BP ultimate

trem1 · Post by **trem1** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 5:13 pm

as you all know my 407 is my first diesel car?

while its far from the first diesel ive had (i'm a van driver)
ive never actually owned one preffering petrol versions for that extra ooomph
well my 407's got that ooomph but thats another story

is it worth putting something like bp ultimate fuel in everytime or every so often to help
with keeping the internals clean or is that just the crap the the promo nazi's would like
you to believe, as i said ive been a van-driver for years ( oh my god is it really that long)
and never used the stuff cos all my employers have said the same thing that it just costs
more for the same thing

so guys is it worth it or not

jameslxdt · Post by **jameslxdt** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:00 pm

i found that my old 306 diesel would smoke like a pig unless i ran it on ultimate, i also did seem to get better economy, i also have found that cheap diesel is very dense, and blue, and ultimate is very thin and clear, another thing i found, my petrol 406 would run very quiet with regular unleaded but with ultimate it was slightly noisier, due to it being a higher octane and the timing being slightly advanced this is normal, but it does go a million times better with ultimate but the economy is not much different

Blue406 · Post by **Blue406** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:51 pm

I've rant on Ultimate, normal and Optimax. Shell Optimax seemed to give me better performance. But I've not have the money nor inclination to test each fuel on a full tank and compare MPG.

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:26 pm

Aye, the thing to remember when trying new fuels is to run your fuel tank as low as you dare, brim it with the new stuff, run it empty again, and only then can you start to measure things. It can definitely be worth it though - I actually save around £500/year because I buy BP instead of the cheaper Tesco stuff. Can't say bugger all about performance - I ain't got the capability of quantifying it, but I can definitely speak for economy ;)

GeordieBoy · Post by **GeordieBoy** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:58 am

I think I've only ever used Sainsbury's diesel. I've just done 320 mile today and got 49.6mpg speeds between 70-90mph ish (private land of course).

I think I might try some other Diesel sometime tho and see if it makes a Diff. Altho I normally only put in £20 a week.

Post by **Welly** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:07 am

I know that VAG/BMW Diesel drivers rave about the Diesel Ultimate because it has a slightly higher Cetane rating, something like 58 instead of 56 (don't quote me on that).

I've only got one BP garage anywhere near me and although it says Ultimate on the overhead signs, it does not say Ultimate on the pump

I gave it a go though and I did think the economy improved!!!

As for Petrol I only ever used Optimax in my Honda VTEC, I did try Ultimate once and did not think it was as good. I used to get LOADS of condensation plumes from the eggsauce with Optimax.

406 express · Post by **406 express** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:11 am

A lot of BP garages have Ultimate on the forcourt sign, most of the time this relates to their petrol, in terms of their Diesel only a handfull of stations do it, I was going to try it because there is one in Manchester near where I work but when I saw that it was £1.09 a litre i changed my mind, the average cetne rating for most diesel fulel is anything between 46 and 50 but there are some additives that can increase the cetane rating by 4 points, add that to some ulitmate and you will have the fastest diesel in the west!!!

trem1 · Post by **trem1** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 4:30 pm

thats as clear as mud then

GeordieBoy · Post by **GeordieBoy** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 5:11 pm

406 express wrote:where I work but when I saw that it was £1.09 a litre i changed my mind

Fook that at that price, no way would I pay that. I'll stick to supermarket diesel at 88.9p.

PugOFwar · Post by **PugOFwar** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:36 pm

I just use plain unleaded!

I've never even thought about using something like Bp Ultimate, personally I think its all the advertising!

jameslxdt · Post by **jameslxdt** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:39 pm

406 express wrote:the average cetne rating for most diesel fulel is anything between 46 and 50 but there are some additives that can increase the cetane rating by 4 points, add that to some ulitmate and you will have the fastest diesel in the west!!!

try adding rum with a bit of petrol too

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 11:33 am

PugOFwar wrote:I just use plain unleaded! I've never even thought about using something like Bp Ultimate, personally I think its all the advertising!

My trials have shown premium fuels to not have no economy advantage over BP standard unleaded in my turbo, so logically I guess they'd have no performance gain either. But that's just my car. My old 1.8 8v Laguna used to run a fair bit better on the Shell premium stuff, but it was only for a short time when prices of standard broke the £1/litre mark that it became cheaper to put the premium stuff in.

Premium fuel always seems to boost performance, even if you just top your tank up with £20 of the stuff... which leads me to believe it's mostly in the head

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 6:42 pm

The make of fuel seems to make little difference in my HDi

andybee · Post by **andybee** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:35 pm

dont no ant try it but i no the seat and 306 lads use it all the time and say it better

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:22 pm

I've noticed nob all difference running the HDi on ultimate, other than the slightly lighter weight of my wallet. Conversely, ultimate sparker juice in the Mi16 gives a consistent 3mpg improvement - that's 8 or 9% improvement in mileage, for 4 or 5 % increase in cost, which can't be bad.

Back when I was a spotty teenager in the late 1940's I worked at a petrol station, selling petrol, charcoal, mars bars and knock off cassettes. It was a very regular occurance that the tanker would slap the wrong petrol in the wrong reservoir (such as 4 star in the unleaded tank, and vice versa) and i'm pretty certain that things won't have changed that much. i'd give it a 1 in 10 change that the Ultimate is watered down with a more mundane juice.