Another "What Fuel" Thread

All of this is irrelevant if your car is not designed to run on it though correct?

E.g. I have a MK4 Golf GTI. On the fuel cap it says 95RON. There would be no advantage to me running the super stuff as far as I'm aware as my engine simply wouldn't take advantage of it.

Is this assumption correct?

you are right. only going to gain once the ecu has been tweaked. currently im doing log term logging after playing with my ecu (mk4 gti) to see if im safer on tesco or shell (ie which one can i push it further with)
 
If your running on what it says there won't be a problem.

I'm curious if using the branded fuels is worth it. e.g. Instead of Asda bare basic unleaded. What about the Shell unleaded? Is it better? Is it just gimmick?

dunno about Asda fuel, but Shell is better than Tescos because Tescos has the maximum legal amount of ethanol in it which is how they get the price down
 
dunno about Asda fuel, but Shell is better than Tescos because Tescos has the maximum legal amount of ethanol in it which is how they get the price down

Is that really the case though? Tesco is never the cheapest around here, and I don't really recall ever seeing Tesco being cheaper than any where else
 
Having had the Legacy GT-B (JDM) for over a year now, I can say that she does respond better to 99 RON both in economy and performance. The marginal increase in fuel efficiency seems to be wiped out by the increased cost of the 99 but she's noticeably smoother in the delivery of the power. She's not faster, just different.

I don't know how to explain that any better, sorry :(
 
On the inside of the filler cap for my car it says:

98RON (95RON)
Super Plus Unleaded

In other words - my car can run on either, but it prefers the super stuff.
On a car like mine, the 200bhp is assuming you're running on super - use less and you'll have less power.
 
I'm curious if using the branded fuels is worth it. e.g. Instead of Asda bare basic unleaded. What about the Shell unleaded? Is it better? Is it just gimmick?

dunno about Asda fuel, but Shell is better than Tescos because Tescos has the maximum legal amount of ethanol in it which is how they get the price down

i tried several brands and the 95's performed about the same, maybe with total slightly better than supermarket petrol. tesco 99ron is a different story, it eliminated all knocking, so it is doing what it is supposed to, it makes the engine smoother at all speeds, that 95ron roughness is gone because timing is advanced. slightly more bhp... barely noticeable mind, mpg increase is noticeable.
 
Why are you so against Ethanol?

Well basically its just an additive that manufacturers can put into petrol to cheaply boost the octane rating, and the government gives them kickbacks for it because its supposedly environmentaly friendly that's one of the reasons why Tesco can sell fuel cheaper than Shell/BP/etc.

The downside is that most cars (more than a few years old) were not designed to run on ethanol and it causes seals to degrade faster and can cause corrosion, in addition it doesn't mix well with fuel that is ethanol free and that can cause driving issues. Also ethanol fuel has a habit of disturbing any gunk/sediment/sludge/whatever you wanna call it whereas normal petrol doesn't and if that goes floating around the system it can cause issues.
 
Just because it is cheap, does not mean it is bad. I see your point about rubber seals etc. on older cars, but this is only likely to be a problem if you're running E85 or something, not with the small amounts present in T99.

Given the choice and availability, I'd happily run E85 :cool:
 
So what happens when you shove a load of 97 octane into a tank that was last filled with 99 octane?

Does the car go 50/50 and run a 98 map?

(Not a pedantic question, I am genuinely curious! :o )
 
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