Diesel ... is it all the same ??

[wizard]

Is there a difference between Shell, BP, Texaco etc and Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons fuel.
They must all come from the same source.
So is a branded fuel better than supermarket stuff, and if so why.I know someone who claims more mpg on BP fuel than Tesco's fuel.

wizard :twisted:

[Dr Evil]

Does he use the super diesel, or regular diesel ?
I bet he uses the same pump everytime, which will turn out to be........super diesel

[r_mav]

 my dad runs a WCF filling staion an i was talkin to one of there drivers askin the same qustion as this an the driver said They can all come frome the same refinery just labled up differantly. Although some fuel componys do by a lower grade

[TDi90]

Dont buy supermarket fuel  :shock:
i have heard some people have had problems in the past and not only just from that spout of bad fuel we had a while ago.
i wont touch supermarket fuel.
R

[waveydavey]

The basic spec is laid down - if the EN number is the same it has to be the same.
The big companies claim to put additives in; choose if you think it's Worth it? As has been said there is no Tesco, Morrisons or Asda refinery so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work that one out.

What can vary is the quality control of transport and storage tanks; being the same on the way out of the refinery doesn't necessarily mean it's the same coming out the pump. I would not like to bet on who has the better standards though!

[Lord Shagg-Pyle]

I only get my fuel from filling stations. I had a lot of problems after I filled up with diesel at Morrisons, namely it clogged the fuel lines.
Once bitten, twice shy.

[Dr Evil]

I only get my fuel from filling stations. I had a lot of problems after I filled up with diesel at Morrisons, namely it clogged the fuel lines.
Once bitten, twice shy.

You sure it was diesel and not cake ?

[Disco Matt]

I fed mine Safeway and then Morrisons diesel for about three years. It never missed a beat!

Regarding fuel economy, mine seemed to have dropped by about 50-100 miles a tank. After a bit of investigation I think my viscous fan is borked as it turns even at tickover with a cold engine. Could this cause it or do I need to get a lighter right foot fitted? I don't think the fact that I mostly do short distance driving helps mind!  :lol:

[JumboBeef]

Dont buy supermarket fuel  :shock:
i have heard some people have had problems in the past and not only just from that spout of bad fuel we had a while ago.
i wont touch supermarket fuel.
R

Used supermaket fuel for more than 20 years, never had a problem.

[BK]

petrol in the north comes from either conoco at immingham(jet) or seal sands just above middlesboro and most fuels are the same quality apart from an odd bad batch,wavey is correct.......I used to pull it around a bit by road tanker.....rix petroleam is kept in storage in hull but im not sure whether they refine it there.

[kizz81]

there was one batch of bad fuel from super markets that gave the whole lot a bad name wasnt there, and that only seemed to affect certain brands of car,

ill stick with the faithful old landy  :lol: would probly run on cow poo if i tried it  :lol:

[Tommo]

I remember hearing that the petrol stations get the better stuff, supermarkets the average, and the rest goes for red derv.

How is diesel fuel made?
Crude oil that is pumped out of the ground is composed of thousands of different hydrocarbon compounds - compounds composed of carbon and hydrocarbon. The carbon atoms link together in chains of different lengths, shapes and sizes. Each individual chain length or molecular size has different properties including progressively higher boiling points, so they can be separated by boiling point or distillation.

Distillation is the first major process at an oil refinery. As the crude oil is heated, different hydrocarbon compounds are separated by their boiling temperatures. The lightest components such as ethane and propane come off the top of the distillation tower. The next components, called naphtha, are used for making gasoline.

The next heavier portion of crude oil coming from the distillation tower is used to make diesel fuel. Diesel fuel contains larger hydrocarbon molecules, with more carbon atoms than gasoline. Simple distillation does not produce enough gasoline and diesel fuel, so heavier fractions of crude oil are broken into smaller compounds by thermal or catalytic cracking, or hydrocracking, to produce higher volumes of gasoline and diesel fuel. To lower the level of sulphur in the fuel, some of these fractions may be hydrotreated - a refinery process that reacts a fraction of crude oil with hydrogen at high temperature and pressure, in the presence of a catalyst, to improve colour and odour, and reduce sulphur content. Various component streams are blended to meet the required diesel fuel specifications.

by the sounds of that supermarket fuel may just not be quite as well refined.

[Silvery Thing]

Dont buy supermarket fuel  :shock:
i have heard some people have had problems in the past and not only just from that spout of bad fuel we had a while ago.
i wont touch supermarket fuel.
R

I read such comments time, time and time again. I'm sorry but this is misguided as the fuel, regardless of outlet, comes from reputable refineries and all carry the correct additives.

Yes, outlets such as Shell, BP or the like may make slight changes to their fuel but they give little benefits. Its diesel from heavens sake so the engine can cope better than a petrol unit.

Buy your fuel for price and convenience and don't bother to drive miles for branded fuels, its a total waste of time and money. I buy my diesel from Tesco and my car runs as well as any other. I used to own a Nissan 350Z and bought Super Unleaded 99RON from the same garage and the car ran like a dream. In my opinion supermarket fuel is just as good as any other :D

[Range Rover Blues]

The way the modern fuel indistry wroks you can't even guarantee that a BP station is selling BP fuel, or any other for that matter.  Fuel is traded as a comodity, both drude and refined, so it all gets mixed up.

Re deiesel, depending on voume is just white diesel with dye, if you buy it from a tanker for heating your house the dye is added at the point of delivery.  If you were buying more it might come pre-dyed.

Derv does have to meet or exceed a European Norm, superceeding the oild British Standard.  The key is exceed, the best fuela out there will be better, whether by luck or by design, but any fuel meeting the EN should be fine for a deisel car.

But some fuels will be better, it's working out which ones.

[Lord Shagg-Pyle]

I only get my fuel from filling stations. I had a lot of problems after I filled up with diesel at Morrisons, namely it clogged the fuel lines.
Once bitten, twice shy.

You sure it was diesel and not cake ?

Hmm, that could exp[lain the difficulty I had geting it into the tank!

Seriously though, it caused havoc with the engine. New fuel filter, clean out of the sedimenter, and a blow through of the fuel line eventually cured it.
Must have been a bad lot or near the bottom of the tank. Don't want to run the risk again.

[eugene]

i have heard that supermarkets fuel have lower additive in it compared to branded fuel as it is added as the tanker leaves the dept  and this person use to work at a refinery so im taking it that it right  :-k

[crazymac]

I use Tesco fuel generally, but when I fill up in the Murco station or the BP station I get less miles compared to Tesco!

[BK]

Dont buy supermarket fuel  :shock:
i have heard some people have had problems in the past and not only just from that spout of bad fuel we had a while ago.
i wont touch supermarket fuel.
R

I read such comments time, time and time again. I'm sorry but this is misguided as the fuel, regardless of outlet, comes from reputable refineries and all carry the correct additives.

Yes, outlets such as Shell, BP or the like may make slight changes to their fuel but they give little benefits. Its diesel from heavens sake so the engine can cope better than a petrol unit.

Buy your fuel for price and convenience and don't bother to drive miles for branded fuels, its a total waste of time and money. I buy my diesel from Tesco and my car runs as well as any other. I used to own a Nissan 350Z and bought Super Unleaded 99RON from the same garage and the car ran like a dream. In my opinion supermarket fuel is just as good as any other :D

yup thats right,as far as petrol goes,each garage has there own "colour",if you look at bp petrol it has a green tinge to it,shell is yellow,texaco is blackish and esso is reddish,this is a dye put in at source so now you know!!! :D

[Arc-Eye]

To my way of thinking the benefits of various suppliers and quality of diesel aint the issue, its the way we are getting ripped off by all on the cost of the bloody stuff in the first place either good or bad.
Most expensive I've seen this week is £1.19 a litre, any advances on that? :'(

[Niel]

Is there a difference between Shell, BP, Texaco etc and Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons fuel.
So is a branded fuel better than supermarket stuff, and if so why.I know someone who claims more mpg on BP fuel than Tesco's fuel.

Hummm, I get better mileage out of Texaco, Shell std. comes next, Esso is down with Tescos, Sainsbury's worst. I add Millers diesel plus to all of them with an improvement with all of them. Currently running on Tesco's + Millers + 2ltrs mixed used (& filtered) ATF/EP90, quieter than std. derv and it'll still do 80 MPH (not sure what the upper limit is on std. gearing though).
Yes thats right I add lubricating oil to replace the missing sulphur lubricity additive, to help protect the pump, the knock is reduced too.

[kizz81]

Most expensive I've seen this week is £1.19 a litre, any advances on that?

i saw a £1.22 per litre in derbyshire on tuesday,

i was talking to the garage owner just down the road from me who told me he is giving up selling fuel as he only makes 4p per litre profit and thats selling it at a 2p per litre higher price than asda and tesco so he just cant compete, in favour he is going into doing MOT's were he is making a killing you have to book more than a month in advance now :shock:

its not just diesel thats gone up, my boss at the indian restuarant was moaning that nearly everyone of his suppliers has put everything up in price :shock:

keep the free cooking oil coming is all i can say  :lol:

cheers kieran

[Range Rover Blues]

its not just diesel thats gone up, my boss at the indian restuarant was moaning that nearly everyone of his suppliers has put everything up in price :shock:

It was going to happen, stuff has to come by road after all, veg oiil is getting more expensive too, everything is going up.

Perhaps we'll finaly have a bit of inflation and folks will see this useless bunch of public school idiots in gov't for what they really are, incompetant.

[waveydavey]

I am curious for all the 'I get X miles more or less'; how are you working it out?

As I said the difference in the fuel comes from the quality of transport and storage not the supply.

My guess is that the difference in milage on a  tankfull comes more from the amount in the tank.
IE One garage has a faster pump with a more sensitive cut off so a  full tank has less in it and hence doesn't go so far.

[Sooty]

its not just diesel thats gone up, my boss at the indian restuarant was moaning that nearly everyone of his suppliers has put everything up in price :shock:

It was going to happen, stuff has to come by road after all, veg oiil is getting more expensive too, everything is going up.

Perhaps we'll finaly have a bit of inflation and folks will see this useless bunch of public school idiots in gov't for what they really are, incompetant.

I know this is off topic and I apologise but I need to get it off my chest.
While I tend to agree with your sentiment Andy I think "incompetent" is the wrong word.
Check this out http://www.theyworkforyou.com my MP spent nearly £22,000 on Incidental Expenses Provision last year.
That means he claimed more for things that are Incidental,last year than my whole income for the year.
I would not say that was incompetent more like dam greedy or just simply kicking me where it hurts most. :x :x :x
Did I vote for him.....NO
Would it have been different if the person I voted for had got in......I very much doubt it.
I am not going to continue as it will only wind me up and then I will be stressed as well as skint.
Ha Ho, what ever, somebody get it back on topic please.

[discowoman]

Ok so BP ESSO etc all sell their OWN fuel...then can someone explain to me how when Buncefield went up..ALL the major fuel companies had vehicles in there - as well as some supermarkets and Independants?
(hubby delivered into their about 4 weeks after D Day, they were dragging units and trailers out and decanting any fuel into special tankers)

[Range Rover Blues]

My guess is that the difference in milage on a  tankfull comes more from the amount in the tank.
IE One garage has a faster pump with a more sensitive cut off so a  full tank has less in it and hence doesn't go so far.

I think you've hit the nail on the head.  The only way to work out MPG is to see how manu miles you get on a fill up.  Going form an empty tank to an empty tank is far to vague so the best wat is to brim the tank, then see how many miles you can do on one tank, brim it back up then seehow much fuel you used.  Even then usinga different pump will effect the cut-off speed, the ambient temp will effect th way the fuel froths up, all sorts of things and I cna put about 2 gallons in mine after the nozzle has clicked off for the first time.

I know that a Ford is designed to be 98% full on the second click, but I'm sure LR weren't designed that well, so how can any of us be totally accurate?

And LPG mileage is even harder to be accurate about, I try to take an average over 3 yankfulls, the amount in the dispensing pump, the ambient temp and pressure all make a difference to the delivery pressure even though my tank cuts off on a level-guage it's still variable.

[marjan]

I can't tell any difference between Supermarket fuel and other in my Landy 90 but the supermarket stuff (Sainsburys) makes my Focus TDCI run very lumpy.

[Ja1983]

seemingly supermarket fuels are the cheaper, lower quality stuff. although its more like super, great and fantastic... rather than good, bad and ugly. i believe water content has a lot to do with it.

personally if i have a performace engine, i stick performance fuel in. the disco is not a performance engine, so i run it on whats cheapest!

most turbo`d petrol car run noticabley differant on anything less than premim unleaded.

but lets not forget that landrovers are used all over the world, and are designed to run on multiple grades of fuel - i imagine the stuff you get in deepest darkest africa may be a tad downmarket from what comes out of the pumps here....

[Bob696]

To my way of thinking the benefits of various suppliers and quality of diesel aint the issue, its the way we are getting ripped off by all on the cost of the bloody stuff in the first place either good or bad.
Most expensive I've seen this week is £1.19 a litre, any advances on that? :'(

In the turkish part of cyprus diesel is around 75p a litre and petrol 85p despite them still being under economic embargo. Makes you wonder.

[Silvery Thing]

....personally if i have a performace engine, i stick performance fuel in. the disco is not a performance engine, so i run it on whats cheapest!....

I used to own a performance car before the Land Cruiser, it was a Nissan 350Z, and it went perfectly on Tesco 99RON so there is no reason to shy away from supermarket fuels :)