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Super Unleaded - which is the best?

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Old 08 November 2000, 10:28 PM
  #1  
mattski
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Question

hi,

just curious as to what opinions you
guys/girls have regarding the best
super unleaded around?

I currently use nothing but BP SUL but
have heard that the Texaco stuff is the
best (BP is greener apparently?).

matt
Old 08 November 2000, 11:14 PM
  #2  
Mr.Cookie
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Unhappy

i can only get esso as shell next door to it is a franchise and does'nt do super, oh well just means i have to pay for me cinema tickets .

Simon
Old 08 November 2000, 11:36 PM
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mattski
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Question

does that mean the shell stuff is pretty good...when you can get it?
Old 09 November 2000, 12:11 AM
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JayDee
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I use SUL and get 10 - 15% better fuel economy over NUL

NUL SEEMS to make the car run smoother, especially at low revs in high gears - but this is because Engine chips retards the ignition - Mid range and Top end power / Torque suffer though, along with mpg

JD
Old 09 November 2000, 12:57 AM
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Rikki23
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I wasn't aware that they varied so much. I have been running my car on Sainsbury's SUL because it's the only SUL I can find. So am I right in assuming BP or Esso SUL may make my car run smoother?
Old 09 November 2000, 03:39 AM
  #6  
bugwaan
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In Australia SHELL OPTIMAX runs at 98 RON where the other premium petrol suppliers all run their Premuium Unleaded fuel at 95 RON.
I have no idea what it is in the UK but down under we have Shell Stations everywhere so Premium is quite easy to obtain.
I wouldn't put anthing else into the sube unless I was in the country areas and have no choice...either way it still has to be a Premium fuel.
Old 09 November 2000, 04:31 AM
  #7  
sunilp
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erm, over here Premium UL = 95 Ron and Super Unleaded = 97 Ron

I find BP SUL runs best in my UK MY99, but many Import owners say their car is happier on Esso SUL 97 Ron.

Either way, nine out of 10 owners said their cars prefer whiskas
Old 09 November 2000, 06:41 AM
  #8  
WALKER
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Its all a load of rubbish, all sul in this country is exactly the same, a lot of the oil companies share terminals so that means they are all pulling of the same pots.

Texaco, Shell, Bp, Esso, Elf it realy doesnt matter, its all the same stuff!

Paul
Old 09 November 2000, 07:50 AM
  #9  
GaryC
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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by WALKER:
<B>Its all a load of rubbish, all sul in this country is exactly the same, a lot of the oil companies share terminals so that means they are all pulling of the same pots.

Texaco, Shell, Bp, Esso, Elf it realy doesnt matter, its all the same stuff!

Paul[/quote]

I disagree - Esso SUL makes mine run like a bag of spanners, and supermarket SUL is like running on 79RON rather than 97! Shell and BP seem to be the best. Not tried Texaco

Old 09 November 2000, 08:02 AM
  #10  
Hos
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I normally use BP SUL - but thats in Scotland.. the only places i can find SUL is in the shell garages and i have to admit that i think it is really good..
Old 09 November 2000, 09:40 AM
  #11  
Alec
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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by WALKER:
<B>Its all a load of rubbish, all sul in this country is exactly the same, a lot of the oil companies share terminals so that means they are all pulling of the same pots.

Texaco, Shell, Bp, Esso, Elf it realy doesnt matter, its all the same stuff!

Paul[/quote]

...not too sure on this but I believe they use the same terminals but put diiferent additives in.

Alec

Old 09 November 2000, 09:57 AM
  #12  
BHORT
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I find that there is as much variation in 95RON within the same company as there is between companies. I tried BP 95RON for the first time a couple of weeks ago in my MY99 from a garage in Wales and found my car to be the smoothest running since I have had it, including comparison with Shell SUL. I have since used BP from a different garage and found the car less smooth running. I particularly notice differences in the amount of lumpy vibration through my seat at tick over when using different petrols.


Brendan
Old 09 November 2000, 10:00 AM
  #13  
JoeyDeacon
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My company does a lot of work for Shell and I can confirm that alec is correct. I have been told that to cut down costs all petrol companies use each others terminals its just the additives they add to each tanker that are different.
Old 09 November 2000, 10:07 AM
  #14  
Chris L
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Exclamation

JD

That was always my understanding aswell. Makes you wonder how consistent they are with the additives judging from the comments above.

Seeing as your company works with Shell - do you know anything about this ultra low sulphur fuel that Heir Brown was talking about yesterday?

Chris
Old 09 November 2000, 10:28 AM
  #15  
JoeyDeacon
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Chris L,

My company write software for shell so we don't really have anything to do with the formulation of their fuels/oils etc.

I do however have access to their internal intranet so I will have a look a little later to see if I can find anything. Trouble is most of their stuff has Private and Confidential stamped across the top so I will have to be careful what I post as I signed a confidentiality agreement when I joined the company and I guess Shell might have access to some pretty decent lawyers??

Anyway I will see what I can find.
Old 09 November 2000, 10:44 AM
  #16  
bugwaan
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SHELL OPTIMAX RULES DOWN UNDER

Go and check out the site and find that petrols aint petrols
Its a denser petrol, 98RON, and 7-10% improvement in fuel economy.
Check it out below if you don't believe.

Sorry if it isnt available in Uk. Seems strange having such a large population compared to OZ that we would have it and not you.
Old 09 November 2000, 01:05 PM
  #17  
gizmo71
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I use Sainsbury's SUL - I had been using BP, but filled up at Esso and noticed a distinctly happier sounding engine. There isn't an Esso on my route to work so I thought I'd give the newly-installed Super pumps at Sainsbury's a try, and much to my surprise the car sounded much happier on it than BP SuperGreen. Plus the supermarket stuff is 2p a litre cheaper!
Old 09 November 2000, 01:07 PM
  #18  
mattski
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Sainsbury's SUL 'better' than BP? hmm,
I'll have to hunt some down I guess...
Old 09 November 2000, 05:02 PM
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chiark
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Strange, this, innit? I used to swear by Esso in cars prior to Scooby, but recently have avoided them, sticking to BP and Shell where possible. My car seems to run smoother with fairly reproduceable results - or at least in my eyes. Especially on the BP stuff labelled 98 RON (grin, duck, run )

Never tried supermarket stuff, though there have been good reports on this board.

A bloke in Texaco told me that their petrol is exactly the same as morrisons. "Bloke down petrol station said, so must be true".

It all tastes the same...
Old 09 November 2000, 05:55 PM
  #20  
WALKER
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Sainsburys buy their petrol off whoever is the cheapest on the day, they have teams of buyers negotiating petrol prices dailley.

I was in fuel sales for some years, and i worked for one of the large independant oil companies.

Prices fluctuate by the hour and we used to pull out of whichever terminal was the cheapest on the day............by the way, i supplied a certain motor racing circuit with there fuel, which i for certain will be using at the weekend.

Paul
Old 09 November 2000, 06:24 PM
  #21  
Stef
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CK1 loves ESSO the best, no question.

Stef.
Old 09 November 2000, 06:50 PM
  #22  
sunilp
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Question

Walker, whilst all the fuel comes from the same oil rig or whatever, do you dispute the fact that different manufacturers fuels do have varying degrees of impact on our cars?. Dont petrol companies add extra additives which could be contributing and hence differentiating the product?

Sunil
Old 09 November 2000, 06:58 PM
  #23  
AllanB
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In my Scoob it seems to run best on Shell or Texaco if I can find it. My Dad used to work in the industry and I ended up trying Texaco on an old car of mine and the difference was staggering. All faules are not the same and whislt the base fuel may be the same for several companies as they come form the same distilleries it id the adative that are added at the distribution point that give each brand its own attributes.

I've found supermarket fuel to make my car run a little less smoothly but only a tiny bit. Horses for courses really but won't make a habit of putting supermarket fuel in.


AllanB
Old 09 November 2000, 06:59 PM
  #24  
WALKER
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Sunil

What iam saying is that i drive past Kingsbury oil terminal twice a day, i witness two of the major oil companies filling their tankers off the same gantry. That fuel comes out of the same tanks straight into the tankers.

Independant oil companies DO buy off whoever is the cheapest on the day.

Paul (the tank licker)
Old 09 November 2000, 07:19 PM
  #25  
mattski
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Question

ok... say for arguments sake that it
is the additives that differentiate
fuels from different suppliers.

What are the additives and what do
they do?

Do they have any detrimental effect
on the engine?
Old 09 November 2000, 08:56 PM
  #26  
owbow
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off topic as not "Super" i know, but noticed that Shell NUL=BS 7070, everywhere else's NUL=BS EN 228

now these 2 are definately different.

Owain McRae.
Old 09 November 2000, 11:35 PM
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bugwaan
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Has anyone visited the
SHELL.com.au site as yet..and checked out the Optimax Fuel Page..
If yes...is it available in UK or not??

By the way
Premium unleaded Shell is 95c Australian per litre or in your speak...REAL CHEAP.
Old 10 November 2000, 01:47 AM
  #28  
rockin'Ru
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Fellas',If you know what the octane number meens on fuel ratings,you know that lower octane gas is more combustible than higher octane.Most Subarus'run a high compression ratio requiring high octane fuel.But you can run the cheapest gas you can find if you use an octane booster.I've found that diesel fuel works great.
I run 87 octane gas in my Sube,and add about 1 gallon of diesel per tank full and it keeps the engine out of detonation and allows me the maximum timing advance.

Water injection systems work too,but are costly.There are many octane boosters on the market that will allow the use of the cheapest gas.
You just gotta figure if it's worth it or not.
Just my 2 cents from the US.
Old 10 November 2000, 06:51 AM
  #29  
H
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BP SUL also goes down smoothly!

AndyMc - that is one long message...has anyone made it to the end of it?
Old 10 November 2000, 07:46 AM
  #30  
Chris L
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Did I read that right? Add diesel? Who's going to be first to try

Besides, I thought that the Subaru's ran relatively low compression ratios because they are turbo engines?

Chris


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