Which fuel 95 or premium?

Steve220 said:
M's do not need higher RON fuels, the ecu is capable of adjusting the settings to cope. It even says on the filler door 95-98RON fuels. Just use a good quality fuel and you won't go wrong.

I see a lot of people on here go on about 'rough idles' with bad fuels - i'd love to know why. If you've ever mapped a car, you'll understand.
Click to expand...

Quite right! If your car runs rough or pinks on 95ron fuel then there is something wrong and it is not the fuel. M54s should run fine on 91ron and above and S54s on 95ron and above. They were designed and built for this read the back of your fuel filler cap.

Fresh clean fuel is the key and personally I always use 95ron because fuel degrades over time and I reckon the 'super' and 'premium' priced pumps get used about as frequently as I enjoy a barney rubble these days.

It's overpriced and probably stale anyway imho. :fuelfire:
 
GreyZed said:
Steve220 said:
M's do not need higher RON fuels, the ecu is capable of adjusting the settings to cope. It even says on the filler door 95-98RON fuels. Just use a good quality fuel and you won't go wrong.

I see a lot of people on here go on about 'rough idles' with bad fuels - i'd love to know why. If you've ever mapped a car, you'll understand.
Click to expand...

Quite right! If your car runs rough or pinks on 95ron fuel then there is something wrong and it is not the fuel. M54s should run fine on 91ron and above and S54s on 95ron and above. They were designed and built for this read the back of your fuel filler cap.

Fresh clean fuel is the key and personally I always use 95ron because fuel degrades over time and I reckon the 'super' and 'premium' priced pumps get used about as frequently as I enjoy a barney rubble these days.

It's overpriced and probably stale anyway imho. :fuelfire:
Click to expand...

+1

I tried 6 tanks on Tesco 99 and it didn't make a single bit of difference. It had probably been in the tanks for months. Asda 95 is working like a dream for me at the moment. I'm a firm believer that if it's not broke, don't fix it
 
Tesco 99 degrades quickly over time as it contains ethanol to take it to the 99RON spec.

On a slightly different note, I got 31.0mpg on my drive up to the folks - 160miles at 70mph. Very happy with that! That's on BP 95 fuel. Just filled up on Shell 95RON for tomorrow's drive to Scotland :D Will be interesting to see if i can beat it on average, but i am going up hill ;) :lol:
 
Filled up using Sainsbury 95 and managed 42.1mpg on a 120 mile motorway journey... very impressed! Staying between 65-70mph for the vast majority of the journey.
 
95 every time (and from Tesco) - don't think I'd notice the difference (apart from to my wallet) on higher rated fuel.

That said in the Porsche's and Aston only ever used higher rated fuels......
 
I use the higher octane stuff -also- find 'Momentum' to be very good- performance seem slightly better/smoother and economy good.
 
Only ever tried 95. I used V-Power in my Scirocco all the time but never in my E24 didnt need it.

I will give it a go in the zed when I do my next long journey in it but I really dont think its necessary.
 
I run my M on super as you are advised to. But there isnt any point in spending the extra on the more normal engines. Running a 2.0 on 97 and saying it doesn't like 95 is complete rubbish if you ask me. 95 is perfectly fine and all the engines are designed to run at peak on 95.

My old 320SI WTCC version with a hand made engine felt more eager with 97 but it ran perfectly fine on 95

But would stick to branded stuff not supermarket stuff.
 
Hi All

Just an opinion but there is no benifit for using the more expensive fuels unless you car is designed to be used on it. As the z's are designed to run on Ron95 then that should work with no probs.

If you have issues when runing the car then I would sugest those issues are seperate froim the fuel you use or that the fuel is not of the quality it should be.

Personally I feel buying my fual from a garage with good pumps and holding tanks that has a good stock turnover is more important.

:)
 
tomscott said:
Running a 2.0 on 97 and saying it doesn't like 95 is complete rubbish if you ask me.
Click to expand...
Have you tried running a 2.0 on 95 vs 97+?

Anyway, to the OP.I noticed a difference. Some will, some won't, best way is to try it but give it a few tanks full before you make your mind up!
 
There was an article a few years back on the benefits of higher octane fuel (97 RON) in Evo (I think...). The findings were that for turbo cars there was a significant increase in BHP but that this was less evident on NA cars. If I could find a link I'd post it :?

I'm like mmm-five, I use Shell V-Power 95% of the time but if I have to I use normal unleaded.

That stuff about super unleaded being stale because it's been in the tanks longer is crap. I find it's far more likely to run out than normal unleaded because most of my local garages (excl Tesco) don't have many super unleaded pumps.
 
tomscott said:
Ye as I said I used to have a 320. It is designed to run on 95.
Click to expand...
The Op's question was "Would my car benefit/would I notice a difference from using V-power over 95?"

I said mine doesn't like 95, because it doesn't run nearly as well as on 97+

You said your 320 was more "eager".

I think we agree don't we? There is a noticeable difference. You noticed it, so did I.
 
didnt 5th gear do a test on rollers using a family hatch/subaru/summat else and compared runs of supermarket/branded/97+

im interested in the pinking someone heared as im sure mine is pinking under certain conditions.
 
domsz4 said:
didnt 5th gear do a test on rollers using a family hatch/subaru/summat else and compared runs of supermarket/branded/97+

im interested in the pinking someone heared as im sure mine is pinking under certain conditions.
Click to expand...


Oh it might have been 5th gear. I seem to remember them getting an extra 10% out of the turbo cars wherever I saw it
 
Fifth Gear tested BP Ultimate and Shell Optimax (now branded V Power) against normal unleaded with three different cars:

Renault Clio - and found that the premium fuels made no difference to the power output of 81bhp
VW Golf GTI - Found that Ultimate increased power output from the standard 172bhp to 174bhp and Optimax increased output to 177bhp.
Subaru Impreza WRX STI - found that power increased from standard 235bhp to 248bhp with Ultimate and 249bhp with Optimax.
The conclusion being that the more highly tuned Subaru, and to a smaller extent the Golf GTI, did benefit from the change in fuel. To quote the programme: -

"That would result in a more willing engine, happier to accelerate hard from low down in the rev range. So premium fuels can make your car go faster and, on the basis of our tests, Shell's Optimax is a more performance orientated fuel than BP's Ultimate, but only if your car can appreciate the difference."

The only question left hanging is, would a BMW non-turbo motor (which has a degree of performance tuning - VVT achieves similar outputs to LP Turbo units) benefit from premium? I'm sticking with a a very, very marginal yes, but it's probably not value for money. I'm still using it though :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ospimy_4j9k
 
Ewazix said:
Fifth Gear tested BP Ultimate and Shell Optimax (now branded V Power) against normal unleaded with three different cars:

Renault Clio - and found that the premium fuels made no difference to the power output of 81bhp
VW Golf GTI - Found that Ultimate increased power output from the standard 172bhp to 174bhp and Optimax increased output to 177bhp.
Subaru Impreza WRX STI - found that power increased from standard 235bhp to 248bhp with Ultimate and 249bhp with Optimax.
The conclusion being that the more highly tuned Subaru, and to a smaller extent the Golf GTI, did benefit from the change in fuel. To quote the programme: -

"That would result in a more willing engine, happier to accelerate hard from low down in the rev range. So premium fuels can make your car go faster and, on the basis of our tests, Shell's Optimax is a more performance orientated fuel than BP's Ultimate, but only if your car can appreciate the difference."

The only question left hanging is, would a BMW non-turbo motor (which has a degree of performance tuning - VVT achieves similar outputs to LP Turbo units) benefit from premium? I'm sticking with a a very, very marginal yes, but it's probably not value for money. I'm still using it though :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ospimy_4j9k
Click to expand...
The biggest difference is compression!

The higher the compression the more likely an engine is to pre-detonated or pink.

The higher the RON of a fuel the more resistant it is to pre-detonate or pink.

This means the piston speed will be less reduced at the top dead centre position, wasting less power.

There is no point using high octane on an old 150000 mile 320i because you don't have a high compression performance engine.

A forced induction engine will benefit from high octane fuel as it compression is far greater than normally aspirated engines. Vehicles that are chipped benefit from high octane fuel as the guys programming the ECU can allow the piston to get closer to top dead centre before the spark ignites the fuel. If that same car that has been set up to run on high octane fuel then has standard fuel used the car would feel sluggish and at higher revs and when the engine gets hot there is the chance the engine will pink. This is using a fixed engine map. Most modern performance engines have sensors that detect knock and will retard the ignition timing. These are the engines that benefit from performance fuels. They do take a few tanks to run at optimum though. Fuel temp is also important as the colder the fuel is will increase its effective density. Air temp had the same effect as cold air is denser. (hence inter coolers/ charge coolers etc.)

Right now for the last important fact, there is no point using high octane fuel if a tank of fuel lasts you 2weeks because the light parts of the fuel separate over time, and high octane fuel attracts water more, as the is an element of methanol in it, it also spends longer in the tanks on the petrol forecourt where it does both of the above!

Pick your fuel supplier carefully as a busy forecourt has more chance of having decent younger fuel.

Supermarket fuel is bought from the spot market and could be made anywhere in the world. Potentially to lower specs than petroleum company's. Plus they have less additives that keep your engine nice and clean!

Rant over.


That's it I'm finished you can wake up now!!!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom