diesel - regular vs v power like

[sosen13]

hi
i used regular diesel for long time driving honda accord as tried better fuel and had not seen any improvement. accord hit 170 000 miles and no problems at all whatsever with this car. very reliable and all its life on regular diesel.
now - driving for 2 weeks cls 350 cdi i start thinking if this engine deserve or require "better" diesel or should i stick to regular (btw last few years mainly local morrisons petrol station)
what do you use, which "better" one and do you see any difference

 

[CowleyStJames]

My previous car was a Mercedes C220 and after having a couple of DPF issues, ems light coming on after numerous 30 mile commutes, several limp mode trips.
My local indie recommended Shell V Power fuel instead off my local Asda fuel after my last visit to him and another £80 bill to force a regen of the DPF.
I started using Shell V Power afterwards and kept the car for a further year with no more issues.
I now have a E Class S212 Sport estate and its never missed a beat on the same commute.
This is one convert away from supermarket fuel

 

[markjay]

When I bought the Kia Diesel, my concern was regarding potential DPF issues as the annual mileage was going to be very low.

The advice I got from the Kia forums was to use premium Diesel which will prevent DPF issues on low mileage cars.

As result I have only ever used Shell Diesel V-Power on the car for the past 4 years, and had no issues with the DPF (or with anything else) in spite of covering only 5,000 miles in total during these 4 years.

Said that, I can't really say if the 'bloke on the Internet' was right, or Kia are just more reliable cars (the latter is a good contender given that they come with 7-years warranty....).

But either way my thinking was that with low annual mileage the overall difference in cost between 'cheap' fuel and 'expensive' fuel will be insignificant anyway, so why not use the better fuel....

Hope this helps.

 

[gIzzE]

Regular, but only Shell.

But regularly use Archoil or BG244 additives......

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201708258680658?logcode=visc&fromSA=true

Both the above have sorted some pretty rough running, hesitations, injector faults (readings out when live scanned) and made the car feel so much better.

The other one that is good is Wynns Diesel Extreme, can be had from EuroCarParts. That has some great results from guys on the Range Rover forums.

 

[gIzzE]

I should add that when I got my E350 cgi, I know that is petrol, there were load of fuel receipts under the boot floor from Tesco filling station, about 40 of them.
Every now and again if I had been traveling out of London when I got to the M11 I would boot it and the EML light would come on, I bought an iCarSoft MBII scanner to see what it was, turns out it was always the same fault, which was 'bad fuel or additives' or something like that.
I always use Shell fuel and as the tanks of fuel racked up the EML got less and less, it used to be pretty much every tank, or whenever I booted it after a long period of tootling around, then after a few tanks it would do it sometimes and than just stopped completely.

The other month my Shell was closed as they were refilling, so I had to use the Sainsburys as I had an appointment and had the 'fill up now' message on the dash, I drove into Cavendish Square, came back out across London and sure enough when I ht the M11 and booted it the EML light came on again!

Now I know this is petrol, but to me it says that not all fuel is the same, some do have better additives etc.

In the States they had a software update for these cars because the fuel there is not as good as ours in many places and the EML light was constant.

I think with diesels it is probably more important, we don't get EML lights and warning, what you get is broken swirl flaps, knackered EGRs and bunged up DPFs, all of which just happen and can cost hundreds or even thousands.

If you don't use an additive then you should use a fuel with additive in it already if you plan to keep your car passed 3-4 years old imho.

 

[geraldrobins]

I use standard diesel and have no problems. I have had 4 Mots with no issues and only did 4,500 miles last year and similar the previous year. That said my use is a good mix including journeys of 30 miles plus. My car is now at 57,000.

 

[gIzzE]

I use standard diesel and have no problems. I have had 4 Mots with no issues and only did 4,500 miles last year and similar the previous year. That said my use is a good mix including journeys of 30 miles plus. My car is now at 57,000.

You shouldn't have any problems by 57,000 miles.

Most of the issues start later than that, it is a slow build up of exhaust gases around the inlet manifold swirl flaps and EGR valves that get worse and worse until it stops them from working.

Clean EGR....

Blocked EGR valve...

Definitely worth using some decent cleaner like the ones mentioned above, there are some threads were people have used them from day one and after 100k miles it is amazing how clean their EGRs etc. are compared with cars who have not.
The earlier you start with them the better, once they get passed a certain point you have to dismantle and clean them out or if they are too far gone replace.

Friend of mine has an ML270cdi on an 03 plate, he bought it with 3000 miles on it as an exdemonstrator and sold it recently with 280k miles on it he never had any issues with his EGR or swirlflaps like so many 270cdi's do, but then he owned a garage as well and stuck a bottle of additive in with every fill up. It would have been interesting to see the state of his inlet manifold and EGR.


I guess it depends how long you want to keep the car, but usually it is from 80-120k miles where they start show signs.

 

[Tiim533]

I use Shell V Power diesel, and the engine sounds better and I get more MPG than regular stuff. It's essentially the same effect I think of adding a bottle of additive every so often, but there's no chance I'd ever get round to doing that!

 

[markjay]

It is worth mentioning that both Shell V Power Diesel and Petrol have detergents included in their additive packs, so if using premium fuels regularly, there should be no need to use any other additives (e.g. Redex/Forte/Millers), and no need for on-off cleaning (e.g. TeraClean).

 

[artyman]

I've had mine for seven years now, longer than any car I've ever had, always use supermarket fuel, probably a couple of dozen short trips of around six miles with a run of 100 miles once or twice a month. So far no problems and the only time it saw Forte was when it was serviced, which it had every 12-18 months

 

[MercedesDriver]

I use Shell fuels only, previously petrol and now diesel. Petrol cars always had every 4th tank filled with V Power to clean all injectors and fuel lines. Since I got a 250CDI only V Power Diesel gets in the tank. Ten pennies difference per liter (6 quid per full tank) combined with low fuel consumption is insignificant cost for a piece of mind. BTW engine runs smooth and the power surge is immediate. I've tried both Esso and BP premium diesels (only ones with half a tanks each) but found these not so good like Shell V Power. It's also good to have a Shell Fuel card for collecting fuel points, and every three months fuel voucher comes through the post.

 

[GeeJayW]

It is worth mentioning that both Shell V Power Diesel and Petrol have detergents included in their additive packs, so if using premium fuels regularly, there should be no need to use any other additives (e.g. Redex/Forte/Millers), and no need for on-off cleaning (e.g. TeraClean).

Shell Fuelsave Diesel and Petrol also have effective detergents in their respective additive packages, providing 'keep clean' performance. V-power fuels have a 'stronger' package that typically provides 'clean-up' performance.

 

[theogeor]

Just an interesting stat looking at the pumps at my local Shell Station. The pumps have a small counter at the bottom indicating the total number of litres been delivered for each type of fuel. Comparing the V-Power both diesel and petrol I see that only 8-9% of the fuel sold in terms of quantities is premium. That was observed over multiple pumps and also seen similar figure in other stations ..
Personally I always put premium Petrol i.e V-Power Petrol as a. My Porsche doesnt like anything else b. My wifes B class is much happier/quieter and gives better fuel economy on V-Power which compensates for the extra cost .