Syncro 4&4 Discussion and Q&A last answered over 2 years ago.
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Quite right Clive. The gap between the gears is noticeable but I find the crawler gear and 1st gear better than when I had the 5.83:1 which is way too low. Fine for a Pickup but not for long journeys.
Im riding on stiffer springs now with a 2" lift and I must say the handling is bonkers in the rain. Bounces and slides all over the place .....
I don't really belive that supermarket fuel is crap stuff. They buy it from the refinerys just like everyone else and I can't see them bothering to stock a completely different tank system just for tescos. My landy is easy to fill acurately and for the last 2 years I've noted the brands of every fill and it doesn't seem to have a dramatic effect at all. Texico I rarely use as its expencive though it does seem to run slight emproved mpg. BP and Shell seem the same, I tend to use the latter as its slightly cheeper. Having said that I've gone off shell for card sales as they seem the route of most cloning scams at the moment. Winner of everything in my book is the supermarket Sansburys. Every time I fill on that stuff the MPG rockets! I've even had it up to 34mpg on that stuff, and commonly over 30 - all of which is ment to be vertully impossable for that engine but on consecutive fills I don't think it can be an error. If thats "pooh" fuel then I don't care.
Also worth a note, when I tried biodiesel the mpg tended to be poor, sometimes to the extent it completely canseled the lower sale price - another resion I gave up with it.
Both the T3's me and my dad have had had what I'd describe as properly working fuel guages. It reads full on a full tank and when it drops to the red (not quite linear but I've never driven a car that is) you have to put the best part of a tankful in to fill - that sounds a pritty good indicator to me. From the red my syncro usally takes around 55l. Based on the fact a full tank seems to be anything from 60-70l that gives me at least 5 spare which will get me in excess of 30miles so a good rerserve. Wether theres 10 more litres of air or fuel in there is another matter. Did anyone on here have the pleasure of owning/filling a syncro when new? Were they any different? That would backup the degraded filler/breather argument. I've still never got mine to sprayback, though the 2wd (DJ) did it alot, but only when dad filled it, so maybe he was doing something slightly different?
Not wanting to get into a serious debate on who stocks the best fuel - but wasn't it earlier this year that a certain supermarket sold fuel which resulted in a large amount of cars requiring parts being replaced on them due to an overdose of a certain additive. Also, certain car franchises cand and do recomend you don't re-fuel at certain fuel stations because of how the car performs once using that fuel.
Usually my refuelling is Esso or Shell
All that said, haven't tried Sainsburys - 'cos it's a pain in the a*** to re-fuel there.
1.9 TDI Syncro Multivan
1.9 TDI Doka project in progress
The sort of differences you two are talking about, I would have thought would have come to light much more publicly, so will see if a google brings up any solid data on differences, after all, trading standrads might want to know...
Whilst travelling in the UK over the last few years, I always used the Shell and Total Premium diesels and found them to be very very good and always returned a better mpg whilst using them. JCB instructed us all not to use 'supermarket fuels' as there was evidence that some had an effect on engine life. Tesco Ireland use Statoil sourced fuels. We dont have Premium diesels in Ireland so I use an additive called Dipetane which has a similar effect on mpg and has quite a positive effect on emissions which is good when car test time comes around
I agree with synchro paddy, premium fuels return better mpg. With Aral (BP) Optimum my 1.6TD runs cooler and a lot quieter.
Supermarket fuels are often lacking the extra detergents and additives. Check out Honest John's column in the electronic Daily Telegraph, he used to have a lot to say about this topic.
only filled my tank to full a few times after dribbling the diesel in very slowly usually just leave it at the cut off mark. Topaz are promoting their diesel as cleaner but not sure. Not sure if Dipetene is on your side of the pond but is definately worth checking out used it before on my Aircooled and their was a considerable notice in power and mpg have used it on the diesel but not enough to notice but the american military use it and supposedly saves them millions (although they are the largest fuel customer in the world!)