

This is my first diesel car and a few months ago I was caught short (out in the middle of nowhere) and had to fill up at Morrisons, which I wasn't keen on doing, but needs must btw I had ¼ of a tank left, but I don't like to run the tank into the red.

I got about 5 miles down the road and for the first time in my ownership the engine went into limp mode! So I turned it off and started it up and all was fine for a few miles. My car went into limp mode 4 times during that tank of supermarket fuel!

I fill up my car to the top once a week and it's in constant use up and down the motorway to and from work. So as an experiment I filled up with supermarket fuel once a month over the last 3 months. Tesco, sainsburys and Morrisons in that order. Every time it had supermarket fuel in, it would go into limp mode at least twice during that tank of fuel. Tesco's being the worse with the engine going into limp mode 6 times.

I know it's not the most scientific experiment but I'd like to know what people's experiences are with supermarket fuel. If my experience is anything to go by its pretty aweful stuff! Personally I'm starting to think supermarket fuel is responsible for the majority of diesel injector, pump failure etc.

Anyway, back to running the mondeo on the good stuff and it hasn't missed a beat

 

I've been telling people this for years on here, no car of mine will ever have supermarket fuel, it lacks a lot of the additives in branded fuel, yes power may be the same but there's a lot more to it than just that.

 

My Van 2008 Renault trafic will do over 650 miles to a tank of good diesel, if i use supermarket stuff(sainsburies seems worst) i get less than 600 miles to a tank full. Again not the most scientific way to test it due to different driving routes and loads etc. but after doing almost 130 000miles in the van i genuinely believe my findings are fairly correct.

 

All our cars have used super market fuel in them,except the cossie and they have been fine.

 

Try running a cvh on it for 20k miles and inspect the head, then do it with branded , biiiig difference in the amount of coke

 

No end of trouble down south with Tescos diesel. Just had it round the corner from my house with bad diesel and it was all over the news. Still got a row of dead mitsubushis at work needing new pumps and lines etc :-(

 

I used to have a 106 1.5d and I swear it would get more miles from a tank of Morrisons.

Got a 2.0tdi Golf now and if you put supermarket fuel in it, you can tell it runs worse, so I give it a wide bearth now

 

I have noticed this too, technically the fuel comes from the same tanks at the same refineries, it is just the branded fuel tends to have the additives etc.


I always stay away from the supermarkets but on the rare occasions I have to use it, I notice a bit more diesel knock especially when cold and usually 50 or so miles less out of a fill up.

 

Had numerous issues in the past with Sainsburys petrol. My ex filled my A4 on their fuel and pinked like mad and was flat as a pancake. Got it down t ohalf and brimmed it with Shell and it improved and when I next filled in full with Shell it ran spot on. Heard a few people moan their cars ran rough after filling with Sainsburys unleaded

 

Shocking stuff really. I always fill up with shell or esso. The wife always puts bloody supermarket crap in her diesel focus and it's so up and down to drive. I had to use it for a couple of weeks to and from work using shell and it ran so much better. The wife was amazed by how good it ran. But she still puts that crap in it. Bloody women!

 

My pajero only runs on morisons diesel

 

Never had an issue with my old Navara or ford fusion Running on Tesco diesel.

my bmws fine on Tesco petrol


and the cossy loves the Tesco 99 stuff.

 

Yeah to be fair cause Tesco is pretty much opposite my house and there's not a shell for at least 15 miles I have to use the Tesco 99 in the Cossie. There is an esso a few miles up the rd that if I'm going that way I'll use it instead, and it's cheaper than Tesco at the mo!! Only thing I get worried with esso is they offer Tesco clubcard points and our other local Tescos supermarkets all have esso petrol stations in them????

 

Fuel is fuel ??? As said above ive used alsorts and never had any problems


Same as most things ,just a name .


If I use shell optimax in the RS4 I don't notice any difference

 

I be had two renault traffics now from brand new and they have both done over 120k on supermarket fuel only and never had any issues with either of them same as the guys I work with we only use supermarkets as its cheaper.
On the od occation I have been caught out in the rs and put sainsburys 99 in it and it actually idles better and runs better than with shell v power

 

What i don't buy into is the super diesel, how is that any better?
Supermarket unleaded has always proven worse on mpg and power for me, not worth me travelling any further than the local shell for fuel. I suspect the same from regular diesel, yet to prove that though.

 

Only use supermarkets for deisel no probs do 50k a year only use shell for the cossie
We do work on refineries and fuels are blended to customer requirements so i doubt supermarkets would bother to much about quality but personally had no probs my focus tdci did over 200k befor pump died

 

Never had any issues with supermarket fuel in any of my petrol or diesel cars.

As said above, the fuel mostly comes from the same big storage tanks for nearly all the suppliers. How do I know? I used to work on the fuel depots a lot.

Shell use their own specific additives. The diesel additives for the majority of the other brands is generic.

 

Where I work we fill the tankers with fuel that's delivered to forecourts I can assure you it all comes out of the same tank!
I'm not naming names apart from I see Tesco tankers a lot there!


steve

 

Steve, the other terminals down the road supply EVERY brand from the same tanks.

 

Sainburys is BP. I fill both the focus and the galaxy have done for years with no issues both are petrol.

 

Sainsburys don't fill from BP exclusively, I can guarantee you that!

 

They can all come from the same tank, the additives however are added at delivery as its pumped into the station tank. There are differences

 

The additives are injected when the tankers are loaded at the fuel depots.

I used to install/commission the systems that do this.

 

does the supermarket fuel have the same amount of additives as the premium brands?

 

I've only ever seen Shell/BP use their own specific additives.

The additives, as far as I know, cost a bloody fortune relative to the fuel. Can't say who uses what, but i've seen almost every brand of diesel using the same additive tank and system. If the additives are over batched that's when the problems occur, remember the Morrisons issues in the SE a few years ago killing lambda sensors? Over dosed additives.

 

i read something a while back and it was this test that was done on fuels. i cant remember the exact figures but good fuel has about 15 additives and supermarket fuel was tested to have 7 or less. it was along those lines so dont quote me.

i know of 2 people close to me so not chinese whispers who had breakdowns due to supermarket fuel. one friend had a £1500 payout as ther was a big case of bad supermarket fuel a few yrs back. the other had the tank drained by the AA as car broke down. a refil of good fuel and all was fine.

i use supermarket fuel almost never. iv aslso spoke to a few people with diesel injector problems and when you ask them where they fill up its almost always supermarkets.

 

I've done quarter of a million miles on a mix of fuel from wherever was closest at the time, in a range of cars and never had any problems related to fuel quality whatsoever.

My current car has done 50k since I got it, generally on tesco or Asda diesel.

I can see there may be a longevity argument, although thats tenuous at best, but if your car is dropping into limp home on road fuel meeting uk standards then theres something wrong with it.

 

I use Shell fuels only.

 

The car's at fault because filling up at a particular place makes it pink and drop into limp? Does common sense and logic not indicate that the fuel is the more probable cause?

 

Provided the fuel has met the minimum standards to which vehicle manufacturers design, then one can only conclude the vehicle was faulty.

Of course any supplier can be subject to a contaminated batch of fuel, but to write off all supermarkets on the basis of the subjective evidence provided is nonsense.

 

I'm just going to say yes as I fear this will be like ice skating up a hill.

 

Audi A4 2.0 TDi

Had over a year now and i only use BP or Tesco (mostly Tesco) and i don't see any difference in power to MPG so maybe its all in the mind

 

i've never had any issues using tesco 99, the 924 runs better on momentum than it does on shell vpower

 

I forgot to mention my mondeo will spin the wheels in 3rd on damp greasy roads in the winter. However it wouldn't spin up in 3rd with supermarket fuel. I know it's very unscientific but I feel there's a connection in performance between supermarket and branded fuel. I've heard diesel has to have a minimum of 10% biofuel mixed in for it to comply with eu legislation and that branded fuel only put the minimum required. However supermarkets like to add around 15% biofuel (watering it down) Biofuel fuel is a living substance that can form a fungus/sludge in the fuel tank. I could be wrong though. Why is it you only hear of bad batch fuel at supermarkets and not at the branded petrol stations?

 

This is true

 

No, biofuel isnt a living substance, its a chemical.

No it wont grow sludge in your tank, however diesel bug can http://www.howcleanisyouroil.com/DIESEL-FUEL-BUG

No, it's not "watering it down", biofuel is a viable fuel in its own right if it's made to the correct standards.

I've seen/heard of/had bad fuel from both to be honest with you.

 

Fatty Acid Methyl Ester, that's biodiesel.

Horrible stuff, and surprisingly corrosive.

 

there is something that some diesel does when it turns to a black sludge, admitadly we run red diesel in our dozers but ive had to remove and clean out 3 fuel tanks so far and they have been blocked up with a sludgy type substance ?

 

Anyway, I'd rather pay the extra couple of pence a litre and put the decent stuff in my tank. Supermarket fuel is shit. The only reason people use it is because they're fucking tight. I've never had a problem with branded fuel, unlike the supermarket crap.