Premium fuel - Yay or Nay?

[Jembo]

I liken this to many other things you can do with our toys:

- Std suspension vs uprated vs coil-overs
- Paper air filter vs K&N vs a full induction kit
- Ditch finder tyres vs mid range vs Michelin Cup2’s

Any choice can do the job, where the more money spent when used in the extreme often (but not always) gives an improvement.

How much difference is clearly subjective, though wherever I have to keep up with a fellow M forum member am psychologically happier to have a full tank of Shell V power than Micks local garage economy brew.

 

[Ewazix]

At the end of the day Octane is added to petrol to reduce pre-ignition and allow higher output efficiency, if it did sweet FA it wouldn't be there and Formula 1 wouldn't be restricted to 101 RON.

The only question is how much of the advantage will our cars standard ecu map allow? As MtPT says the knock sensors work in real time, but I suspect that the factory map will be quite cautious and won't risk extended periods of pre-ignition so whilst there will be gains from 97-8 RON, they will be very modest.

 

[Nictrix]

I wonder how many people who say they never use anything other than vpower or super actually use other fuel now and again as well but just don't want to admit it.
With forums almost creating a history of a vehicle, anybody declaring that they don't use the best around will be remembered forever.
The same goes for saying oil is changed every 5,000 miles or never revved above 3,000 till warmed up properly, a lot of this could just be bull to give a car a history of it being mollycoddled.
Nobody is really going to say its never had an oil change in 40,000 miles or its thrashed from cold without being remembered (I can think of 2 who are no longer on here) and then this info is there for all to see when the car is for sale.

 

[Boltz]

Sold a Subaru Impreza WRX recently which I only ever ran on V Power. through 5 years of ownership..kept every petrol receipt To prove that it had indeed never run it on supermarket brew, Oil and filter changed ievery Spring and Autumn and this on a car that did only 3k miles per year, also receipts and invoices to prove this was done. I think they call this provenance.And now my E89 will be treated in exactly the same way. No Bulls##t here

 

[sunnydays]

I wonder how many people who say they never use anything other than vpower or super actually use other fuel now and again as well but just don't want to admit it.
With forums almost creating a history of a vehicle, anybody declaring that they don't use the best around will be remembered forever.
The same goes for saying oil is changed every 5,000 miles or never revved above 3,000 till warmed up properly, a lot of this could just be bull to give a car a history of it being mollycoddled.
Nobody is really going to say its never had an oil change in 40,000 miles or its thrashed from cold without being remembered (I can think of 2 who are no longer on here) and then this info is there for all to see when the car is for sale.

Most of that can be verified through receipts and paper work.

 

[Nictrix]

I wonder how many people who say they never use anything other than vpower or super actually use other fuel now and again as well but just don't want to admit it.
With forums almost creating a history of a vehicle, anybody declaring that they don't use the best around will be remembered forever.
The same goes for saying oil is changed every 5,000 miles or never revved above 3,000 till warmed up properly, a lot of this could just be bull to give a car a history of it being mollycoddled.
Nobody is really going to say its never had an oil change in 40,000 miles or its thrashed from cold without being remembered (I can think of 2 who are no longer on here) and then this info is there for all to see when the car is for sale.

Most of that can be verified through receipts and paper work.

You are correct for the ones that do stick to these schedules and do only put super in their cars, which I must say must be difficult sometimes.
The others you can only take their word for it that they have used a particular fuel or used a certain oil at certain mileages.
How many times do you read that service schedules have been followed exactly as well is interim oil changes that are not stamped in a book and carried out at home. There is no real proof of this.
I am not accusing anybody here but merely saying that just because somebody says something it doesnt mean it is true.

 

[Jembo]

I wonder how many people who say they never use anything other than vpower or super actually use other fuel now and again as well but just don't want to admit it.
With forums almost creating a history of a vehicle, anybody declaring that they don't use the best around will be remembered forever.
The same goes for saying oil is changed every 5,000 miles or never revved above 3,000 till warmed up properly, a lot of this could just be bull to give a car a history of it being mollycoddled.
Nobody is really going to say its never had an oil change in 40,000 miles or its thrashed from cold without being remembered (I can think of 2 who are no longer on here) and then this info is there for all to see when the car is for sale.

Most of that can be verified through receipts and paper work.

You are correct for the ones that do stick to these schedules and do only put super in their cars, which I must say must be difficult sometimes.
The others you can only take their word for it that they have used a particular fuel or used a certain oil at certain mileages.
How many times do you read that service schedules have been followed exactly as well is interim oil changes that are not stamped in a book and carried out at home. There is no real proof of this.
I am not accusing anybody here but merely saying that just because somebody says something it doesnt mean it is true.

Well I’m screwed then, as I hand mine in to help out with the Companies petrol receipts

 

[Nictrix]

Most of that can be verified through receipts and paper work.

You are correct for the ones that do stick to these schedules and do only put super in their cars, which I must say must be difficult sometimes.
The others you can only take their word for it that they have used a particular fuel or used a certain oil at certain mileages.
How many times do you read that service schedules have been followed exactly as well is interim oil changes that are not stamped in a book and carried out at home. There is no real proof of this.
I am not accusing anybody here but merely saying that just because somebody says something it doesnt mean it is true.

Well I’m screwed then, as I hand mine in to help out with the Companies petrol receipts

:lol: On another note, I wonder how many times the wrong fuel has been put in a forecourts tanks and nobody has let on. Like normal unleaded put in the super unleaded tank. Its not like it cant happen, a local garage to me had diesel put in the unleaded tanks which caused a bit of a problem.

 

[FabZ4]

I use Sainsbury’s Super, a lot less expensive than V Power! No impact on fuel consumption but the car definitely runs smoother and picks up more quickly when asked to accelerate quickly.

 

[shuey]

Same here, I use Sainsbury’s super unleaded 70% of the time, with and V power the other times. I even put V power in my missus’s 0.9 litre IQ, once every two months.

I have to say I can feel the difference with v power, engine runs way way smoother... really noticeable in the IQ, not as much in the Z4. Thing with the IQ is my missus puts Asda fuel in, so putting V power in defo gives a performance boost, (be it very small).

Top gear / fifth gear did a test a wee while ago - and V power did come out as being significantly better.

I never put Tesco fuel in, twice filled my 350z and it halved my fuel economy. BPs version of V power is also a bit s**t, kept bringing in the engine light on in the 350z, vs putting in V power.

If I could afford it, would put v power every time, but I think Sainsbury’s super is a great alternative.

So yeh I would swear by V power, as I can tell the difference, smoother revving engine, and just feels a tiny bit more eager to revup.

Filled up with ultra high octane once in Italy ( I think it was 104 octane) - stupidly expensive, but didn’t notice any difference between that and 98 oddly.

My prow pence anyway for what it’s worth

 

[Zed Baron]

Same here, I use Sainsbury’s super unleaded 70% of the time, with and V power the other times. I even put V power in my missus’s 0.9 litre IQ, once every two months.

I have to say I can feel the difference with v power, engine runs way way smoother... really noticeable in the IQ, not as much in the Z4. Thing with the IQ is my missus puts Asda fuel in, so putting V power in defo gives a performance boost, (be it very small).

Top gear / fifth gear did a test a wee while ago - and V power did come out as being significantly better.

I never put Tesco fuel in, twice filled my 350z and it halved my fuel economy. BPs version of V power is also a bit s**t, kept bringing in the engine light on in the 350z, vs putting in V power.

If I could afford it, would put v power every time, but I think Sainsbury’s super is a great alternative.

So yeh I would swear by V power, as I can tell the difference, smoother revving engine, and just feels a tiny bit more eager to revup.

Filled up with ultra high octane once in Italy ( I think it was 104 octane) - stupidly expensive, but didn’t notice any difference between that and 98 oddly.

My prow pence anyway for what it’s worth

I notice the difference in my IQ also, zooms along on the Sainbury's high leaded... the E89 likes it also

 

[Smartbear]

Same here, I use Sainsbury’s super unleaded 70% of the time, with and V power the other times. I even put V power in my missus’s 0.9 litre IQ, once every two months.

I have to say I can feel the difference with v power, engine runs way way smoother... really noticeable in the IQ, not as much in the Z4. Thing with the IQ is my missus puts Asda fuel in, so putting V power in defo gives a performance boost, (be it very small).

Top gear / fifth gear did a test a wee while ago - and V power did come out as being significantly better.

I never put Tesco fuel in, twice filled my 350z and it halved my fuel economy. BPs version of V power is also a bit s**t, kept bringing in the engine light on in the 350z, vs putting in V power.

If I could afford it, would put v power every time, but I think Sainsbury’s super is a great alternative.

So yeh I would swear by V power, as I can tell the difference, smoother revving engine, and just feels a tiny bit more eager to revup.

Filled up with ultra high octane once in Italy ( I think it was 104 octane) - stupidly expensive, but didn’t notice any difference between that and 98 oddly.

My prow pence anyway for what it’s worth

I notice the difference in my IQ also, zooms along on the Sainbury's high leaded... the E89 likes it also

“High leaded” surely some mistake? Unless we’ve gone back to the 80’s :?
Rob

 

[Zed Baron]

Same here, I use Sainsbury’s super unleaded 70% of the time, with and V power the other times. I even put V power in my missus’s 0.9 litre IQ, once every two months.

I have to say I can feel the difference with v power, engine runs way way smoother... really noticeable in the IQ, not as much in the Z4. Thing with the IQ is my missus puts Asda fuel in, so putting V power in defo gives a performance boost, (be it very small).

Top gear / fifth gear did a test a wee while ago - and V power did come out as being significantly better.

I never put Tesco fuel in, twice filled my 350z and it halved my fuel economy. BPs version of V power is also a bit s**t, kept bringing in the engine light on in the 350z, vs putting in V power.

If I could afford it, would put v power every time, but I think Sainsbury’s super is a great alternative.

So yeh I would swear by V power, as I can tell the difference, smoother revving engine, and just feels a tiny bit more eager to revup.

Filled up with ultra high octane once in Italy ( I think it was 104 octane) - stupidly expensive, but didn’t notice any difference between that and 98 oddly.

My prow pence anyway for what it’s worth

I notice the difference in my IQ also, zooms along on the Sainbury's high leaded... the E89 likes it also

“High leaded” surely some mistake? Unless we’ve gone back to the 80’s :?
Rob

What eagle eyes you have... for a bear! the car thinks its a DeLorean

 

[R60BBA]

The only time I use a fuel other than V-Power is when I’m in Europe and am too far away from a Shell station.

And even then I input 98 RON as opposed to 95. I’m lucky as where I live there are 3 Shell petrol stations within remit so there is no excuse to not put in V-Power.

All can be proved via my Shell points card / app for the next owner.

 

[Busterboo]

... I input 98 RON as opposed to 95.

Which, in an M3, you should!

 

[R60BBA]

... I input 98 RON as opposed to 95.

Which, in an M3, you should!

Well, when in Germany I actually get 100 RON V-Power, but in France and Belgium I’ve only seen 98.

But did the same in my 3.0si (and in fact noticed more difference between V-Power and 95/98 on that car more so than my M3. However saying that my M3 has never seen a drop of 95 and won’t during my ownership and so I’ll never really know).

 

[Lazza]

When my MX5 was supercharged, I had it mapped on 95 but then used 97+ whenever possible. This gave it extra headroom with regards to protection from pre-ignition, especially when I used it on the track where it would live all day between 4k & 7k rpm.
I did once try using the 105 fuel sold at a Silverstone but it didn’t like it much. It caused it to run a lot hotter.

 

[Lil_g_1234]

Fifth gear did a good video on this subject a few years ago and the results were quite surprising.
In a small hatch/city car (think 1l polo) it didn’t make any difference. While in the golf gti it gave 10 extra bhp and in a scooby was about 20 extra bhp. I’ve seen people spend several hundred pounds to achieve 20bhp so well worth it in my opinion.
Also, don’t forget you Ecu adjusts to the fuel your using. So mixing between the two probably won’t see as much of a difference compared to using premium full time.

From page 1 of this thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8L-X89duEs
[/quote]


Not that one. I actually meant this one. Tested in different cars.

https://youtu.be/gQghB4asSnI

 

[Busterboo]

I wonder why BMW recommends 95 and not 98?

 

[R.E92]

... I input 98 RON as opposed to 95.

Which, in an M3, you should!

Well, when in Germany I actually get 100 RON V-Power, but in France and Belgium I’ve only seen 98.

But did the same in my 3.0si (and in fact noticed more difference between V-Power and 95/98 on that car more so than my M3. However saying that my M3 has never seen a drop of 95 and won’t during my ownership and so I’ll never really know).

Is your name Rbobba or is the plate hinting towards your occupation as a thief (robber?).