Petrol Differences

[thechef]

I have an E30 318is, I just use regular petrol, normally unleaded from Tesco ! is there any difference from supermarket fuels to the oil company fuels ? I know the likes of Shell Ultra and Tesco Momemtum etc have an additive for cleaner running, and, or - ever so slightly improved fuel economy, and maybe even an ever so slight increas in power, but surely standard unleaded is much the same wherever you go ! ? after all, all tankers go to the same refinery.

Secondly, will my 318is run better on a premium petrol, eg, a slight improvement in power and overall running ?

[Guest DazH]

Answer; No

Premium fuels tend to have a higher octane. Give a quick half hour to googles to find out exactly what a higher octane actually DOES and you'll conclude pretty quickly that you do not have a race compression engine therefore, will have no benifits. You drive an old girl like me; you most definately will not benifit from a higher octane fuel

Oil company Vs. Supermarket. My opinion; go for the cheapest. Petrol is Petrol. If it was bad quality, you'll know about it very quickly. Bad fuel will make it's self obvious quickly. As for fuel consumption. You'll prob get an extra half a second of idle before the engine dies if left to idle with the exact same quantity of fuels in a comparison test... if that. Their statistics they use are very... wooly

Daz

[thechef]

Hi daz, thanks, more or less what I thought, especially on the oil company V's supermarket thing

[Guest Mister Dabsy]

Yes I'm with Daz on this, however, I think stations ought to be made to disclose their fuels' ingredients (just like foodstuffs) as there are many different "additives" in the fuel you put in your tank !!

[peacheyd]

I read there is a difference with diesel though as cheap diesel can be mixed with a small percentage of other oils even cooking oil, dunno how true this is.

[thechef]

I read there is a difference with diesel though as cheap diesel can be mixed with a small percentage of other oils even cooking oil, dunno how true this is.

You can run a diesel on just cooking oil - even uses stuff, (filtered ofcourse, years ago some of my chef mates used to put it their diesel cars, get it for nout at wherever they worked :)