What petrol do you use for your GTI?

[McDub]

The specs say it needs 95 octane, yet i can never seem to find it these days, it's either 91 regular, 98octane, or an ethanol blend.

I noticed at a service station that the E10 was claiming 95 octane.
Is that correct, and is it suitable to use in the car? it's about 20cents cheaper than 98 so i thought it was definetly worth the question.

cheers

[team_v]

http://www.fcai.com.au/publications/all/all/all/3/capability-of-vehicles-to-satisfactorily-operate-on-ethanol-blend-petrol

Volkswagen
All fuel injected models post 1986

Why not just use 98Ron fuel, it will run more economical than the Ethanol blend which in most cases on this forum has been shown to provide a worse fuel economy negating the reduced price.

[Fizz]

I use BP Ultimate which is 98Oct unleaded.

[HOLEIN1]

i religioulsly use BP ultimate...

have tried shell v power (local cheap servo sells it) but ddint find it as good...

BP Ultimate FTW!

[Manaz]

Don't use an ethanol blend. Just not worth the angst.

I run 98RON in my Bora V6 4Motion. BP by preference.

[dubbed]

I only ever use PULP. If you can afford a GTI, surely you can afford to give it the PULP it deserves.

[McDub]

I only ever use PULP. If you can afford a GTI, surely you can afford to give it the PULP it deserves.

it's not a matter of affording, it's a matter of is it worth spending 20 cents more for a 5 cents saving.

Isn't E85 100 octane?
and i heard that ethanol has better cooling properties which are beneficial to the engine...

btw i may have been wrong when i said octane ratings before, according to this

http://www.unitronic.ca/performance-software-res.php?brand=VW&model=GOLF&year=2000&displacement=1.8T&x=27&y=7

91 octane is 95 ron, and 93 octane is 98 ron...
so perhaps i meant to say ron in my original post.
actually regarding that link, i wonder if i get the stage 1 which is tuned for 95 ron, will i get knocking in the engine if i use 98?

[Manaz]

it's not a matter of affording, it's a matter of is it worth spending 20 cents more for a 5 cents saving.

Isn't E85 100 octane?
and i heard that ethanol has better cooling properties which are beneficial to the engine...

btw i may have been wrong when i said octane ratings before, according to this

http://www.unitronic.ca/performance-software-res.php?brand=VW&model=GOLF&year=2000&displacement=1.8T&x=27&y=7

91 octane is 95 ron, and 93 octane is 98 ron...
so perhaps i meant to say ron in my original post.
actually regarding that link, i wonder if i get the stage 1 which is tuned for 95 ron, will i get knocking in the engine if i use 98?

As much as ethanol has some benefits (burning cooler as you indicated), it has less specific power than petrol (thus you get less energy out of burning a litre of ethanol than you do burning petrol), and most cars aren't built to use ethanol blend fuels, and ethanol can cause damage and buildups in fuel systems not designed for its use.

As you've noticed, the US/North America uses MON figures for their fuel qualites, not RON, and MON figures are lower for a given octane level (but both are measures of octane levels - just like litres and pints are both measures of volume). MON87 is around our RON91, etc. But octane is only one aspect of fuel quality, and not one you really want to rely on as the sole decision factor when choosing fuel. I'd run good quality RON95 PULP over a higher octane ethanol blend any day.

[brad]

it's not a matter of affording, it's a matter of is it worth spending 20 cents more for a 5 cents saving.

Isn't E85 100 octane?
and i heard that ethanol has better cooling properties which are beneficial to the engine...

btw i may have been wrong when i said octane ratings before, according to this

http://www.unitronic.ca/performance-software-res.php?brand=VW&model=GOLF&year=2000&displacement=1.8T&x=27&y=7

91 octane is 95 ron, and 93 octane is 98 ron...
so perhaps i meant to say ron in my original post.
actually regarding that link, i wonder if i get the stage 1 which is tuned for 95 ron, will i get knocking in the engine if i use 98?

yes, ethanol has cooling properties. It also has cleaning/detergent properties & IIRC "makes oxygen" (simplified term). on the flipside, it can make a car run lean 9if the ECU & o2 sensor aren't smart enough)& has less power per unit than petrol.

E85 is not a good thing unless your car has been modified to accept that fuel as ethanol is also corrosive to certain rubbers & metals. In addition, your injectors may not flow enough to give the correct mixture.

All Australian fuels are graded on research octane number (RON). You can wicki the difference between RON & MON if it interests you.
ULP is 91/92ron
E10 from the majors is anywhere between 92ron to 94ron.
Liberty PlusULP is e10- 95ron
The various Ultimates/V-Powers/Synergy 8000 & Vortex98 are all 98ron.
You can check all this by going to the manufacturers websites & looking at the tech data sheets (TDS).

Your engine will not knock/ping/detonate if you run a higher octane than required. I can't think of any engineering detriments with running higher octane fuel than specified but as you state, there may be economic detriments.

I had a Mk3.5 cabrio with the 2.0AGG engine in it. I ran plusULP in that all the time & it ran fantastic with no fuel economy increase but it was a naturally aspirated engine.

I now have a Octavia turbo with a minimum 95ron requirement & it runs most efficiently on 98ron. I tried straight 95 & PlusULP & economy & power both suffered.

I use about 35L of fuel a week & for the sake of $7, I'd rather do without 2 coffees from Gloria Jeans than stuff around with cheaper fuels.

You might try filling at the half tank & alternating between e10 & 98ron. that way you will be running ~96ron with a dash of ethanol.

[gavs]

All the service stations here in Melbourne that I have used sell 91, 95 and 98 to cater for all different cars especially with the modern engines from accross the globe (bar indian, korean and chinese built engines...) need for a higher octane rated fuel.

Another reason why Melbourne is better, we actually like car enthusiasts who want to run their cars properley

[DIDZ]

i religioulsly use BP ultimate...

have tried shell v power (local cheap servo sells it) but ddint find it as good...

BP Ultimate FTW!

I'm another one for the BP Ultimate.

Shell V Power is only good for a day, then it becomes totally useless driving. I'd only use it at the track or drags, nothing more.

[JustCruisn]

V Power for me.
BP ultimate in QLD gives about the same performance but always cost more.
I just don't get BP pricing, E5 91 cost 2 cents more than the Shell no ethanol 91, just across the road. BP ultimate is often 20cents dearer than their 91 were as Shell is usually +13 cents. Meaning the VPower comes in 9cents cheaper.