Tesco Momentum 99 Unleaded Fuel...

RobBentley

RobBentley

The Torque Meister
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Location
Kent, UK
Car
Audi RS6 C6 Saloon
Hey All.

I tanked the RS4 from nearly empty with Tesco Momentum 99 two days ago, simply because it was nearby. I usually stick with Shell V-Power.

Anyway, last two days, I couldn't get it out of my head that the car felt slower. I had forgotten all about putting in Tesco Momentum 99, so I want out with my iPhone Dyno app and tried to launch the car hard a few times to 60. To my shock, the revs where bottoming out at tick-over, no matter how higher rpm I tried to launch it from. It wasn't in my head, the car had a serious lack of torque.

Anyway, fuel light came on, on my way home which suddenly made me remember putting in the Tesco fuel. "I wonder" went through my mind and I ran around until the tank was nearly empty. Tanked it with V-Power than went for a spin. After 30 miles, wowee, the car is alive again.

I've no idea if its Tesco Momentum 99 that's "bad". I'd be interested to hear anybody else's experience of this fuel... I find it hard to believe its this bad. I am wondering if my local Tesco has either a bad batch, or simply nobody buys it and its been sat in the tank for yonks... ??
 
RobBentley said:
Hey All.

I tanked the RS4 from nearly empty with Tesco Momentum 99 two days ago, simply because it was nearby. I usually stick with Shell V-Power.

Anyway, last two days, I couldn't get it out of my head that the car felt slower. I had forgotten all about putting in Tesco Momentum 99, so I want out with my iPhone Dyno app and tried to launch the car hard a few times to 60. To my shock, the revs where bottoming out at tick-over, no matter how higher rpm I tried to launch it from. It wasn't in my head, the car had a serious lack of torque.

Anyway, fuel light came on, on my way home which suddenly made me remember putting in the Tesco fuel. "I wonder" went through my mind and I ran around until the tank was nearly empty. Tanked it with V-Power than went for a spin. After 30 miles, wowee, the car is alive again.

I've no idea if its Tesco Momentum 99 that's "bad". I'd be interested to hear anybody else's experience of this fuel... I find it hard to believe its this bad. I am wondering if my local Tesco has either a bad batch, or simply nobody buys it and its been sat in the tank for yonks... ??
Click to expand...

This has been discussed on loads of forums over the 4-5 years since V-Power had been available.

Tesco's 99RON Momentum is made by Greenergy.

It's not a bad fuel ie. it meets statutory minimum standards.

But, the octane rating is achieved by dosing it with up to 5% by volume bioethanol. Other than this amount of spirit alcohol it is the same stuff as Tesco's basic 95 RON unleaded. Alcohol is very astringent and drying and if you want to run your car on the stuff then best to buy one that's designed to run on it. Hence Saab's Biopower models.

Shell V-Power is a much more 'complete' fuel with higher quality base stocks. Less need for Octane improvers yet it also has a very efficient detergent package..
 
I've been distinctly unimpressed by all supermarket fuels and stick with BP, Shell, Esso or Texaco. I simply will not use the cheap stuff and if I'm forced to fill up with a non brand I'll only put a fivers worth in so I can limp to the next branded station.

The big scare of dirty fuel blocking lambda sensors at Tesco was the final straw for me. If quality control is just not there then why should I even risk it.

The cleaners Shell put into their fuel do actually seem to work well.
 
I still can't believe the fuel would cause my car to run *that badly*. I'm still thinking it may have been a bad batch, although I am not brave enough to try again. The car was a dog running on it.
 
I've been anti supermarket fuel for years and years. My father in law insists on using Morrisons unleaded in his V6 Toyota Camry. Yet he barely covers 2500 miles each year. Thus saving about £5 a year.

The car is not happy on the stuff. Last time I drove it the tank was close to empty so I loaded in fifty quid's worth of BP Ultimate. You could literally feel the car 'waking up' over as little as 30 miles or so.
 
iirc in a previous thread didnt some super market have to take the british standard mark of the label on there fuels???
 
herb said:
iirc in a previous thread didnt some super market have to take the british standard mark of the label on there fuels???
Click to expand...

I don't recall this but it's possible. Thing is though, even if it does carry the BS or ISO mark it will only do so by a very tiny margin indeed. Premium fuels are undoubtedly superior.

In the same way that a premium branded Michelin or Continental tyre will be superior to a budget Wanli or Linglong tyre. All carry the same markings but that is NOT the whole story.
 
I only use V-Power. I've tried supermarket fuels in the past and each time it hasn't helped performance and seemed to run out very quickly.
 
I usually use Vpower, however i have a fuel card for morrisons and tesco, so occasionally fill up with Momentum 99. The car does feel *slightly* keener on vpower, but i havent had any major performance loss so to speak on the tesco stuff.
 
pikey motorsports said:
I usually use Vpower, however i have a fuel card for morrisons and tesco, so occasionally fill up with Momentum 99. The car does feel *slightly* keener on vpower, but i havent had any major performance loss so to speak on the tesco stuff.
Click to expand...

You will not notice a performance problem with Tesco's 99 RON unleaded. Badged as 'Tesco Momentum 99.

But the fuel itself is a basic 95 RON unleaded fuel laced with bioethanol to a maximum of 5% by mass. Ethanol is very good at inhibiting pre-ignition as it does raise the Research Octane Number of the fuel to which it is added. Tesco's petrol is produced by Greenergy. Or, at least, most of it is.

I think that premium fuels are worth buying, whether or not you NEED high cetane diesel or high octane petrol you would do well to buy 'proper' diesel or petrol.

I think you will find your cars to be much more pleasant to drive, even on standard 95RON petrol or on standard diesel from a branded forecourt. compared to how it will drive on supermarket fuel.
 
dont know i wont touch it after how badly the civic ran on it.
just remember seeing a post on another forum about the quality of morrisions fuel and that it no longer carried the BS mark on it
 
I'm staying clear then. Every so often I get tempted to use supermarket fuel then I look at the 70-80p I'm going to save over a full tank and decide it's not worth it.
 
Trying out a tank full of Esso today. I found myself in Canterbury and fuel was down to 111.9p (It is 117.9p in my home town!)

The last tankful I had was Shell and this did seem to go further than BP and Texaco. I will be comparing mileages against one another and need a few tank fulls of each to really compare.

Nothing seems to touch Shell Optimax (or whatever they call it now!) for power though. Sadly as I'm poor the car only gets 95ron fuel unless i'm going on holiday or have a fun days driving lined up.
 
I'm so glad you have brought this up. I did the same, filled up thinking 99octane would be mint, but my car would not boost as hard as i wanted it do. I too did a couble of 0-60 runns, and although the boost would reach 1.6 Bar (my top limmit on my EVC) it would take a lot longer to get there.

I wont be using it again. Turned my baby into a slug. When I put my foot down, it acted like there was 4 20 stone guy's in the car. Either that, or that chinese that I had the other day put 64 stone onto me!!
 
Tesco 99 RON is a 5% bioethanol blend. This is how the high RON figure is achieved.

I'm going to give it a go but I suspect I won't be thrilled with the results.
 
OK, I loaded half a tank of Millenium 99 into my car today at Tesco's Wolverton branch. At 116.9p/litre that's less than I pay for standard Esso unleaded here in Buckingham. And it's only 12 miles away from Wolverton!. The tank had a mix of Shell V-Power and Esso 95RON previously so this will not be a conclusive test.

Seems fine so far. The Tesco 99RON stuff is 5% bioethanol and I checked with BMW UK; told that it's absolutely fine to use that blend.

If there are no trajic down-effects on this blend I'll stick another 1/2 tank in when it's needed and see what happens.

Whatever the results, even if it's all good, I will probably still use BP Ult or Shell V-Power every 3rd/4th fill to 'ramp up' the detergency in the fuel.

I used to be a great fan of Shell optimax but I've been a diesel only driver since about 2004. During that period I stuck with BP Ultimate Diesel apart from a few experiments with Asda diesel. Those epxeriments weren't favourable. Made the car sound distinctly like a 4 cylinder diesel one (which, in fairness, it was).
 
Good to see your OK on the fuel HDi. I suspect some cars will be more tolerant than others though? Mine ran like a dog on the Tesco 99, and it took me days to figure out it was the fuel. I had totally forgot using the Tesco fuel. I even scanned it for faults it got that bad!!
 
Bear in mind that my car is not turbocharged which is probably likely to make it a little more forgiving.

Even if it runs perfectly I will almost certainly use V-Power or BP Ult every 3-4th fill for its detergency alone. I doubt somehow that Tesco has done much else with the 99RON stuff other than shove in bioethanol to stoke up the rating over it own 95RON stuff
 
well the texaco techron is going well in the tds. does seem to last a bit longer than other fuels. does the price of it justify this though.
texaco techron is 124.9p a litre at the mo.
asda diesel at the moment is 112.9.
£6 difference on a tankfull.
mmmmmmm.......... food for thought ??
 
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