Shell V-power diesel

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 24 Apr 2007, 14:21

Anyone else use this?

Went to put a tenner of fuel in my 2.1TD at lunch and spotted it for 99.9ppl rather than normal diesel at 93.9 and thought I'd give it a try.

I was nearly empty anyway, after 500 miles (on normal Shell diesel) my fuel guage was just off the lower white line of reserve, so in went 10.01ltrs (god we're taxed too much!)
Drove off and woohoo! Engine seems to like it, a lot!

So come the end of the month, I might treat myself to a tank full and see how it goes.

Incidently, does 500 miles to a tank seem a bit low for the 2.1?
I know I'm very heavy footed, about 200 miles have been done with a boot full of sand (around 150Kg give or take 25Kg), and a few miles with aircon on.

In my old 95 1.9TD Xantia hatchback I could normally get 600 miles to the tank (managed 816 miles once)

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 24 Apr 2007, 16:31

Depends how much you put in the tankl - for example our ZX reads empty and puts the light on with 4 or so gallons in it.

Fill tank and note mileage, use tank, fill up and note mileage and fuel added. Divide litres by 4.54 which gives fuel in gallons.

Now divide mileage run by fuel used - and you have a MPG figure - which will probably be more accurate than your trip computer.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 24 Apr 2007, 16:53

Yeah will do a proper milage test after pay day.
A tank full of the v-power stuff is only £4 more than a tank full of normal shell diesel (93.9p for normal diesel seems to be the lowest around here) so it's not going to break the bank, will be interesting to see the result as so far the car seems more responsive on it.

From the looks of their sales pitch for it, they've increased the cetane number, reduced the sulpher and added their equivalent of redex.

deian · Post by **deian** » 24 Apr 2007, 17:22

my old 2.1td used to be dirt cheap to run, it wasn't much more expensive than the pug 106d...

gonna be a big difference with the v6 i reckon!

rory_perrett · Post by **rory_perrett** » 25 Apr 2007, 13:33

Ok I know I'm sad but, I keep a record of consumption on all our cars. Normally fill the tank until the first cut off and then a bit more to round it up to the next pound. I then take an average of the last 5 to help smooth out variation in actually how full the tank is. At the moment I'm averaging 45mpg in my Xantia 2.1td which is approx 10 miles per litre. I get about 58 litres into the tank at the point the light comes on suggesting that there is 7 litres left in the 65 litre tank. However last week when I ran round with the light on for 2 days and did another 120 miles I got 67 litres in!

As has been said, how you drive will have a big effect on consumption, I do about 75% motorway/ A road crusing at 65 - 70mph and the rest is around town. If your full tank was around 65 litres then 500 miles represents 35 mpg which is low but possible if all 500 miles were around town.

To justify 99.9p / ltr against 93.9p my mpg would have to rise to nearly 48mpg - now that would impress me! Having said that I might be prepared to invest the £10 or so extra it would cost for 3 tank fulls to find out - but as I said, I know I'm sad.

Rory

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 25 Apr 2007, 13:57

My driving has changed from Leighton Buzzard to Staines every day/night (did 12 hours shifts) along single carriageways and the M25 which is about 100 miles round trip, to now being about 10 miles a day, so 35mpg doesn't seem too bad.
Will see how it changes through the next month on Shell V-power.

One of these days I won't need my car at lunch and I'll actually cycle to work!

Post by **CitroJim** » 25 Apr 2007, 16:46

Xac wrote: One of these days I won't need my car at lunch and I'll actually cycle to work!

I've been saying that for the past 2 years

Petrol admittedly, but my Activa is significantly more economical on V-Power than anything else.

If the Shell V-Power diesel has a enhanced cetane value it will help. It used to be said that a high cetane diesel would only aid starting but if one delves into deep diesel theroy, there is more to it than that.

Cetane is the opposite of Octane and is a measure of how keen a fuel is to spontaneously ignite. A Higher cetane fuel will burn more completely in the combustion chamber and thus produce more power and less "nasties" although NOx may go up a bit due to a higher combustion temperature. I'd say a direct injection engine would see more benefit than an indirect injection engine.

Don't listen to tose who say all diesel is the same, it is just not true.