BRAD’S BIG BLOG - FUEL &  FUEL ADDITIVES

Additives make a difference. A big difference when it comes to future proofing your car. So does the fuel you choose, let’s start with that.

All fuel sold in the UK conforms to the same British Standards, so in theory there should not be any difference at all between supermarket, independent and established big name forecourts. However, our advice is always to fuel up with well known brands such as BP, Shell, ESSO. That’s because what’s in the well known fuels are ingredients to help make your engine run better. 

Petrol is normally 95 octane, but also comes in  higher octane form as 97,98 and 99 octane. These are generally used in high performance cars as the higher octane means it is more combustible which gives more power, it also returns improved MPG. These higher Octane fuels usually contain cleaning agents that clean your engine as you drive, so irrespective of your cars performance it is a good idea to use a higher octane fuel with these ingredients. Some companies such as Shell and Esso also provide a high performance diesel fuel with cleaning agents. 

I am a big fan of fuel additives and have used them myself for the last 10 years with both petrol and diesel engines. If you are running an older diesel car they are a great way of preventing injectors from getting clogged and cleaning Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) and Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valves (EGR) These are expensive parts to replace that can run for years by using big brand fuel and additives once in a while. 

I generally keep an older higher mileage car for running around and the current ‘smoker’ is a 2005 Golf TDi with 125,000 miles on the clock. I bought it at 106K about a year ago so it gets plenty of use. I have only ever used Shell V Power diesel in the car and run JLM Extreme Clean through the car (just add a whole bottle to your car when it’s empty and fill the car up) every 3,000 miles or so and the car is running better than ever. 

You can also get specialist additives that target specific areas such as injectors, the fuel system as a whole, DPFs, EGRs, Turbos. 

Over the coming months I will be using these on the Golf and other cars. It’s all part of the future proof process and I’ll be showing you what I use, because certain cars are built to last.