VPower Diesel

[danclyon]

So, now I've confirmed the MPG isn't that far off whack, and because the little one likes toys - I've decided to try the Shell VPower Diesel.

ERK - £1.219/litre ouch - mind you, normal diesel is £1.17 round here anyway.

Initial thoughs - how nice to fill up with the stuff. Odourless and cleaner than petrol in my opinion.

I've had 3 * 30L fills so far.

At first while it was still mixing with the remnants of the Tesco standard diesel I couldn't see anything in it - MPG 45 ish according to DIS on my normal miles. However, now it's sucked down it's first 60L I can state that driving probably faster than normal today on the run from Suffolk to Surrey (80-90mph all the way) I got considerably better consumption - 49.8mpg according to DIS. Coming home was 49.6 but I got stuck in 10 miles of duff traffic on the north M25.

The comparison was a run earlier in the week from home to Swindon round the same roads - and at the same point, driving a little more sedately which gave 44.7mpg on DIS in like-for-like conditions.

So that's the first thing - I can see better economy.

Next, engine noise. It was almost like someone turned off the clatter as it started to bed in. The engine is a lot quieter both at idle and at speed.

The final thing is smoke. I now appear to have none. Whereas before heavy use of the right foot would cause them behind to get a good blast of light grey smoke, it's more or less totally gone. The odd tiny hint of it, but for the most part, there is none.

So the big question, is it worth it....Well I'm going to do some more miles, collect the rest of the free ferrari cars for the little one, but at the moment it's showing promise.

I was considering bio-diesel, but we just got issued with fuel cards, so I have to go back to the forecourt now. Bio diesel this isn't, granted, but environmentally it's a lot "better" product than oil derived diesel and burns more cleanly (engine aside, just at a combustion level) and produces less emmissions in the process.

Quick check on the maths. If it makes say a conservative 2mpg difference, that's 30 miles over a tank. 30/45 is 2/3 of a gallon. At normal pump prices that's 4.55*.66*1.16=~£3.50 which is the tank fill cost difference between the two fuels. If it tends towards the 5mpg mark as per today then it is a potential cost reduction.

I'll monitor.....

Anyone else given it a try yet and got any results to share??

Cheers,
Dan.

[Marco34]

All that to try and justify collecting the Ferrari's for yourself

I havn't used V-power yet so I can't comment. I shall give it a go though as I've been using an additive. I noticed an increase in MPG and much less smoke with the additive, but I don't get a car with that!!

Marco

[nutter1980]

A mate of mine recommended these, I have not tried them yet, He had a heavy smoking Ford focus 1.8D, since using these its ran really clean.

I might try some.

http://www.powerpilluk.com/

[GeneGammage]

I was force to fill up with V power a week or so ago, and agree that all the benefts are there.

There is a shell station in Bracknell that has V-Power for 1.16 so was chuffed at that, and there really is a difference. Engine is much quieter and the pull is much much smoother. Did not really notice the smoke, but will check it next time.

When my car is under full power it looks like the space shuttle taking off.....

[danclyon]

OK so well over a month and 4 tank-fulls later I'm still using the stuff - even though this week it will probably hit £1.35/litre (normal diesel just clipped £1.29 here and the VPower was £1.29 when I filled up last week).

Observations. Smoke is totally gone, even at night you can't see anything in the headlights of cars behind - nice.

Engine noise is definately improved overall.

Range - well DIS thinks it's a little better overall (perhaps 5%). Tank to tank I reckon we see somewhere between 5-6.5% more miles which equates to about 50 miles. We can get a sustained >700 miles out of a tank now whereas on normal diesel we were lucky to get ~650 on a good day.

Not yet worked out whether the Millers additive is cheaper than the VPower now, but for the time being I'll stick with it....

Cheers,
Dan.

[omegadirective]

V-Power is definately better. Use it on any engine, petrol or diesel and you will notice a difference. I have a 1.6 petrol (overkill I know) and I get about an extra 5mpg more if I drive nice and sedately. (Cars too slow to rocket away from anything )

The Diesel V-Power is a synthetic fuel and is better with the emissions. Don't ask me how they do it. There's a post in the A3 forums which started out as petrol V-Power. I think it was Space Cadet (?) that made a really informative post about it.

I've noticed my engine smooth out an awful lot. It's like a cure for arthritis!

Petrol in my area is around 117.9 (2 weeks ago last time I checked) and the V-Power is 121.9 (same time I checked) so there's very little difference in it.

I can't believe we are paying so much for our fuel... My next car was going to be a diesel but at these prices it might be just the same to stick to petrol...

The bio diesel isn't actually more economical. To produce it consumes more energy than it's worth, so really it's just a goverment publicity stunt. From what I've read, the emissions are that much better either. I fail to see any reason I'd swap...

[omegadirective]

Link to the thread mentioned above.

What type of unleaded do you use?