Car (or bike) Chat!

[Marco]

Interesting... Unconsciously, I did that with V-Power, yet the car goes better on Texaco Supreme!

For me, if a specific fuel is genuinely better, the engine will respond to it, regardless.

Marco.

[spendorman]

I may have mentioned this before, apologies if so. About a year ago my 27 year old petrol Volvo was nearly empty. In the evening I stopped at an Asda petrol station, it was pretty dark around, filled it up. Drove off, all OK, part way down the road engine stated running a bit rough, thought, crap petrol. Further along it got worse, then the awful realisation that I'd filled with diesel. What a idiot, never done this before in over 45 years of driving.

With a horrible amount of engine knocking and hesitation, the old brick got me home. I bought a small electric fuel pump from ebay, very cheap and quite good, disconnected the fuel line at the carburettor (yes that old), and connected it to the new pump. The electric supply of the pump was connected to the cigarette lighter socket, output of the pump into many plastic fuel cans. Took a little while to pump out the 10 gallons or so.

Reconnected everything, put in a gallon of petrol, stated engine, a bit of smoke, but not too bad. Ran engine to deplete this gallon, put in more petrol and smoking almost gone. After a couple of weeks light use of car, back to normal.

My friend with a very old diesel was pleased to take the 10 gallons of stuff I had drained out.

Interestingly, this attack on the health of my engine by silly me, did not effect the emissions readings on the MOT, I was a bit worried about this.

[CageyH]

Interesting... Unconsciously, I did that with V-Power, yet the car goes better on Texaco Supreme!

For me, if a specific fuel is genuinely better, the engine will respond to it, regardless.

Marco.

As long as you have the appropriate sensors etc to take benefit of the better fuel.
There is no point me using SP98 as I don't have a knock sensor to optimise the map for it, just a wide and lambda sensor and adaptive mapping. So the car will perform roughly the same on SP95 or SP98.

[Gazjam]

Fill the tank with the fuel you are going to use, and perform the rolling road session with it.
The MAP will then be optimised for use on that fuel.

Yup.

When I had my Alfa remapped it was drinking V-Power at the time, and I've noticed its got more shove running with that fuel.
I had the ECU reset at the same time of the remap, so could be a factor I s'pose.

That said, tried the Tesco Momentum 99 for the first time and was impressed with it.
The "99" refers to the 99 Ron rating of the petrol, though it has added ethanol to boost it to 99 and doesn't have the same cleaning additives that V-Power has.
Tesco stuff is cheaper mind, and theres a rumour going around its the same stuff just with different additives.
Bearing in mind Shell and Tesco dont own their own refineries, they need to get it from somewhere...

What I DO know is that BP Ultimate is nothing of the kind...engine feels heavy with a tank of that stuff, never again.
V-Power for us girly petrol drivers is the way forward I think!

HonestJohn agrees:
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/a...co-momentum-99

[Marco]

As little by as you have the appropriate sensors etc to take benefit of the better fuel.
There is no point me using SP98 as I don't have a knock sensor to optimise the map for it, just a wide and lambda sensor and adaptive mapping. So the car will perform roughly the same on SP95 or SP98.

Sure, mate. I also think it's not just about octane or cetane levels, but often about which fuel contains the more effective cleaning agents, which for me is where most (if not all) of the benefit comes from with 'premium fuels', acting independently of any engine mapping

Marco.

[Marco]

Yup.

When I had my Alfa remapped it was drinking V-Power at the time, and I've noticed its got more shove running with that fuel.
I had the ECU reset at the same time of the remap, so could be a factor I s'pose.

That said, tried the Tesco Momentum 99 for the first time and was impressed with it.
The "99" refers to the 99 Ron rating of the petrol, though it has added ethanol to boost it to 99 and doesn't have the same cleaning additives that V-Power has.
Tesco stuff is cheaper mind, and theres a rumour going around its the same stuff just with different additives.
Bearing in mind Shell and Tesco dont own their own refineries, they need to get it from somewhere...

What I DO know is that BP Ultimate is nothing of the kind...engine feels heavy with a tank of that stuff, never again.
V-Power for us girly petrol drivers is the way forward I think!

All interesting and relevant stuff, Gaz. It does appear that some fuels suit some cars better than others, and I agree with you about BP Ultimate, now I've found other stuff that's better.

If you get a chance though, try some of the Texaco fuel, as they also do a Supreme unleaded, and see how you get on

Marco.

[Gazjam]

Theres a Texaco near by me Marco, will stick a half tank of their Supreme in see how it goes.

All interesting and relevant stuff, Gaz. It does appear that some fuels suit some cars better than others, and I agree with you about BP Ultimate, now I've found other stuff that's better.

If you get a chance though, try some of the Texaco fuel, as they also do a Supreme unleaded, and see how you get on

Marco.

[Marco]

Nice one, mate. It's fun to experiment. Be interested in your feedback

Marco.

[walpurgis]

That was a painful experience. £586 to renew the car insurance! And that was after a bit of haggling to get it down from the quoted £651. I'm a pensioner with no claims, driving a sub 1000cc car and insured as driving less than 5000 miles a year.

If I lived out in the sticks, I'd probably pay a third of that.

That dosh could have bought some Hi-Fi!

[CageyH]

I pay less than that for a Caterham 7 with just over 200 BHP.