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My last two tanks of V-Power have only given me 31MPG. Usually I average around 34MPG and I've been driving no different. Also when I timed my 0-60 after fitting my BMC it is now around 9 seconds when before it was 8.3. Is this because I need a proper cold air feed?

The first thing I would check is that your back brakes are not seized on, common problem for these to seize up. Easy enough to check jack the car up at the back and you should be able to spin the back wheels freely with the hand brake off. I noticed a dip in fuel consumption to the low 30s and it was due to this I could hardly move the back wheel by hand, its a quick and easy job to strip the brakes clean them up and put them back together. If it is this it should improve your 0-60 with a friends GPS gissmo got a 0-60 in the high 7 secs.

You should also give the BMC a cold air feed as it would be sucking in hot air from the engine bay which also could be causing your performance issues.

I've noticed my brakes are absolutely shocking. My mum drove it the other day and said it was some of the worst brakes she'd used

I use tesco's super unleaded 99 RON and I get 240 miles to a tank, that = 28 MPG. It kills me!!

Try not using TESCO fuel then.

What would you rather have, Heinz Baked Beans or TESCO Homebrand?

Mouse_GTI wrote:I've noticed my brakes are absolutely shocking. My mum drove it the other day and said it was some of the worst brakes she'd used

I would give the front a strip down and clean aswell then, even the Polo GTIs standard brakes are pretty good so it does sound like there is something amiss with them I would recommend getting the brake fluid changed aswell as mines sharpened up nicely after a fluid change.

Yep, I can second that a brake fluid change is good for sharpening things up! It's supposed to be done every two years.

Regarding the braking performance, well I'm happy with mine but you never know, the 280mm upgrade may beckon next year!

Tesco's 99RON fuel is better than using standard 95RON stuff but not as good as Shell VPower or BP Ultimate apparently!

Mouse_GTI wrote:I've noticed my brakes are absolutely shocking. My mum drove it the other day and said it was some of the worst brakes she'd used

When I had my polo the brakes were shocking on it too, really spoiled the car, but they shoulnd't be that way, when working properly the brakes should be pretty damn good!
The problem on mine was the guide pins attached to the one of the carriers weren't doing their job of returning the outside brake pad after releasing the brakes, so it slowed the car down as well.
Strip the brakes down and make sure all the pads are wearing evenly and the little guide pins are well lubed in their rubber boots (my boots had a hole in which caused the problem), doing a full flush of the hydralic system should help alot if the fluid hasn't been changed in a while too !

The brakes on my lupo (same as the polo's setup) now bite very nicely and give very decent stopping power now they're sorted, Hope you get it sorted out !

Think I'll renew the brake fluid. A brake upgrade will be a plan for the future

i think the mpg also drops when the weather starts to get a bit chillier aswell!!
car will take longer to warm up and engine does not run as efficiently for as long! this is just a guess but i noticed a drop in mpg over last winter on my car compared to the figures i was getting throughout the summer.

Si_GTi wrote:Tesco's 99RON fuel is better than using standard 95RON stuff but not as good as Shell VPower or BP Ultimate apparently!

Says who?
Every test I've seen (with Tesco 99, Optilop and BP Ulimate) showed the largest power increase with the Tesco stuff.

I'll try to find the link..

Its a mith the super market fuel is lower quality, they do say they don't have as many cleaning soultions in it. Tesco use the nearest fuel depot in the area many have seen them use ESSO ones and use the same filling point as the ESSO tankers so to me that means you going to get the same fuel as ESSO as ESSO aren't going to be mixing cleaning solutions in the tankers. I have heard in some areas its Shell but round here none of the Tesco garage sell super and we have the huge BP refinery so Tesco probaly use this for there tankers.

In central Scotland where all the garages match each other so the prices are the same even at the supermarkets and I can get Vpower for 91p a litre which ain't too bad. Remember if it wasn't for the supermarkets the big fuel companies would have taken a lot longer to lower there petrol prices !

Tigz wrote:

Si_GTi wrote:Tesco's 99RON fuel is better than using standard 95RON stuff but not as good as Shell VPower or BP Ultimate apparently!

Says who?
Every test I've seen (with Tesco 99, Optilop and BP Ulimate) showed the largest power increase with the Tesco stuff.

I'll try to find the link..

It was an article on Tyresmoke.net I'll find a link...

Auto Express I think did a good one where they used a 1.2 Clio, a Mk5 Golf GTI, and an STI Impreza to compare before/after power outputs using super unleaded. The Scooby got an extra 10bhp or more

I can't find the original thread I wanted but did find some figures posted from an edition of Auto Express back in June. They tested a new Astra VXR:

Regular / 95 Ron / 94.9p litre / 213.5 bhp
BP Ultimate / 97 Ron / 100.9p litre / 209.7bhp
Shell Optimax / 98 Ron / 97.9p litre / 222.2bhp
Tesco 99 / 99 Ron / 99.9p litre / 221.3 bhp

Seems the pecking order runs Shell Optimax (VPower) -> Tesco 99 -> Regular 95RON -> BP Ultimate!

Señor Tigz I stand corrected