General What fuel for a multijet?

[alfabarry]

Anyone here using BP Ultimate or Shell V-Power premium diesel for their multijet? These fuels are supposed to help clean your diesel engine as well as improving efficiency, reducing noise etc etc.

Fiat actually appear to suggest in the manual that you can pour an additive called "Diesel Mix" into the tank! Anybody doing this?

Must say there seems to be a lack of clear information: I've read that common rail engines, like the m-jet, neither need nor like additives. OTOH others say that the high pressure of CR injection makes cleanliness even more important.

For comparison I also checked the manual for our Audi TDi.. Audi say never put any fuel additives of any sort into the tank. Yet Fiat actually list a recommended additive.... is this their way of saying its a good idea to use it to get the best from the m-jet

Any thoughts???

 

[maharg null]

Anyone here using BP Ultimate or Shell V-Power premium diesel for their multijet? These fuels are supposed to help clean your diesel engine as well as improving efficiency, reducing noise etc etc.

Fiat actually appear to suggest in the manual that you can pour an additive called "Diesel Mix" into the tank! Anybody doing this?

Must say there seems to be a lack of clear information: I've read that common rail engines, like the m-jet, neither need nor like additives. OTOH others say that the high pressure of CR injection makes cleanliness even more important.

For comparison I also checked the manual for our Audi TDi.. Audi say never put any fuel additives of any sort into the tank. Yet Fiat actually list a recommended additive.... is this their way of saying its a good idea to use it to get the best from the m-jet

Any thoughts???

I dont use V Power but I have notice a 5% improvement in fuel consumption using Shell diesel as compared to Sainsburys and texaco, this was measured over a month with each on the same journey and 2000 miles a month

 

[Highlander]

It's not so long ago that a lot of UK car engines were screwed up by fuel additives. The best way to clean a diesel is to give it a good long hard run once on a while, that blows the muck out.

Tara Ian

 

[kipster]

It's not so long ago that a lot of UK car engines were screwed up by fuel additives. The best way to clean a diesel is to give it a good long hard run once on a while, that blows the muck out.

Tara Ian

That must be Formula Shell, showing your age there .

 

[hmallett]

A good quality diesel will be fine. I use Shell (normal) diesel. There is V-Power diesel available, but I don't think the extra cost is justified by any increase in power or efficiency.

 

[boar278]

according to BP, their Ultimate diesel gives 1% increase in mpg---and possibly other difficult to quantify benefits.

 

[MHRAR]

Honest John (Telegraph) recommended BP Ultimate diesel and the family changed to using it in their Peugeot 205TD's.

Apart from slightly better fuel consumption, both also are quieter when using it compared to standard diesel and appear to run 'cleaner'

Just ordered a Dynamic Multijet Aircon to replace one 205 and plan on using BP Ultimate diesel.

 

[ChrisUK]

Only benefit is a cleaner engine which will result in more life in most of the engine parts which only really applys if you keep the car 5 years or more which doesn't seem to happen nowadays.

 

[alfabarry]

Apart from slightly better fuel consumption, both also are quieter when using it compared to standard diesel and appear to run 'cleaner'

I've been experimenting with BP Ultimate and ordinary BP derv in both the Panda and our Audi A4. In the Audi there is no doubt that the car runs more quietly and there seems to be a modest improvement (about 2mpg) on consumption. But with the Panda I notice no difference at all in noise levels and the two tankfuls of Ultimate used so far have coincided with my worst mpg results so far: 56.7 and 57.4 mpg. On ordinary derv I generally get between 58 and 62 mpg. Of course two tankfuls aren't enough for a definitive answer as workload varies, but...

 

[cambof]

i own a panda 4x4 multijet for 7 months ,till now i use bp diesel being satisfied
the last time, i used shell v power diesel and i think i ll get more kilometres at the end
i prefer to use expensive fuel instead of risking an mailfunction in 3-5 years that will cost me a lot of euro

 

[fraguzz]

It's not so long ago that a lot of UK car engines were screwed up by fuel additives. The best way to clean a diesel is to give it a good long hard run once on a while, that blows the muck out.

Tara Ian

i use this... every day! ;-)

 

[rbrian]

I put BP Ultimate in my work Transit van a couple of times, it was definitely quieter, faster, and more efficient. I don't have that van anymore, it has been replaced with a Vauxhall Combo, and the strict instruction not to use Ultimate, as it's too expensive. I'm pretty sure the Combo has the same 1248cc multijet deisel as the Panda, but tuned to 70bhp and 170 ftlb. It starts in a huge cloud of black smoke, and pours black smoke behind it whenever I accelerate. The company operates a fleet of these vans, up to 5 years old, and they all do it. I put Ultimate in it once, it made a huge difference, much less smokey - but they made me pay for it, so I won't do that again. I tried it in the Panda, and it doesn't seem to make any difference at all.

 

[T14086]

smoke?..........must be a vauxhall thing do they still use those crappy vauxhall EGR valves?

 

[rbrian]

Umm... I have absolutely no idea what an EGR valve is.

Thinking about, maybe my Panda does smoke a bit on normal diesel, the chromed exhaust pipe is now black.

 

[ChrisUK]

smoke?..........must be a vauxhall thing do they still use those crappy vauxhall EGR valves?

My work van is a Vauxhell Astra combo van and its got the GM 1.3L CDTI which is basically the 1.3 M-JET with gm crap stuck on it but it DOES smoke like a mutha-f*****. Litterally clouds of smoke out the back under moderate to full boost .

 

[hmallett]

My local Shell garage has just started selling V-Power diesel, so I'm currently trialling it. It's about 6p per litre more expensive at 99.9p per litre.
I can't say I've noticed any performance difference. Economy seemed to be slightly better for the first 2 tankfuls (over 70mpg :woot, though I'll need to try it for longer to see whether this will last.
I thought at first that there seemed to be less smoke, but a Golf behind me the other day can tell you it's not true...
H

 

[adnap]

Have a look at the forum at dieselcar.com, as this is an ongoing question. From what I can gather, 'expensive' fuels such as BP, Shell etc have additives which clean and lubricate the injectors, whereas supermarket fuels are just basic fuel. A lot of people use an additive such as Millers when using supermarket fuel, which adds the extras - when things go wrong with a Common Rail Diesel it can be expensive, so worth avoiding.

Adnap

 

[alfabarry]

A lot of people use an additive such as Millers when using supermarket fuel, which adds the extras - when things go wrong with a Common Rail Diesel it can be expensive, so worth avoiding.

Adnap

Do you mean the additives are worth avoiding.. or the supermarket fuel?

I've just filled up with another tank of BP Ultimate and the car sounds to me to be louder and rougher than on the previous tank of BP "basic fuel". In fact it sounds so loud I find myself wondering if something's amiss. Probably all in my mind, but:

There is contradictory advice out there: some say that the common rail units should not be exposed to any additives (and therefore presumably not to V-Power or Ultimate); others (well, at least BP in it's marketing for Ultimate!) that extra cleaning agents are even more useful for common rail units.

We know that CR (and the VW-Audi PD engines) are less tolerant of bio-diesel than traditional DERV drinkers. Maybe the point to bear in mind is that the mjet is designed to run primarily on basic DERV. But then why oh why does my Panda handbook talk about recommended fuel additives?

I guess many thousands of engines must be worn out before we get a definitive answer to this.

 

[Toomanytoys]

For most its a choice about cheapness.. for others its a balance... If it feels right, then thats what I would do... My old AUdi 100 uses 98ron, if I fill up at tesco's it runs so much better than BP/Texaco/total... Fina seems ok as does most of the french supermarket fuels.. (and in France super plus is normaly only 1 or 2 cents dearer in any case..)

 

[adnap]

I'm saying that for hi-tech precision commonrail diesels, additives are a good thing, and there seems to be a consensus (at least from people who post) that they notice a positive difference with either a quality fuel, or Millers. The thing is, when a CR goes wrong, it is very expensive - but having said that, I've searched the web, and can find no problem stories with the 1.3 multijet.

If I had a Multijet (pine pine), I'd at least give a shot of Millers every couple of tanks: minimal cost, can't hurt, might do a lot of good.

I used to have an old 1.9 Clio, first generation diesel, which was basically a van engine, and it couldn't care less what was put in it. I never had the courage to try vegetable oil, but I'm sure it would have coped fine.

Adnap