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The benefit of filling up with premium diesel fuel
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e3steve   
Sun Oct 18 2015, 11:05am
Joined: Jan 21 2013
Member No: #1163
Location: Warsash, Hants & Palma de Mallorca, Spain
 People, remember these images? - Click Here - (scroll down that page a bit).

Not a pretty sight. The first is my 2.7's rear bank air distributor intake, post the "Y-split" throttle butterfly housing; the third is the sooty crud that I scraped from the throttle butterfly housing itself! The images are from April '13.

I have, since mid-2013, used only premium diesel fuel* in C6Steve, with, perhaps, the odd exceptions of twenty or thirty quid's worth of "normal" diesel when I've not been able to get premium at the pumps. The resulting cleanliness inside the throttle butterfly housing and the air distributors is stunning! I was in there last week, replacing the cam belt, and apart from a black, oily film coating the air intake tracts, there's not a scrap of caked-on soot in sight. Sorry, I omitted to take pics of said components -- my mind was on other tasks, I'm afraid -- but both air distributor intakes were considerably cleaner than my front bank's "post-vacuuming" pic (image 2 in the above link).

Lesson learned and shared; take heed!!

*I now seek out Shell V-Power Nitro+ whenever possible, especially since my conversation with Hattershaun at the 10th Anniversary meet-up this year (thanks Shaun!).
Hattershaun   
Sun Oct 18 2015, 04:22pm
Joined: Dec 19 2010
Member No: #320
Location: Bedfordshire, UK
 I've only used Shell V-Power Nitro + diesel since getting my 3.0hdi, 9000 miles ago. Total now at 32,000. Hopefully, my engine will be nice and clean inside.
e3steve   
Sun Oct 18 2015, 05:53pm
Joined: Jan 21 2013
Member No: #1163
Location: Warsash, Hants & Palma de Mallorca, Spain
 My 2.7 is now 19,000-miles-on from the April 2013 debacle. I'm very pleased with the current state of the air intakes.

Premium diesel is definitely worth the additional cost, for peace-of-mind alone.

Everyone: at your own risk(s)...
C6Dave   
Sun Oct 18 2015, 06:44pm

Joined: Oct 01 2009
Member No: #1
Location: Northumberland
 I stopped using supermarket diesel and switched to shell when my 3.0 started throwing 'risk of de-pollution filter blocking' warnings and they never happened again
Website
Tjensen   
Sun Oct 18 2015, 07:35pm
Joined: Jul 17 2012
Member No: #954
Location: Bergen
 Always Shell VP Nitro for 60 000 km. Now, at 90 000 never had an engine warning about anything and fuel consumtion extremely low. A few "accidents" with normal diesel and then I think consumption is up 10 %
jacktherev   
Tue Oct 20 2015, 07:11pm
Joined: Sep 06 2013
Member No: #1423
Location: Co Down, Northern Ireland
 I only use BP Ultimate and find it excellent. We don't have Shell here in NI.
321dave   
Mon Jul 04 2016, 03:01am
Joined: Sep 09 2011
Member No: #614
Location: Dublin
 Just back from a lovely tour of the southwest down as far as St Ives, Cornwall. Great trip, except for a tank full of Sainsburys diesel on fill up after some shopping. Stupidly forgot the fuel warnings. Well, 100mls later on, risk of de-pollution filter blocking' warnings came on. Haven't seen these warning for two years or so until now. Mixed in half a tank of BP later on during the trip and that seems to have helped cure the warnings. Car was also less than smooth and ran almost lumpy during and up to the warnings!
Called in to Shell services on the return leg, but didn't notice the premium diesel pumps as such, but filled up anyway, or was that premium diesel?

FreakyFrenchFan   
Mon Jul 04 2016, 07:06am
Joined: Feb 08 2015
Member No: #2057
Location: Bicester
 I won't put supermarket fuel in my C6. I only use branded fuel. Occasionally I treat it to some premium diesel but 99% of the time I run it on regular and it drives just fine.
gmerry   
Mon Jul 04 2016, 07:12am
Joined: Dec 11 2009
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland
 I must admit I still have an open mind on this one. So I fill up about every 4th tank with BP diesel, occasional BP/Shell Optimatum, the rest is supermarket because its on my route and a bit cheaper.

So thinking about the benefits, the cleaners in the better diesels won't do anything for the inlet ducts, nor the inlet air sensor, nor the compressor part of the turbo. Remember for a diesel, the fuel is only injected into the cylinder not the inlet manifold.

So what are the possible benefits, possibly just the injector tip/pintle itself?

Does anyone have any definitive data on this?

Regards
G

Here's a link to a review - Click Here -

NO performance benefits were seen using Premium Diesel!. Unlike a petrol engine which has a knock sensor, a diesel engine can't take advantage of a higher Cetane number by advancing the ignition and increasing the thermal efficiency. So in my Humble Opinion, unless there is some reproducible dynamometer testing, I'm wholly sceptical as to whether there is any economy/performance benefits of premium diesels on standard engines.

Here's an American - Click Here - discussing the value of diesel additives. But ASTM fuel standards are so much lower than the EN BS equivalent that its not necessarily translatable across the Atlantic
Tjensen   
Mon Jul 04 2016, 12:07pm
Joined: Jul 17 2012
Member No: #954
Location: Bergen
 Dirt and particles from bad fuel comes in with the EGR and passes he PDF, that is two systms affected, And from the EGR to the turbos and the valves ? Only gourmet quality diesel for my C6 and no problems so far (100 000 km)
gmerry   
Mon Jul 04 2016, 01:09pm
Joined: Dec 11 2009
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland
 Hi, there's not a different specification for water content and dirt in premium versus regular diesel: so going for premium diesel because it has lower dirt is missing the point. In fact, regular diesel is likely to be cleaner because it's not sitting in the forecourt storage tank for so long (vastly higher stock turnover).

Pretty sure that premium is a complete waste of time for a 2.7HDi.

Regards
G
Norman   
Tue Jul 05 2016, 08:51am
Joined: Feb 06 2011
Member No: #364
Location: Huddersfield and Torremolinos Spain
 following a discussion on here earlier i changed from asda diesel to shell V+Nitro with no concernable difference after a second tank full it became uneven in its running so i went back to standard Shell and now it runs fine again all i have to watch out for are de-pollution filter blocking warnings.
Trainman   
Tue Jul 05 2016, 10:02am

Joined: Apr 12 2010
Member No: #86
Location: Penwortham
 I don't think, I've used anything but supermarket diesel in either of the 2 C6's and to be honest, I don't think I will. I have a Texaco and a BP near me, both of which have suffered issues with their fuel in the past...........
Dan595   
Tue Jul 05 2016, 10:39am
Joined: Nov 26 2010
Member No: #299
Location: Wiltshire
 I suspect that collecting any meaningful data on this will be tricky.

I use standard (usually supermarket) fuel in my C6 - 171K miles and counting. Never seen an engine issue.

I do use premium fuel in my 2CV - it was built for 98 octane and seems happier on it (as was my GSA).
pattersonoxford   
Tue Jul 05 2016, 10:47am
Joined: Feb 09 2010
Member No: #48
Location: Oxford
 From 2008 to 2012 I used supermarket diesel in my C6, then started getting intermittent "depolution system faulty" messages. Changed to Shell VP Nitro diesel and no such problems since. The Shell fuel costs 10% more, but I get 20% better mileage and a clean engine.
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