(G) Petrol for 1,4

Hi folks,

I am curious to hear your comments about petrol for my Bravo 1,4.

User manual says the octan number 95 is minimum to be used. For my previous car (Suzuki Baleno) I oftenly refuelled the Shell's V-Power or even V-Power Racing.

I have been told in a Fiat showroom to stick with 95 octans for a while to let the engine settle a little. Now I have 3.500 km mileage and I wonder about V-Power.

What do you think and do you recommend that?

Many thanks for your posts.

Regards,
pegas

Depends what you want to use the car for really, if for every day use then 95 octane should be fine, on the other hand if you intend to race it at a track then SHELL v-power racing might well be a better option for you.
All depends on what use your car will be for

You don't need to let the engine settle.

Of course don't drive it too hard to begin with but you can still use V-power. The ECU will take time to learn the new fuel, but it's cleaning properties will get to work straight away.

Thx Hellcat, can you shed light on how the ECU can be affected by a petrol with different octans. I thought that only mechanical properties of engine, its lubrication etc. can be linked with type of a used petrol.

Regards,
pegas

The engine management system uses various sensors to tune the engine to run at its best in the conditions prevailing. Atmospheric pressure, spark plug gap, cylinder compression, fuel quality, engine temperature, air temperature etc etc are all used to tune the engine.

95 RON is a measurement of the anti-knock quality of the fuel. Knock is the term used for what is commonly called pinking, due to pre-ignition of the fuel/air mix in the cylinders. The knock sensor monitors the ignition advance of the engine, and reports back to the engine ecu when pre-ignition is occurring, it senses pinking before the driver can hear it, and the ecu retards the ignition to correct it. The higher the RON number the further the engine ecu can advance the ignition timing before the knock sensor intervenes.
Very loosely the more advance run the more power (to a point)

Thx for your comprehensive explanation . Now I understand what the ECU does.

Would you recommend to refuel the V-Power from time to time (you know it costs ...)? Would not be the ECU subsequently confused and thus the engine plagued? Or would be better to use the V-power forever or never?

Sorry for silly questions but you know ... new car ...

thx & regards,
pegas

As said the ECU is constantly monitoring and adapting - swapping between fuels shouldn't cause any trouble.

On my previous petrol cars I used a good brand of fuel, normally total or bp. But if going on a long trip I always sought out a Shell station and used optimax. The ecu constantly adapts (this is why the engine can run so well even with the engine light on), so it cant cause any problems.

Just to revive this thread.

Having 12.500 kms on and very satisfied with V-power fuel (95 RON), engine runs very smoothly, willing to twist up easily and consumption dropped about 1l. But now I am considering the Shell's V-power racing with 100 RON. I read and heard about a lot but still don't know what to expect. My attitude to this is if I can make something good for my car I will do that . but some say when using a high RON fuel the engine is prone to overheat, reportedly it can even destroy valves and engine knocking sensor and blablabla... but I would have liked to have your view or experience with a 100 RON fuel in 1,4 Fire petrol engine. Can you share?

thx,
pegas

Ladies and & Gets,

All of us should ask themselves if 95 is really 95 octane .
with 100 octane fuel the engine runs smother it doesnt wear down so much, the acceleration is better and even the fuel comsumption is ratio is better comparing to the fuel prices

byby

Depends what engine and what fuel. I've seen a comprehensive study using scientific precision with different engines and at least 3 of the high octane fuels made worse fuel economy with most of the engines. The best in the test was Tesco's 'Super Unleaded' 99ron!.

Fuel in the UK has to be produced to certain standards. You can't sell fuel listed as 95 octane with a rating of les than 95 octane.

100 octane rated fuel won't reduce engine wear at all. Most cars sold in the UK will not see any advantage from running anything more than just normal unleaded fuel (95). 100 RON fuel won't give you anymore power either. You might get some more power on a Japanese import or something like a Ferrari or something similar but on a regular everyday car it will just cost you more in fuel bills.

We use 97 or 98 RON fuel in the girlfriends Subaru but it's an import and it's specced to run on 98 fuel so it does get an advantage. Most cars will not get any advantage from higher octane fuel and only very highly strung cars will get anything out of racing fuels. But it's your money of course

Anything with a knock sensor can actively benefit from higher RON fuels as the ECU will adapt - obviously you'll see bigger benefits in the more powerful and turbo cars.

Cars without a knock sensor will still benefit as you can setup the timing to take advantage of the reduced pre-detonation - or on standard timing when pushing hard uphill you'll see the benefits of reduced pinking.