Changed your fuel "brand" lately - noticed a difference ?

[Greg B]

Hi Guys.

Ive been running my old girl (300 Tdi - 368400 km) on CALTEX diesel ever since i took ownership, that being around 6 years now.

I have always believed and maintained that you should run and keep running an engine on one specific brand of fuel.

Well...I may be changing those beliefs.

Although i have been tinkering the last month or two. Had an annoying ticking sound in relation to engine revs, especially after climing hills.

Engine flush, new oil/filter, fuel, and airfilter. Did another 2 engine oil changes in the last 3 weeks. Was running 15w - 40, have switched to a high Mileage 20w - 50. New lift pump fitted this past wekend (old one seemed dodge). Kept running her on CALTEX 50ppm...and she seemed to be running better now, than before the oil changes etc.

I was running low on fuel and had to fill up at another garage (ENGEN). Put in 500ppm standard diesel fuel.....and WOW !!!

It's been 2 days now, and She's never run better. great accelaration, power and running smoothly.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this ? I would love to hear about it.

Will keep running her on ENGEN fuel to see if i'm correct in my obsevations.

[Oakmaster]

UM .......? what is CALTEX and ENGEN? Having had a variety of V8's and been that nob pontificating at the Bar:

:" If you want to know the MPG then you shouldn't have bought a Land-rover"

, or my favorites,

1) Given that it's going to cost a £5 in petrol Just how much do I need to pass this bloke doing 5 MPH less than I want to go?

and

2) V8 v Tedious?: (Tdi) Its Quality of life v Standard of Living Followed by a slight reprise of:

" If you want to know the MPG then you shouldn't have bought a Land-rover"

We then ending up with a 200 Tdi, followed by a brace of 300 Tdis (and having bought her a really nice 300 Tdi 90 CSW, I got a right shoeing when I came home (having spent less that half as much) in a 110 300 Tdi CSW just because it was the same colour.

(There is a point to this honest)

SO Fuel - I have a friend, smart educated, but 'close' or careful, of even tight! - He very carefully monitors his fuel use in his VW, and tells me that with the Premium brands BP Ulitima and the Shell Supa-douper He gets more MPG to the point where it outweighs the additional cost of the extra cost, (and he does this very scientifically)

But

better still - he was told he needed a new injector pump ( a service light came on apparently) but within a few tankfuls of the premium brands this was no longer the case and the VW went on to do another 60,000 taking it well over the 200,000 miles barrier

[Oakmaster]

(note to self: Dont post stuff when you have just come back form the Pub!)

[Tanuki]

I generally go for a known-brand [shell, Esso] "standard" Diesel for my 90TD5; the supposed 'special' Diesels [shell Nitro Plus etc] cost rather more and don't seem to offer anything more than the approprlately EN-specified standard fuels the LR manual specifies as being needed. All UK-supplied road-diesel is now ultra-low-sulphur which can only be a good thing for those of us who have engine oil-changes specified at 12-15,000-miles.

Sainsbury's supermarket "City Diesel" - though supposedly meeting the EN standards - always seemed to give a rather lacklustre performance, but no obvious loss of MPG.

Consumption-wise, I get between 21 and 25MPG in normal driving; traffic and driving style has far more of an effect than anything I've been able to relate to specific brands of fuel. Whatever you're putting in the tank you're going to need lots and lots of it to make a Defender cruise at a sustained 85MPH.

[Gazzar]

And deprive us of you waxing lyrical about fuel? Shame.

I've tried a few different brands in the Barge (Volvo 5 cyl vnt turbo diesel) and noticed no difference in anything. That includes PB Ultimate and Texaco super special. If anything the mpg has increased slightly on the cheaper fuel, even with me using the full range of the engine, I manage to get 42.5 mpg.

[landroversforever]

My experience of going from Tesco normal petrol in the pug to the Esso super unleaded was that I got a noticeable increase in MPG. I went from getting 30-35 normally (38-40 on a run) to getting 38-40 no matter how I drive.... and I don't hang about much!

I should add the MPG is calculated brim-to-brim with a fuel app on my phone.

[dailysleaze]

The reduction in sulphur content in diesel is supposedly offset in the UK by other lubricants which help diesels designed for a bygone age.

These images show how the diesel sulphur content has changed from 2009 to 2014 around the world. SA hasn't moved on albeit is still quite good, but is there a chance that the lower sulphur fuel doesn't typically have any additives to offset the effects on the older engines, i.e. 300Tdi? Therefore yours is happier with a higher sulphur content?

[Nigelw]

Interesting stuff! I found it helpful to add 200ml straight mineral 2stroke oil per fill to get best out of the 200Tdi, funilly, emissions on comparrison where far lower(to the point of the tester wondering if the machine was knackered!) On the second MOT (first MOT was after 2yrs standing idle being repaired with the half tank in that it came with).

Now petrol, the V8 Disco was so much better on the big branded super dooper ultra fuels but the frequency of filling up a tank of a V8 Disco meant it was prohibitive! I avoided all small independent and LUK, AVIA tank stations as regular Euro95 made th engine run rough, to the point of replacing and servicing it as it was so rough running!

[simonr]

I kept accurate fuel & mileage records for over 10 years.

What I observed.....

Supermarket fuel is typically 4 to 5% cheaper than most of the others but achieves 4-5% lower MPG - so costs the same. However, if there is a forecort fuel station near a supermarket, they are generally no more than 1% more expensive but achieve 4-5% more mpg - saving 3 to 4%

Premium Diesel is about 8% more expensive than regular - but gives about 11% more MPG (or acceleration if that's what you are after).

Best result is to buy Premium from the fuel station near the Supermarket to get an overall 7% saving.

[mmgemini]

I never noticed any difference between the Caltex or the Engen when out in your country.

What I did notice in Kasane Botswana was the staff at the Shell station in town were the same staff at Engen out of town ????

[heath robinson]

I've just got the td5 back from Diesel Dave at D&P in Ditchling (cheers for the recommendation Simonr, he's a top bloke, thoroughly recommended), and while inevitably chatting about landrovers, we got onto the subject of fuel. He said that he's had a range of different places versions of diesel analysed by a mate, and the difference is more than slight - supermarket cheapo stuff has way less lubricity, so will cause wear to pumps etc. and said matey's advice was to obviously avoid supermarket stuff, but further, to fill up with the super-dooper posh stuff ("Supreme" or whatever) every few fills, say every tenth. Good enough for me!

As to MPG, I've given up trying to calculate it, as the last run towing a 3.5t trailer, with mud tyres, a roofrack, spotlights all over the shop, and the truck full of tents gave me a lovely 15mpg...

[Retroanaconda]

I track the MPG of my car quite closely because I'm sad enough for it to interest me, this is the last six months by fuel type:

Huge variation as you can see, unless you want to get some cars in laboratory conditions and carry out proper tests you can never truly say whether a high MPG is due simply to the fuel or to anything else for that matter. There are so many factors at work.

As long as I'm returning 30-ish on average I'm happy!

[dantastic]

I was tracking every drop of dielsel put in for about 6 years until I lost the spreadsheet. (TD5)

I tried the cheap fuel and it was expensive in the long run. Consumption up and power down.

Premium is by far the best value for money. I don't have access to premium where I live but I get it whenever I can and it makes a big difference. Data can't lie!

The diesel you buy on the continent is also much better for the TD5. Even the cheaper stuff and you can expect a 2-3mpg increase.

A few years back I was getting 33.5mpg out of a fully loaded 110 running on Shell premium going through Italy. At the time I was getting about 26mpg here at home.