What to watch out for when owning a diesel car – Fuel types

The number enemy which many diesel owners are facing right now are the plantation owners, in particularly the oil palm industry. Why are they an enemy? Because due to poor planning and also an economic turmoil, the prices of palm oil has been declining.

Prices of crude palm oil over 5 years
Prices of crude palm oil over 5 years

Because of this, Malaysia has a little too much reliance on palm oil and when we do have a stockpile of crude palm oil and low prices, some little smart birdy decides to increase the usage of the crude palm oil by blending it with diesel.

I hate biodiesel

Initially, it started with a 5% blend of  palm biodiesel and 95% of petroleum diesel. That was when you would see the words B5 written at the diesel pumps. Then in 2014, they started with an increased mixture of 7% blend of  palm biodiesel and 93% of petroleum diesel.

Screenshot of the Star Online article

And now, they are toying with a mixture of 510% blend of  palm biodiesel and 90% of petroleum diesel resulting in the B10 diesel fuel. The problem now arises as some car manufacturers claim that their diesel cars or engines can only take up a 7% blend. On the other hand, some have stated that B10 is fine with their cars.

The one thing which we have to be thankful about is when Singapore decided to impose a ruling that all lorries and trucks entering Singapore from Malaysia had to meet certain emissions standards. This meant requiring lorries who normally pump Euro 2 grade diesel in Malaysia to use the cleaner Euro 5 diesel instead.

Check out here or here to read about European emission standards

Due to the new ruling, BHP and Shell have been steadily rolling out Euro 5 grade diesel at their stations which many diesel users have said made their engines smoother and quieter. I would suggest you save these links into your bookmark as a quick reference guide in order to find out where the nearest Euro 5 station

List of Shell Stations with Euro 5 diesel

List of BHP Stations with Euro 5 diesel

I have personally tried all of the various diesel fuel types from the different stations and my own personal conclusion after trying it all are:

  • For POWER, the winner goes to Petronas’ Euro 2 diesel. Try swapping from Euro 5 diesel to the Petronas Euro 2 diesel and you will feel the extra “oomph” during acceleration
  • For SMOOTHNESS AND QUIETNESS, I prefer Shell’s Euro 5 diesel

If you are driving up north to Thailand, you get even more options for diesel fuel types such as V-Power Diesel at the Shell stations. Yes, V-Power Diesel! I really wished that we get V-Power Diesel here in Malaysia.

So while we are still using B7 diesel, and the government is still toying with the implementation of B10 diesel, I pray that as consumers we will have a choice of whether to use B7 or B10. The only way to do it is to keep the Euro 5 diesels as B7 whilst Euro 2 can be kept at a B10 blend instead.

14 thoughts on “What to watch out for when owning a diesel car – Fuel types”

  1. So this Euro 5 latest diesel isn’t it?
    From Euro 2 straight away jump to Euro 5, how about Euro 3 and 4 ya..
    Didnt notice there’re Euro 3 and 4 also before this

    1. The federal government announced in 2011 plans to implement Euro 4M diesel standards starting 2015, in efforts to match up to international standards for environmental and public health protection.

      The implementation date for the higher diesel grade, however, was conspicuously absent from the New Automotive Policy (NAP) unveiling in January this year.(2014)

      International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed later said in July that oil companies were not ready to produce the higher-grade fuel as it would “cost them a lot of money to upgrade their system, factories and plants”.

      …so after all the delay they brought in Euro5

      1. no wonder la suddenly Euro 5 from Euro 2…
        petronas did professional test?
        u mean the company alwasy do test before launch la

  2. Since SG government has supported Euro 5 diesel then it would have impacted our price because SG people will come to malaysia and pump diesel. good news to bring economy to Msia. especially with Petronas since its us!

    1. yes this is also true but mainly Petronas is favoured also because can be trusted since many ppl work inside petronas. u see their ad also across the world 1. tht’s y their euro5 is claimed to help diesel cars use diesel efficiently

      1. i m not suprised if ppl also think this way of petronas. otherwise sg ppl also wont come malaysia to pump right. they also worry for their cars. my experience with petronas euro 5 so far so good, easy and fast to start engine even early morning.

        1. Wow so thiss happening in JB ya. something good to know about that malaysia is doing good at that part lol mayb euro 5 is worth a try after all since its all the hype about now

        2. not only easy to start engine, like when they running your engine also much more smoother, lower vibration while i experience lahhh

        3. Tbh, sg price of diesel as compared to Malaysia is not too much of a different. Mainly because the tax on diesel is so much lesser as compared to petrol. Thus if one were to travelled to Malaysia just to pump there’s no saving at all after VEP and toll. Cheapest diesel in sg is 0.9sgd vs 2.3 Rm

  3. diesel cars and petrol cars are quite similar imo
    the cars’ engine should matter most and the discussion would be wider on the technology it owns

    1. diesel car cost more when doing maintenance .. like last time i just miss few appoinment and delayed 1/2 month to regular checkup, and that diesel engine goes wrong , that time really cost alot more than my regular basis maintenance gg

      1. not only waste the money, when your car is being repair in the factory you also dun have the car to drive..so next time better checkup the car on time..

        1. ya bro. u r right on this. my old car use to experience this and i would have to distrub my family and friends to borrow. hopefully this petronas euro 5 can live up to its name on engine cleaning

    2. quite similar, but now Euro5 has better improvement on their compound, they put lesser sulphur in the diesel but still dont make our engine go rough, and as we know sulphur make more black smoke come out, so lesser sulphur help to go green on our enviroment leh

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