Plagued with your mj150 poor pick-up between 2000-3000 rpm?
Then don't use supermarket fuel.
Supermarkets can sell cheaper fuel cos it's got a higher 'Bio' (read dodgy old chip fat from greasy Lil's), fuel content, attracting less tax.
If you have the above problem, then run till all the Morissons (this was what I had used), fuel in the tank has nearly all gone, fill up with esso/BP/shell etc, you may need to change the fuel filter, you may need to add a bottle of 'Complete engine cleaner', and don't use cheapo fuel again you naughty boys n girls.:slayer:

I read this info when I first got my Stilo last April, and since then I have been using mainly Shell, occasionally Esso/BP.
I average about 47mpg overall, and my work commute is about 49.
I've used Millers a bit, seemed to boost the mpg by a couple of points, so about paid for itself, but havent used if for a couple of months.
Just put 40 quid of Tescos stuff in because I was in a hurry and really want to see if the mpg significantly changes... I don't hammer the car, drive gently, so I'll keep you posted.

Incidentally, driving the 20 motorway miles each way daily at 60 instead of 75 saves me over 50p a day in fuel (over a tenner a month) and costs me about 3 minutes each way - so if you really want to save money, just slow down your motorway cruising... it's also easier to keep a consistent speed, and more relaxing. I have to laugh at the Arbath that tanks past me most mornings as I get onto the motorway, and I usually catch up with him by the traffic lights near work.

well I have spent nearly £200 on trying to get this problem 'fixed' by the garage, and changing various bits, I never read it on this forum when I asked about the problem, so I just thought I'd post the solution.

i noticed this over a year ago, i was having a lot of black smoke from my 115 jtd and it felt asmatic, this was purely down to supermarket fuel. My fuel consumption was around 40 - 44 mpgs, but after a run this weekend to alton towers i got back 57.4 mpg using using bp ultimate.
I stopped using the supermarkets because of the amount of smoke it produced, since then i only really use bp or shell, for the couple of pence more per litre the returns in mpg are staggering.
Im pretty sure its the same fuel but they add thier own additive (effectively watering down the fuel) causing the smoke. Tesco was the worst out of the lot of them and asda not brilliant but was the best of the supermarket (less smoke and fuel consumption was a bit higher). I do over 34k per year so have played with all the fuels, shell and bp came out the best.
for the best result ive found every 3-4 tanks put some high grade fuel in (ultimate or optimax), this cleans everything out and puts a big smile on your face....

Absolutely gobsmacked!
As I said, I put tesco diesel in yesterday, my tank had about 100 miles left in it at the time.
Got stuck in a jam last night, so could not measure performance, but this morning...
Reset the trip counter at the usual point, which is about 2 miles of dual carriageway and then onto the motorway, and then 18 miles of motorway. My mpg was reading about 43 when I hit the motorway, which is pretty normal, but once on the motorway, I set cruise control to 60mph and rolled the 18 miles... now when I his the exit junction, normally I'm on over 50mpg, up to 52... I've had 56mpg using Shell with Millers added. Today - 47mpg!!! I went the "long" way which is all motorway, still at 60, and my mpg never went higher than 48... last week I did a similar distance using Shell at 60mph and got 57mpg! I am absolutely amazed and will never use supermarket fuel again. My local shell is a penny a litre dearer than the supermarkets... I reckon that's nearly a tenner a month less fuel if I get 3mpg better using "decent" fuel.
I'll use this tank up and switch back to Shell and then I'll get another bottle of Millers to clean it out, then I'll update this thread with my revised findings.

Remember your car will get worse MPG when it's cold than when it's warmer.

Hellcat said:

Remember your car will get worse MPG when it's cold than when it's warmer.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but I haven't noticed any huge difference, aside from today which is the first run I've done with tesco fuel. Under VERY similar conditions I'm at least 3mpg down on what I would have previously considered a low figure.

OK... an update
Since filling up with trashco fuel on Monday, I haven't been able to do a controlled run home, mainly due to running late at work and not wanting to spoil my tea, but also due to stupid idiot utilities companies blocking off half a main road because they're digging up a pavement...

Anyhow, on my runs into work in the morning, I would typically expect between 48 and 50mpg, depending in traffic.
With Tesco fuel in, the best I've had is 49, but I've had two under 47. Today was a relatively smooth run, I would have expected it to be around 48/49, it was 46.8.

I'm not seeing any difference in performance, responsiveness etc.

But my calculations are interesting... based on my 60 mile a day round trip, if I get 1mpg better from branded fuel than supermarket stuff, it would have to be more than 3p a litre more expensive for it to not be worth paying more.
If supermarket fuel made me 2mpg worse off, then paying a massive 6p a litre more for decent fuel would still be cost-effective... so even with a slight mpg benefit, I'll be sticking with Shell/Esso/BP/Total from now on. Half my journey is motorway at 60mph - if I up it to 70mph, it effectively increases average consumption by 5%, so about 2.5mpg, but only saves me about 4 mins a day.

My current options (local Shell is only 1p more than supermarkets):

Trashco @ £1.37 - 47mpg - £8.31/day (current option)
Shell @ £1.38 - 49mpg - £8.03/day (current option)

Even allowing for worse mpg/higher price:
Shell @ £1.40 - 48mpg - £8.31/day (worst case)
Shell @ £1.40 - 49mpg - £8.14/day

The other interesting one is adding Millers EcoMax. At £10.50 delivered from fleabay for enough for 500l of fuel, it works out at 2p per litre of fuel - and I reckon it's worth at least another 2mpg:
Shell @ £1.40 +Millers @ £0.02 - 50mpg - £8.10 (worst case)
Shell @ £1.40 +Millers @ £0.02 - 52mpg - £7.79
Shell @ £1.38 +Millers @ £0.02 - 50mpg - £7.99
Shell @ £1.38 +Millers @ £0.02 - 51mpg - £7.83 (current option)


So it would seem that it's worth paying for Millers and decent fuel. From what I've read, adding Millers gives very similar benefits to using the performance diesels, but at only 2p premium per litre, it's far cheaper than paying 6-8p more for Optimax or BP Ultimate

So by sensible choice of fuel and additive, I can save around 50p per day driving the same speed and style - that's around £125 a year - so effectively paying for my car tax!

is this the same for petrol?

yes petrol may not be as drastic changes but it will be noticeably different, the thing is its so easy to check for yourself, insted of using the cheap supermarket fuel put in some deacent fuel and you will see the fuel consumption drop almost instantly. the biggest difference is the lack of soot and as petrols shouldnt produce it the visual changes may not be apparent.

I cannot comment on millers but ive just ordered a couple of bottles to test and see, i still wont go back into a supermarket forecourt unless its an emergancy.

Last year i tested it with a run to alton towers and back - 400mile round trip nearly and i had 1/2 tank left with bp, done the same trip with tesco fuel and had less than 1/4. both journeys were done early morning and late at night, no more traffic and cruise control set on both journeys. since then ive tested most if not all the fuels and keep coming back to shell, bp, or total.

im tryin this... i put between 70-80 quids worth in every 2 weeks from tescalos mainly cos i get CC points and i need all the help i can get... ill try it this week and next and do the math to see if it actually makes a difference

If the petrol is as good as the diesel, it's got to be worth it...
This guy is actually fairly local to me - a biggish car spares shop - he let me have some at "internet price" in store last time, but since he's doing free postage now, might as well order it online. Link below is for the petrol additive, they also do the diesel. I tend to add a 50ml dose every time I fill up, so its usually going into about 40l of fuel. You don;t notice anything for the first 100 miles or so, then suddenly the mpg improves, or at least it did with mine.
I guess it's also dependent on teh engine - the OP was referring to a MJ150, whereas mine's a JTD115, so the smoke/performance issue may be something to do with the more advanced MultiJet engine...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MILLERS-P...CarParts_SM&hash=item35b6c038f8#ht_3299wt_962

so this millers stuff is basically redex with a mixed in octane booster!

im not 100% convinced by always using fuel additives not for any particular reason from an engine point of view but more cos i cant be arsed lol i know id do it for a couple of tanks then give up. ive seen and felt the benefit of higher octane fuel in 2.0l jap engines but i cant say im THAT bothered about using it in my 1.6 work hack/family car. i think for me ill give it a go with shell 95RON and see where she sits after a tank of that. i redex my fuel twice a year to keep the injectors clean anyway so for me i think using millers is bordering on pointless as the return may not be as great as the dizzles

Thing is Rich, if it improves your economy even by just 1mpg, it's paying for itself. Couple of forums for other cars says that it does for petrol too.

i may not be giving it enough of a chance but i threw a tank of shell unleaded 'fuel save' in on saturday morning covered 100 miles give or take and im 6mpg and 70 Clubcard points DOWN on tesco.

im a 'sad stain' atm

It's hard to tell. A couple of extra stops at traffic lights can drop your mpg quite dramatically measured over a short distance. You need to average it out over a few similar trips to allow for anomalies.
I filled up with Total yesterday, was down to just above the red on my tank of Trashco. This morning's trip to work was fairly interrupted, lots of lights on red. It's only a 33 mile trip, so a couple of extra stop starts or hard accelerations can make a noticeable difference, so I would expect a figure to the low end of the 47-50 I usually get on my morning trip, and I got 47.5, compared to not breaking 47 at all last week on Trashco. And there's still gonna be a bit of the supermarket stuff mixed in for the next tank or so until it's really diluted away.
I'd like to stick some millers in now, but I really wan to run it a week or two just on branded fuel to see if the mpg really consistently improves from cheapo stuff.

its my average weekend running to work only difference was ambient air temp... I was getting 46 now 39.7 i guess i should wait a bit and see what happens

Yeah, I am really trying to save cash everywhere... just got a quote for my car insurance renewal for the wifes, thought I had a good deal last year, but I've got it another 15 quid a month cheaper this time round...
I'm also using Startrescue.co.uk for my breakdown cover - 40 quid a year for full cover, and that includes legal cover too, so I can take that of my car insurance, saving another three quid a month there.

be very carefull with insurance, ive been finding over the last couple of years good offers are generally not as good as they first seem.
comprehensive insurance i would normally expect covers everything, ie curtasy car, any damage fault or not your sorted, glass cover, and most of all ncp - a lot of companys are now excluding ncp and curtasy car, tesco insurance dont even cover windscreen - how they call that comprehensive insurance is beyond me!!.

Yeah, I check all the options. TBH, for the wife's car, which is an old Rover 25, I need it to be covered so that if the worst comes to the worst, I get a few hundred quid so she can still do the school run.
However, the cover offered on the best quote (Hastings Direct) I have got so far is actually pretty darned good.