V power losses?

Gops

Gops

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Hi all!

Lately I've been feeling the car isn't at it's best.. No leaks etc.. I thought it was just in my head as the car seems to be abit flat at times! I was discussing this with a friend at work until he sparked a thought! He recently switched to tesco momentum because she'll didn't have VPower and he felt his car had seriously improved! Once he'd emptied the tank and went back to shell v-power, he said he felt abit down again! I've been feeling that the latest batch of v-power isn't really performing! This Morning I see a FB post from MRC saying the exact same thing! Can this be a coincidence? Or are we all mad?

Btw, I seen a P1 today and it was bluddy mad! I've never seen a car accelerate so quickly! He was lucky I was in map 5!
 
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Petrol RON rating can degrade over time if the fuel is sat for extended periods after manufacture.

As Tesco's tend to sell shed loads more fuel than Shell as they are cheaper, the turnover of fuel will be more regular and it will be fresher (and likely to yield a better RON rating).

Given all the words Shell VPower Nitro + has in it's title you'd expect better, I've often wondered whether it's much more than a bit of detergent and octane booster in their fuel as they also do a 100RON variant which I've used in Germany and that did feel properly quicker. Maybe the 98 stuff is marketing over substance????
 
Would you instantly see the benefit of higher octane though, thought the ecu would have to adapt and not be an instant improvement?
Dave
 
I can't say I've noticed any difference in performance and I get through an absurd amount of V Power in my S3. Drained a full tank of it just this Sunday gone and planning to smash though another this weekend.

I do use a pretty large shell station regularly though (Stop24) so I expect they get fresh supplies quiet often.

Maybe it's just your batch up in the North - or that the station you used isn't that busy and has been holding that V power for a while.

Maybe worth firing off an email to Shell and get them to investigate it - got nothing to lose and plenty to gain...e.g free fuel vouchers, which is what they sent me the last time I made a complaint about something (not about the RON or performance)
 
just a quick word on fuel depots

some of them used to get the same basic stock and then add in the appropriate addative package for the particular brand they were shipping out. i can see one from my office window, and all sorts of diffrent tankers leave that place.maybe not the case for all depots,


i wonder if soemone forgot to put the bottle con concentrated V power in the storage tank?

as kwistoff syas, certainly worth an email to shell
 
I used to use Tesco momentum fuel as it was cheaper and readly available near work,
Im sure i then saw something on face book about the issues some people had as a result of running super market super plus unleaded,
Something about the RON figure been reached by additives rather than a correct mixture to start with?
No idea how true it is and to be honest my car is a little on/off at times and i only use shell now,
 
S3 Paul said:
Something about the RON figure been reached by additives rather than a correct mixture to start with?
No idea how true it is and to be honest my car is a little on/off at times and i only use shell now,
Click to expand...

This is the 'grey' area.

The end result is 99RON - but what Tesco or Shell adds is a mystery and will remain one forever I expect unless there were any serious issues.

Can anyone remember all those issues with contaminate petrol some 7 years ago now?

Tesco was the main culprit and ever since then I have never really trusted my pride and joy with that fuel, especially as I get through so much of it. To me Tesco's is for shopping and Shell for fuel.

For those of you who can't remember the contaminated fuel issue from the supermarkets-

BBC NEWS | UK | Inquiry into 'contaminated' fuel
 
Wasnt it just regular unleaded they had issues with?
 
S3 Paul said:
Wasnt it just regular unleaded they had issues with?
Click to expand...

If mistakes can be made on the regular fuel, then it doesn't fill me with great confidence and/or trust that their leading product is up to standards tbh- especially as it was all around the additives used in the first place.

There is a 2p difference for me down here between Tesco Momentum and Shell V power nitro and Shell is closer- so it's a no brainer on what I use.

I will have an ask around this evening to see if any one else is experiencing any differences in the performance of V Power Nitro+ but personally I haven't seen any. Well unless it's the culprit behind making my exhaust blow :detective2:
 
S3 Paul said:
Wasnt it just regular unleaded they had issues with?
Click to expand...

2007 United Kingdom petrol contamination - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silicone contamination in unleaded.

There are also rumours that the the increase percentage of ethanol going into new fuels (was around 5%, but could make it up to 15% of total volume in the future) might mean cleaner air, but it is likely to shorten life of o-ring seals, increae likelihood of contamination (bacterial), reduce shelf life (<90 days), and cause increased sludge build up....
 
Rumours...
I agree worrying but with out the facts we are mostly guessing ,
Shell will never admit a mistake... i know of an instance where the garage i used to use had normal unleaded in both the standard and Vpower tanks.
I knew who worked there...
But... i put my power down the the adaptive nature of the ecu.
 
I only use v-power and the car feels no different, it's done a few 100 miles from the weekend onwards but not filled up for 5 days.
 
I will fire over an email to shell and see what their reply is! It's crazy the things they do with fuel, pretty sad that it lacks consistency with RON ratings!
 
Any news on this gops? Seen asthough I spent most of Sunday cleaning the car I didn't go above 70 on the way back to london lol so wouldn't have noticed a difference. Saw the vid of the p1! Nice!!
 
Unless one of us works for a fuel company, do we really know what the differences in composition are, how it's handled, stored and distributed? Probably not. In my experience I've always noticed that V-Power (and Optimax previously) gives an edge to the performance of the car (not just the S3 but also my little 1.25 Fiesta Zetec before that), and could always tell if my wife had re-fuelled it with standard unleaded. So, since then I've stuck to it. Helps that the nearest garage is Shell and just 0.6 miles up the road from our house. Interestingly, I didn't notice such a difference between BP Ultimate and standard BP unleaded.
 
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