Supermarket petrol?????

[fogster]

Supermarket petrol??! - Foggy Tue 27 Aug 02 17:44

I posted a question earlier and mentioned the fact that I put supermarket petrol in my car (a Rover 620 Ti which I've run for four years, has 78,000 on the clock and still no smoke!. I'm about to change and buy a '96 BMW 728i with 30,000 miles on the engine.

Shell Optimax seems very popular on the web (but expensive on only one garage in Cardiff) - so my question is this. Should I stick to one brand of petrol? BP? Shell? Texaco? Will supermarket petrol really hurt my car? Unleaded or Superunleaded?

I'd love to hear evryones views, but especially those who work in the petrochemical industry or in vehicle research!!

Cheers!




>>> Edited by fogster on Tuesday 27th August 20:01

[simonelite501]

Firstly, I must state that I have absolutely no evidence for the following, but none the less, I honestly believe it to be true. My 1979 Lotus Elite had covered 135,000 and still refused to smoke. Due to opinions expressed on this site, I began to regualy use Shell Optimax rather than the "any old petrol" and after a short while, I noticed that the Lotus was begining to emit smoke on acceleration and consquently use old more than it ever had before. Now, you could say that it was just coinsidence, what with the engine having covered that sort of mileage, and you may be right, but my veiw is that the detergents in the Optimax, which may work wonders for a newish engine, were doing their job well enough to clean out the residue built up over the years, this residue being what was aiding the piston rings in keeping the oil out of the combustion chambers. Since I stoped using the Optimax, the car has begun to smoke less, but still more than it did before. As I said, I have no evidence that the Optimax caused the smoke problem, and even if it did, it was only doing exactly what it said on the tin, but from now on I'll be using Supermarket petrol.

[kevinday]

As far as I am aware the petrol all comes from the same storage tank for the grade so if 3 companies are using one distribution point their petrol will all be the same. Obviously this is grade separated but all 95 RON unleaded will be the same wherever you buy it.
This was certainly the case when I was working in the petrol industry a few years ago. Optimax is only Shell so this is different and will be stored separately.

[muley]

Well, I've tried Optimax under fairly controlled condtions in my Honda Civic Coupe (don't laugh) and it gets consumed at pretty much exactly the same rate as 'normal' unleaded.

Supermarket petrol CAN be a lesser quality than named brands. My wife normally uses supermarket petrol in her Fiesta (I said - don't laugh!) and from time to time she complains that it it not starting/running well. I suggest that she should put in a full tank of a named brand petrol (ideally Total) - she does - and the car performs normally.

[abels]

I actually work for one of the said oil companies. Having gone round many refineries, you see tankers from many other oil companies/supermarkets collecting their petrol from the same refineries. Therefore I would think that there is not much between the brands. The quality of the fuel depends a lot on which refinery it has come from.

[moleamol]

I would say that the same grades would be almost the same. The main reason people like optimax is that it is a higher octane. It is 97RON the same as super unleaded but has boosters that take it to around 101RON (or so I am led to believe ).

I would say that optimax makes a notable difference in my car (300bhp Lancia Integrale) but it also does me no harm to use supermarket petrol. Just depends on the occasion I suppose

[douglasr]

quote:
I would say that the same grades would be almost the same. The main reason people like optimax is that it is a higher octane. It is 97RON the same as super unleaded but has boosters that take it to around 101RON (or so I am led to believe ).

Optimax is 98. something

www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=uk-en&FC1=&FC2=&FC3=%2Fuk-en%2Fhtml%2Fiwgen%2Fyourcarormotorbike%2FOptimax%2Fquestions_answered_0312_0921.html&FC4=&FC5=#3

My local Tesco is refuled from an Esso tanker from the Grangemouth refinery

[fogster]

Cheers all for your replies - most interesting! I think I'll trial Optimax for a few weeks, switch to supermarket and see if I notice much difference!

[Toffer]

I have been an advocate for Optimax since it was introduced.

I use it in the Griff and it is absolutely the best fuel tthat I have ever used. The car starts better, idles smoothly and accelerates like a rocket!

If you do a low mileage the few extra pence for Optimax makes no significant difference to your running costs.

Toffer

[Gaffer]

I run my jeepie on Optimax and I have found it to be so much better.

Its smoother and sounds less like a tractor than when it was running on bog standard petrol.

I would never go back to supermarket fuel unless there is a dire need.