[satish_141]

just thinking of using this..have anyone tried this and any improvement in performance?

[dxb335d]

Yeah I did use it all the time!!! Deffo an improvement over normal denzil.

335 felt flat on tesco fuel which I used for all
of a few weeks a long time ago!

Went back to proper denzil and car felt far punchier!

[JLR1969]

I always use Shell V Power in the Merc as it's recommended with AMG engines.

In the 320d I had I used normal diesel but only because I did loads of miles and was too tight to pay the extra. If I only did 10k miles a year I would have had V Power as it's definitely better.

[AlanQS]

Yes! It is definitely better for Shell!

[satish_141]

cool...there is one garage which I checked near where I live who is selling this so will start using from my next fill...

thank u all for responding back

[mjh93sa]

I didn't really notice that much difference in performance when running "premuim" diesels (V-power / BP Ultimate). MPG was perhaps fractionally better, but really it was in the driving manners that the difference was noticeable. Smoother running and significantly less soot (from the E46 320d).

To be honest BP Ultimate seemed on a par with normal Shell of the time ('03 - '07). V-power diesel was only available locally after getting the 330d with DPF, so soot chucking couldn't be checked, but it did seem a bit smoother running.

Having once had to put a tank of Esso diesel in the 320d I'd avoid that like the plague. Transformed the car to something that struggled to pull the skin off a rice pudding. Perhaps an exaggeration, but noticeably more rattle and loss of torque at really low revs.

[satish_141]

hi mjh93sa, thank you for the advise...when my current tank gets empty I will get a full tank of shell V-power and see if it is any good

[Falmouthboy]

Has anyone done a 'real time' MPG comparison over a number of weeks/tanks full? I am about to become a 330d driver, chopping in a 320i. We also run a 130i. There was no such thing as 'premium diesel' last time I owned a diesel car. We currently run both cars on V Power and have found that in addition to making the cars smoother and more powerful, economy has improved by about 3-4 MPG on a run, making it cost effective too. I can understand how this works with petrol as 99 RON is clearly better than 95 RON. However, I am not aware of any such measure to compare diesel fuels.

I do appreciate that both diesel and petrol v Power contain a better set of additives which will help keep the engine clean, but can’t understand claims of more power/better economy.

[mjh93sa]

Difficult to use the figures I have.

For the 330d, which was run on a diet of V-Power diesel, (except for an annual trip to the Isle of Man where it was not available) running on normal Shell mpg was 37-38mpg, down from a normal 41-43mpg. But as this would have been driving around at slower speeds and up and down the Mountain it's difficult to see this as a real comparison.

Cetane rating is burn rating for diesel. Even the premium diesels don't really give a higher rate, so it's down to cleanliness and smoothness of the burn.

[Jeff123]

I used to think that BP Ultimate was more economical - I have changed my mind now. It's smoother and the car feels slightly better, but not by much.

[acerboo]

its all in the mind and out of the pocket!

[dxb335d]

No mate that's incorrect. I went the other way. From always using the good stuff
to tesco. Didn't notice anything initially. But after a week
or so the car felt flat. Started to think it was a serious problem and was gonna check in at the dealers. Tried a tank or so of premium denzil and suddely she had her
mojo back.

Also it's been proven in scientific tests

[magic77]

In past I found standard Shell diesel to give me as good results as BP ultimate, Shell vpower I just find I dont have to work the engine as hard to get same performance, not metion it just seems to run smoother. Only other fuel I find my 320D and smae for my old e46 320D liked is Sainsbury Diesel. The combo of the two seem to give me great results.

[parapaul]

I find VPower diesel makes the engine much, much smoother. In terms of price, it's swings and roundabouts really - you pay a couple of extra quid to fill up each time, and you get a few extra miles per tankful.

What it does do is keep the injectors clean, so I'm happy to keep using it as a form of preventative maintenance.

[335ier]

Originally Posted by magic77

In past I found standard Shell diesel to give me as good results as BP ultimate, Shell vpower I just find I dont have to work the engine as hard to get same performance, not metion it just seems to run smoother. Only other fuel I find my 320D and smae for my old e46 320D liked is Sainsbury Diesel. The combo of the two seem to give me great results.

This is the same as I found (vw t5 2.5) however Salisbury's makes it run like crap in the morning. My old man runs old cars and he noticed the difference between supermarket diesels and shell std diesel but couldn't notice a further improvement with v-power.

I could be wrong but I think I remember reading on a pump at a total garage next to the large claims there was small print which said something like the test vehicle was std except a modded ECU!!

[Em135eye]

Originally Posted by acerboo

its all in the mind and out of the pocket!

+1

[E90jonno]

Going to try a tank out when i hit the dyno and see the figures for myself.

[chris_s1]

In my previous job i used to do over 40k/year and I had a fuel card so didn't worry about the relative costs of different fuels and I ran a few tests using each fuel type for a month (usually about 3-4k miles)

I can't remember the exact results but there were two clear conclusions that I came to.

There was a noticeable and demonstrable difference between supermarket diesel and the quality brands (Shell, BP, also Total was ok). Both in running, feel and economy.

But there was not much difference between the quality brands and the V-power/Ultimate premium products. And the small increase I saw in MPG did not come anywhere near to paying for the extra cost of buying the fuel.

Of course there may be other reasons for using the premium fuel, engine cleaning etc but thats my experience

[milesr3]

When comparing fuels, bear in mind that Shell Fuelsave Diesel is also a higher cetane fuel with a typical rating of 55-58 according to Shell, which is actually higher than V-Power.

IME higher cetane diesel does make the engine burn more efficiently and will increase the midrange torque/power but not increase the maximum power.

There are some measurement on supermarket fuel (51 cetane) plus the old Millers DSP4 (55 cetane) here: http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=188065 which show the engine making peak torque at 2473rpm on Millers versus 2863rpm on std fuel and peak power at 3825rpm vs. 4397rpm. In both cases the peak torque and power figures are virtually the same.

[Shadow]

I noticed a significant difference at motorway speeds when I was forced to fill up with BP Ultimate (after always using Shell V-power diesel from day one). The 330D immediately seemed more eager, more powerful and a good 4mpg more economical (which I attributed to Shell V-power diesel, with a gas-to-liquid component, being actually slightly less energy-dense than "regular" diesel). I had actually run the tank nearly empty (oops) coming up the M6 / M74 to Scotland, and had to fill up at the nearest stop.

Both fuels claim to have increased engine longevity benefits - hard to measure, but when I had an 8-year old petrol car in for a major service (brand new water pump failed, potential head / valve damage) the mechanic commented on how clean the engine was for an 8 year old. In this case it only ever ran on V-power petrol, primarily because it ran more quietly and smoothly on it.

I would have thought modern diesels with EGR would benefit a lot from a cleaner-burning fuel, but I have no evidence. Any mechanics got any direct experience with the state of a modern diesel engine run on premium vs regular fuels?

[dxb335d]

My Auntie recently had cylinder head damage in a car she has
had from new. Damage attributed to low quality fuel. (tesco)

[m@rk]

Not V Power but I have noticed a big difference in MPG since the Shell Fuel Save stuff came out.

I have only ever used Shell in the car since new and for the last 3 years have averaged 36 (ish) mpg day in and day out. Since they launched Fuel Save that has edged up to 38 mpg on average. Nothing else has changed.

So certainly in my 335D, the claims are true. I do get higher mpg.

Does it feel any quicker or smoother? No but then again it was quick and smooth to start with.

Originally Posted by dxb335d

My Auntie recently had cylinder head damage in a car she has
had from new. Damage attributed to low quality fuel. (tesco)

A normal untuned car should be fine on low grade DERV. This is one of the reasons you can tune them to get much better performance.

The idea is that a standard car may well end up running on cheap sh!t and still needs to work. Tweak the ECU and you get more out of the engine however run the risk of not being able to cope with low grade fuel.

BTW, wasn't it Tesco that killed loads of cars a couple of years ago with a dodgy batch of diesel?