GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: GeoBog on 08 July 2014, 09:56
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Following getting my new GTI last week, I have read the manual which states that the tank should be filled up with minimum 95 Ron petrol and that using a higher octane petrol doesn't make any difference in fuel economy/performance. Also on the tank filler lid the sticker states 95 Ron.
I have been googling a lot and I have also read the other topic which is really old and without concrete information about using a certain type of petrol in the GTI, most of the replies being about "what my mate said he thinks should be used" or about youtube tests on older engine models different to the mk7.
Now that the mk7 GTI has been out there for a while and people had the chance of trying different petrol types, from your own experience since you got your GTI, what petrol do you use?
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I have gotten myself into a habit where i only ever use V-Power. Whether it has any added benefits or not i'm not sure but i'd rather pay the few extra pence for peace of mind :smiley:
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Super unleaded for me. Its worth it for a car such as the GTI. If nothing else there may be more additives / cleaners in it than in standard petrol :)
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I've heard people using V-power however where I live there isn't any Shell station nearby and also none on my route to work and back. I've only got Esso, Total and BP but as far as I know, the super unleaded at these is 97 Ron. Will that be ok?
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tesco 99 all the way for me
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tesco 99 all the way for me
Me too, only every used Tesco 99 since picking up the car - doubt it really makes a difference but why skimp
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I am certain I get slightly better mpg and a better pickup from the engine using Super unleaded in my 09 Scirocco. Shell V-Power or Nitro Plus I think they call it now, seems to be the favourite and that is what I go for.
BP Ultimate I also find to be very good.
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I use 95, I put 99 in every now and again as a treat and I can't feel any difference. I can only think it's psychosomatic.
Petrol's expensive enough these days as it is :sad: it was 38p when I started driving!
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I use 95, I put 99 in every now and again as a treat and I can't feel any difference. I can only think it's psychosomatic.
Petrol's expensive enough these days as it is :sad: it was 38p when I started driving!
Same here. I've tried BP normal, BP Ultimate, Shell normal and Shell V-Power Nitro Plus. Honestly I can't notice a difference in performance or economy so I just use normal unleaded now.
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If the car isn't optimised for anything higher than RON95, you're chucking 8-10p a litre away on RON97-99. Just buy some additive to put in every 4th tank to keep everything clean.
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well actually I am only chucking away 5p a litre at 135.9 for tesco super which compared against shell at 139.9 i thought it sounds like a good deal and i might as well, even though weve stated in the past it makes no difference unless mapped right
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Paid 142.9 for esso supreme 97 earlier.
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Totally agree with @Monkeyhanger. The standard GTI is optimised for 95 RON. Put anything else in and you might as well burn money. You will not 'feel' the benefits. It's all in the mind. FACT!
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95ron for me.
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Have you guys seen the video by fifth gear testing this out? I use tesco momentum and although doesn't feel a lot different. I know it's better fuel with less crap in it. And it's only about £1.50 a tank extra
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Chemically, it's pretty easy to make a higher RON petrol with a few simple additives to delay ignition under compression and prevent pinking, and those additives don't necessarily make the fuel any cleaner, unless the "premium" fuel specifically states it has more detergents than normal.
Fuel is so clean from the refinery these days (ultralow sulphur fuels etc due to ever tighter specifications for Sox, in the EU at least), deposit build-up is a long process. A shot of treatment like Wynns periodically should keep the injection system for the equivalent of less than a penny per litre of fuel.
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Good video about "Everything to know about Octane and premium fuel" on youtube
Will your car be able to take advantage of it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9nhXNarFdg
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95ron for me. I'm not buying the guff written about the "super unleaded" stuff especially on an unmodified car :wink:
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5th Gear - High Octane Fuels: http://youtu.be/gQghB4asSnI
check this out :)
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Different engines in different cars may be able to adjust the ECU to take advantage of higher Ron fuels but if VW say the MK7 GTi is optimised for 95 then that implies that the ECU does not adapt to higher Ron fuels.
Historic comparisons of the use of different fuels do not apply to newer engines/ECUs
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Good video about "Everything to know about Octane and premium fuel" on youtube
Will your car be able to take advantage of it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9nhXNarFdg
Brilliant video. Explains RON and octane in detail. If after watching this you still put super unleaded in your car – you have a screw loose :rolleyes:
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I just saw the vid-very interesting. It will be worth it for my GTI, because he said that if the timing is advanced on a re-map the it is worth putting in the higher octane fuel. I am waiting for the stage 2 maps to be released so it would be worth it I think. Any opinions :smiley:
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I use Tesco Momentum 99 octane on my GTI. From my personal experience it does make a difference. I have used both standard unleaded 95 octane and super unleaded 99 octane in separate Civic Type-R cars from new and found the 95 octane made the engine sound tinny and raspy after a few months from new. Where as the 99 Octane on same spec car (my next Civic Type-R) from new left my engine sounding clean and new right up to when I traded it in 4 years later. The increase in economy is probably so marginal it is hardly noticeable, but the increase in performance is a bit more noticeable. The car on Super Unleaded did feel a bit more perky with better acceleration like it was sparking quicker. Cannot vouch for the GTI yet, but what I can say is the Type-R's also stated to fill up with standard unleaded 95 octane. But why eat cod if you can afford Salmon. :laugh:
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Fifth gear have also done a comparison test of 5 fuels with a mk6 golf gti and the video showed the higher octane gave higher bhp. Only 6bhp but still worth it with a remap and a cold air intake ill take the extra 6bhp :)
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Or you could say "why feed the cat salmon when it prefers tuna". The Civic may well have been optimised for RON98 but fully capable of running 95 "as a minimum". Plenty of VWs around the era of the MK5 Golf were able to utilise 97/98/99 and run on 95 as a minimum. 97/98/99 in a GTI is a waste - you're igniting it earlier than intended if the timing is optimised for 95, although it'll do no harm.
Putting 95 in a car optimised for 98 is worse, potentially causing pinking (worst case cracking piston crowns - as commonly seen on the 1.4TSI twin charge engine when it was optimised for higher RON) if the car doesn't properly adapt the timing to suit 95 when it's being used.
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I've been driving Golfs and Sciroccos for the last 10 years and the manuals used to always say 98 Ron will help with economy and performance. The GTI manual says exactly the opposite. I trust VW to make the call 95 all the way.
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Sadly my Golf R takes 98RON only.
However, my mk 6 Golf GTI throttle response definitely better with Tesco superunleaded. The car sounds different as well. Bp normal unleaded is quite decent but expensive.
I think it makes a bigger difference with the batch of petrol and how long the petrol been stored underground. That's why the car always feel better with a new full tank. Nowadays, I ask my friends who work at the station to text me when the petrol tanker had delivered them a new batch of superunleaded!
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Momentum 99 or v.power...evrery time.
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I would be very surprised if the car is "optimised" for 95 Octane - I think VW only state that's the minimum!
With a modern, learning ECU, a turbo and direct injection (as well as indirect) - I'm surprised that anyone would say it's a fact that it makes no difference when nobody has tested it. I know that some people can't pick up on the subtle changes, but as most ECU's retard the ignition on poor quality fuel (to avoid pinking), then logic says that it can advance it too (as well as altering the boost levels)?
Most of my higher performance cars have demanded 98 Octane as a minimum and I remember my tweaked STi running like a bag of nails on 95 Octane, the one time I couldn't get any of "the good stuff" ....
My GTi has been run on high octane juice from day 1 - mostly on V-Power; but the couple of times I've put a whole tank of Tesco Momentum 99 in it - the note deepens and it feels perkier at low rpm and smoother at high rpm. All subjective but it appears I'm not the only one to have experienced this .....
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I use both, depends how much cash I have at the time lol
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I use 95, I put 99 in every now and again as a treat and I can't feel any difference. I can only think it's psychosomatic.
Petrol's expensive enough these days as it is :sad: it was 38p when I started driving!
Same here. I've tried BP normal, BP Ultimate, Shell normal and Shell V-Power Nitro Plus. Honestly I can't notice a difference in performance or economy so I just use normal unleaded now.
Just the one tank won't make any difference. After about 4 full tanks in a row, you should notice a difference in performance & economy. If you do this & go back to 95, I expect you would notice the difference, then........... I know I did. ;)
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I have run my mk7 on vpower/momentum since the day I collected it. I don't do many miles so happy to pay the extra £1 or so per tank doesn't bother me. Having seen a couple of tests including the fifth gear one I think its worth the small amount more.
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(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23724295/Golf%20Forum/MK7%20Golf%20GTI/Fuel.jpg)
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Different engines in different cars may be able to adjust the ECU to take advantage of higher Ron fuels but if VW say the MK7 GTi is optimised for 95 then that implies that the ECU does not adapt to higher Ron fuels.
Historically, at least this is not the case. ECU would adjust to protect the engine from lower grade fuels than it was optimised for, there was more than one way this was achieved but typically one or more knock sensors were fitted and if/when knock (detonation) was detected the timing was progressively retarded until it stopped. After a time the ignition was advanced either to the "optimum" or until knock was detected again.
So, in both my Integra Type-Rs, my S2000, my 911 etc. which were optimised for 98 it made an appreciable difference to performance and economy if you have to fill up with a lower grade, you lose, I would estimate close to 10% as the timing adjustments are fairly crude and non-optimal. Modern ECUs may well be better at this but I am not aware that they adjust upwards for better fuel...
So, there really is not benefit to running V-Power in a car optimised for normal from a power perspective, long or short term. The additional cost 5p per litre (give or take)... if you do say 20K miles per year, you'll use over 2000 litres to do that and the additional cost will be over £100 for no benefit, except a mis-placed peace of mind... I suppose it is not too bad but I'd rather have the money...
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I've only ever put standard Shell in mine. And that is all it will ever have, no problems so far :smiley:
J
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After filling up with 102 octane several times in Germany there is no doubt in my mind it makes a difference.
The car was full, heavy, with high tyre pressure but the difference was quite noticeable.
The VW manual mentions it will give no benefit. I think VW have got this wrong.
From experience...
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If I had an R it would get RON97-99, if I had a GTI then I would use RON95 - these are VWs recommendations. If The GTI got a 10PS boost with 98 then they'd be encouraging you to use it (with the back-up of using RON95 at a minimum).
I suspect you'd notice the loss of performance of an R using 95 a hell of a lot more than you'd (objectively) notice the gains (whether it be mpg or power gains) in using 98 in a GTI.
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After filling up with 102 octane several times in Germany there is no doubt in my mind it makes a difference.
The car was full, heavy, with high tyre pressure but the difference was quite noticeable.
The VW manual mentions it will give no benefit. I think VW have got this wrong.
From experience...
If you're happy putting the expensive stuff in then that's up to you but as has been said it doesn't make any difference what so ever other than the placebo effect.
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95 for me too, I did use Tesco 99 in my old mk6 after it developed a very intermittent problem where it would hesitate or jolt at about 4000 revs on hard acceleration but it didn't seem to make any difference and the fault vanished after time,unless you use your car on a track or really thrash it I would stick to 95 as any minor gains would be hardly noticeable . :smiley: