UK owners - what fuel are you finding best?

[kmpowell]

Over the past few weeks I decided to do a bit of a rough test to see what fuel my 1M responded best with (from the garages available around my local area). The experiment was far from controlled(!), but it involved me filling the tank half way on 3 occasions with a certain fuel, running to 15mls left on the "miles to go indicator" each time. This gave the car time to flush out any old fuel and learn the new fuel. Here's the results

1. V-Power - Clear winner, pick up is instant and the car feels alive across the entire power band.
2. BP Ultimate - Clean response mid power, but not as urgent pick-up at low rpm.
3. Esso Supreme - Good pick-up at low range, but nothing to shout about as the power comes in across the band.
4. Murco Super - Average across the board.

I've always used V-Power or Ultimate in the past, but with a lack of BP/Shell garages near where I moved to a few months ago, it sometimes proves difficult if I'm not passing, so I thought I would do the test with others.

As I said, hardly a controlled experiment, but food for thought nonetheless.

[Aussie_in_London]

do you have a tesco new buy, I have always found Momentum99 good in all my FI cars

another thing I do when testing fuels just to speed up the process is disconnect the battery for 20 min to reset the ecu in-between fuel changes.......

[kmpowell]

Originally Posted by Aussie_in_London

do you have a tesco new buy, I have always found Momentum99 good in all my FI cars

I do, but I never put Supermarket fuels in my cars. I know a lot of people swear by Tesco 99, but I can't bring myself to use it due to the rubbish that goes in it which clogs over time.

Forced Induction cars I've owned (2x TT's, VX220 Turbo, JCW R56 Mini, 120d Coupe and now the 1M) have responded best with V-Power, which I don't mind due to the cleaning properties.

[b33g33]

I want someone from the US to now compare V-Power to Chevron with Techron! (which, I believe, is what US BMW dealers recommend - at least they did back in the 90's when my family bought their last Bimmer)



Thanks.

[burnsniper]

Originally Posted by b33g33

I want someone from the US to now compare V-Power to Chevron with Techron! (which, I believe, is what US BMW dealers recommend - at least they did back in the 90's when my family bought their last Bimmer)



Thanks.

The brand of gasoline should not make that any difference in performance (at least in the US). In the US, base gasoline can come from any number of refineries regardless of the brand and are often loaded into trucks (for delivery to stations) at the same terminal. For example Exxon branded gasoline may have been produced at a BP refinery. Gasoline will differ based on its original crude source but it would be impossible to determine which gasoline you are buying is from which crude source. Furthermore, different sources of gasoline are usually blended several times before they get to a pump.

Different branded gasolines do have different fuel additives. However, the additives are generally derived for cleaning fuel injectors, preventing deposits, etc. and a lot of this is pure marketing. The additives are not what make the power for a car, the gasoline base is. Some areas of the country do change the base blend based on the weather (winter vs summer).

It is also important to use as close to the designed octane rating as possible (not more) to maximize performance. Putting a higher octane gasoline in a car will actually reduce performance (unless you are tuned for that octane!).

Ultimately, if you were to use off brand gasoline for the life of the car you may have some deposit problems at ~100,000+ miles.

[iDave]

Shell v power is all I fill up with

[greygoose]

I've always stuck with v-power in my 135 and 1m, I used to use a variety of superunleaded petrol in my old Focus ST and Shell always gave the best performance and mpg too.

[ChrisBuer]

Tesco 99 is a fuel I swear by and will be the only fuel I'll be putting in my 1M when it arrives

[Aussie_in_London]

Originally Posted by ChrisBuer

Tesco 99 is a fuel I swear by and will be the only fuel I'll be putting in my 1M when it arrives

I have been running the stuff in my track day OPC for 6 years without any problems to date .....