What grade fuel do you actually use? - Page 4 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Supposed to be a poll but that failed….

Porsche states 97 Ron -(super plus) for all its cars. This would be E5 new fuel designation. Do you actually follow this religiously, or do you use the cheaper stuff…? Anyone think there is any difference in performance, or any real other advantages? The .gov website says all Porsche except Carrera GT V10 are ‘cleared’ to use E10 but this isn’t what the Porsche instructions say….. Anyone ever had any kind of problems using the regular super 95 Ron or had any problems with Porsche over this?

I only use E5 Super Unleaded, almost exclusively V-Power.

Esso Supreme+ 99 as it is the one available closest to me. Also worth noting from Esso: Although our pumps have E5 labels on them, our Synergy Supreme+ 99 is actually ethanol free (except, due to technical supply reasons, in Devon, Cornwall, North Wales, North England and Scotland). Legislation requires us to place these E5 labels on pumps that dispense unleaded petrol with ‘up to 5% ethanol’, including those that contain no ethanol, which is why we display them on our Synergy Supreme+ 99 pumps. I saw a test conducted and uploaded on to YouTube and I believe BP Ultimate was also ethanol free. Worth a search if you're really interested..

Twinfan said: I only use E5 Super Unleaded, almost exclusively V-Power. +1

Only ever V Power.

Only ever Greenergy 99 RON in cars that have a brain. It's cheap and available everywhere. Probably.

Tesco 99

SUL from anywhere but preferably from one of the major brands.

rbh said: Twinfan said: I only use E5 Super Unleaded, almost exclusively V-Power. +1 Ditto

Ditto for both of mine.

drgav2005 said: Tesco 99 +1

Mainly Esso Supreme+ and its also 6ppl cheaper with the PCGB discount card. If I can't get to an Esso, Tesco Momentum.

I mainly stick to the regular RON95 E10 stuff. It won't do any harm, but it will change the timing to reduce engine power slightly. When I'm abroad and have access to cheaper fuel, I do use it. I'm sure I can feel the difference in power - maybe a 5% boost? But it might be a placebo effect. In the UK it's hard to use anywhere near all the car's performance and I don't drive on track so I don't care if I lose a few horses here or there.

My local Gulf station does super for a 5p premium over unleaded so about 10p less than diesel. At that price, its a no brainer.

Since a litre of 97 contains more energy than a litre of basic petrol there's very little, if any, cost saving in buying the cheaper fuel. Under identical driving you'll get better MPG with 97. And when you want to press on you'll have more power available. This applies to any modern car with the ability to adapt timing etc to fuel quality.

Only ever V Power.

Religiously use Esso Supreme 99. Get 5p a litre off through PCGB too. If I have to will use Vpower 99/Tesco99

E5 only ,have done this for all the Porsche's I have owned and in any case dont like the idea of E10 Edited by Charlie_1 on Thursday 24th November 17:27

In the UK, these days Esso Supreme 99 (thanks PCGB discount). Previously 98 Shell V-Power. In some EU countries they have higher octane ratings, so in that case those (Eg: Aral 102).

BubblesNW said: drgav2005 said: Tesco 99 +1 And octane booster… , lol

Exclusively V power. I trust Porsche more than the government As above, it will run on <97 but meh, why would you? Even my middle/old Escort's always get/have always got V power.

V-Power or Tesco Momentum. Wouldn't even put E10 in my lawnmower, never mind one of my cars! Edited by S600BSB on Thursday 24th November 20:37

Only V power or Esso supreme for me.both available very locally to me.

Desert Dragon said: Religiously use Esso Supreme 99. Get 5p a litre off through PCGB too. If I have to will use Vpower 99/Tesco99 Same here. Only petrol in UK with 0% ethanol.

Taffy66 said: Same here. Only petrol in UK with 0% ethanol. I didn’t know that. I’ll take putting this into my 2 stroke and garden machines from now on then I always put aspen in over winter buts it not cheap

Best thing about VPower and Shell for me is the app. Don’t even need to go in the shop to pay. £100 limit so don’t expect to fill up a petrol landy. Points mean prizes too. It’s funny that after spending hundreds on fuel I get excited about a £2 off voucher but certainly easier than those Texaco stickers my Dad used to collect.

Panamax said: Since a litre of 97 contains more energy than a litre of basic petrol there's very little, if any, cost saving in buying the cheaper fuel. Are you sure that is correct? My understanding was that higher octane fuel was more able to withstand compression before igniting, thus allowing for a more efficient ignition timing. Ethanol actually has a higher octane rating than petrol but (as far as I know) provides less energy. As I understand it, the performance benefit from higher octane fuels (in cars which can benefit from them) comes from the timing. Not the energy density of the fuel per se. Weirdly my six year old daughter was asking me this exact question on the way to school this morning. She wanted to know why I needed race fuel for one of my cars.

We've been using Costco since they opened a petrol station near us earlier this year and their premium 97RON is consistently around 10p a litre cheaper than other local stations.

Exclusively V power for mine as well. I don't know why anyone would use 95 octane E10 fuel especially in an older Boxster or Cayman, and especially if you don't use it much/at all in the winter months.

Interestingly I asked an OPC about this a while ago and they said they use E10 and it won't do any harm. I only use the posh Shell, Esso (via PGGB discount card), Tesco or Costco fuels in my 981. I bought an older Mini Cooper about a year ago from a chap who happened to be a petrol tanker delivery driver - he said the new E10 grade was utter rubbish and to use E5 for every fourth fill to clean up the oily bits. However we now fill it with E5 each time.

Shell V-Power but had to put a tank of Tesco 99 in the other day as they were resurfacing my local Shell station forecourt.

Here in Switzerland, we just have unleaded/super 95 or super plus 98. I think this is max. E5. No E10 around here. I always fill up with 98, with the occasional full tank (circa every 4th tank) of Shell V-Power 100. Outside Switzerland, I tend to take the best stuff I can get. In Italy I have been forced to tank 95 petrol before. I only took as much as I needed and didn't thrash the car.

Mad Scientist said: Best thing about VPower and Shell for me is the app. Don’t even need to go in the shop to pay. £100 limit so don’t expect to fill up a petrol landy. Points mean prizes too. It’s funny that after spending hundreds on fuel I get excited about a £2 off voucher but certainly easier than those Texaco stickers my Dad used to collect. lol makes me old but i remember collecting the shell vouchers when you had 5 you get a tumbler sized glass, used to have quite a collection

Either but E5 if I am going to use the car properly. E10 won’t harm anything but there is a risk of pre detonation at full load/high revs. E5 prevents this.

bosshog said: Taffy66 said: Same here. Only petrol in UK with 0% ethanol. I didn’t know that. I’ll take putting this into my 2 stroke and garden machines from now on then I always put aspen in over winter buts it not cheap Yeah I always fill up a little can for the mower/strimmer/leaf blower with Esso 99 too, the car runs fine on it and my garden stuff starts first time after winter, I assume as the fuel doesn’t draw any water into it.

My manual says 98 RON or better. Nobody actually sells 98 in the UK, so it’s 99 for me. Prefer Tesco to Shell just because it’s cheaper. Anyone sticking 95 in to a car where the manufacturer specifically recommends 98 or better strikes me as very odd. You’ve bought what is presumably quite an expensive car, don’t cheap out less than a tenner per tank of fuel.

bosshog said: Taffy66 said: Same here. Only petrol in UK with 0% ethanol. I didn’t know that. I’ll take putting this into my 2 stroke and garden machines from now on then I always put aspen in over winter buts it not cheap Depends where you are in the country. Esso is only 0% ethanol in particular areas. “Although our pumps have E5 labels on them, our Synergy Supreme+ 99 is actually ethanol free (except, due to technical supply reasons, in Devon, Cornwall, North Wales, North England and Scotland). Legislation requires us to place these E5 labels on pumps that dispense unleaded petrol with ‘up to 5% ethanol’, including those that contain no ethanol, which is why we display them on our Synergy Supreme+ 99 pumps.” https://www.esso.co.uk/en-gb/fuels/petrol So huge areas of the country, it’ll be E5. I’m assuming by north England they mean anywhere to the north of Birmingham that can’t be effectively served by Birmingham Esso terminal.

Jawls said: My manual says 98 RON or better. Nobody actually sells 98 in the UK, so it’s 99 for me. Prefer Tesco to Shell just because it’s cheaper. Anyone sticking 95 in to a car where the manufacturer specifically recommends 98 or better strikes me as very odd. You’ve bought what is presumably quite an expensive car, don’t cheap out less than a tenner per tank of fuel. The car is not going to blow up if you use 95 RON fuel. They sell Porsches in India, Bolivia etc etc where pump fuel is significantly worse quality than what we have here in the UK. The ECU will adjust the timing to suit lower quality fuel and so the only downside to using 95 RON will be marginally less performance. This is why they recommend (but don't mandate) 98 RON. Remember that this is a mass market product and not some highly strung race car.

I always use 99Ron in mine - I have choice of Esso, Tesco Momentum and Shell. The Shell forecourt is ludicrously expensive and poorly designed so I stick to Esso as its closest and cheapest. I didn’t realise you could get discount with PCGB membership. I’m not sure I do enough miles to make joining worthwhile.

Very glad to hear people are using higher grade of fuel and especially V-Power but it's a lot more than just an increase in Octane level and decrease in Ethanol. V-Power (and equivalents) will contain higher levels of detergent addtives that will cleanup and keep clean your intake system and injectors, which in turn will provide better fuel consumption and possibly greater power.

Grayedout said: Very glad to hear people are using higher grade of fuel and especially V-Power but it's a lot more than just an increase in Octane level and decrease in Ethanol. V-Power (and equivalents) will contain higher levels of detergent addtives that will cleanup and keep clean your intake system and injectors, which in turn will provide better fuel consumption and possibly greater power. And that’s why my cars are only fed V-Power.

It’s not going to help your intake system. Supposedly will keep injectors happier though. I know a few people who’ve had problems with theirs so worthwhile.

Mad Scientist said: It’s not going to help your intake system. Supposedly will keep injectors happier though. I know a few people who’ve had problems with theirs so worthwhile. I was being generic and it would for anything still running on carbs

Grayedout said: I was being generic and it would for anything still running on carbs Valid point on carb cars. Worse problem there with ethanol content is it melts older rubber hoses and floats etc. Ethanol also absorbs water so not ideal for older cars, especially if used infrequently.

LennyM1984 said: Panamax said: Since a litre of 97 contains more energy than a litre of basic petrol there's very little, if any, cost saving in buying the cheaper fuel. Are you sure that is correct? This from Autocar,https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motoring/high-octane-equals-better-mpg "The car running 99 Octane averaged 25mpg during the tests, while the lower-octane fuelled car returned 22mpg. That's an overall improvement of 14 per cent. Thorney Motorsport concludes that it's worth paying extra for the Tesco 99 Octane fuel, because you can go further on a tank."

Panamax said: This from Autocar,https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motoring/high-octane-equals-better-mpg "The car running 99 Octane averaged 25mpg during the tests, while the lower-octane fuelled car returned 22mpg. That's an overall improvement of 14 per cent. Thorney Motorsport concludes that it's worth paying extra for the Tesco 99 Octane fuel, because you can go further on a tank." Yes but 99 octane fuel doesn't contain more energy than 95.it simply allows more efficient timing due to the fact that it can be compressed more before igniting (pre-ignition).

Thanks - you are 100% correct. The key point remains that cars which can adjust themselves to the fuel being used will get better MPG with higher octane petrol, making the "more expensive per litre" largely irrelevant. You can't save much, if any cash just by buying the cheaper petrol.

Can I be a dissenter? The above consensus might not be exactly true for my BMW V8 engine and 718 Cayman S when comparing mpg got with Costco premium 97% Octane and E10. Though I must say I used 97% fuel at least 90% of the time

I use Tesco 99. I really wish we had E85 in the UK. I could make so much more power on it, strange how the Americans have taken to it but we haven't.

If the Esso 99 was 0% ethanol in Cheshire, I’d probably go for that. As their fuel isn’t 0% in the ‘North’ I go for V-Power. I’m not sure which fuel is the best in terms of keeping the injectors free of deposits.

Grantstown said: If the Esso 99 was 0% ethanol in Cheshire, I’d probably go for that. As their fuel isn’t 0% in the ‘North’ I go for V-Power. I’m not sure which fuel is the best in terms of keeping the injectors free of deposits. It is 0% ethanol. I use it.

Rojibo said: Grantstown said: If the Esso 99 was 0% ethanol in Cheshire, I’d probably go for that. As their fuel isn’t 0% in the ‘North’ I go for V-Power. I’m not sure which fuel is the best in terms of keeping the injectors free of deposits. It is 0% ethanol. I use it. How do you know it’s 0% ethanol in Cheshire? I strongly suspect it’s not.

Jawls said: How do you know it’s 0% ethanol in Cheshire? I strongly suspect it’s not. A little bit of water and a glass vial. Quick and easy to check before you gum up nice garden machinery.

Rojibo said: Jawls said: How do you know it’s 0% ethanol in Cheshire? I strongly suspect it’s not. A little bit of water and a glass vial. Quick and easy to check before you gum up nice garden machinery. Interesting - are you sure you’re buying from a station that uses Esso 99 and not somewhere that’s selling a 97 product? Seem to remember that Esso’s switchover wasn’t uniform, though it’s a while since I was in the industry. Just it doesn’t make sense from a supply chain perspective that it’s E0 in that region, unless someone has made repeated expensive mess ups in their gasoline blending or ethanol procurement.

Jawls said: Interesting - are you sure you’re buying from a station that uses Esso 99 and not somewhere that’s selling a 97 product? Seem to remember that Esso’s switchover wasn’t uniform, though it’s a while since I was in the industry. Just it doesn’t make sense from a supply chain perspective that it’s E0 in that region, unless someone has made repeated expensive mess ups in their gasoline blending or ethanol procurement. Good point, the stuff I’ve got in the garage is definitely 0% ethanol but I can’t recall from when I last topped up. I’ll check again next time I get some fuel for the garden tools but that won’t be til spring.

Rojibo said: A little bit of water and a glass vial. Quick and easy to check. You add water to the petrol, then "Shake it up to mix the water with the fuel, set it down, and walk away for five minutes. When you return, check the level of the water. If it’s higher than your original mark, that fuel had ethanol in it — and the ethanol and water have become one solution because as you may recall, ethanol attracts moisture."

Shell Vpower or Esso Supreme 99. Glad to hear that the Esso has 0% Ethanol, which makes it better to have in the tank for the winter layup.

Rojibo said: A little bit of water and a glass vial. Quick and easy to check before you gum up nice garden machinery. This is what you do at petrol station forecourts, before filling up?

It says 98RON on the fuel cap, so I use Momentum, V-Power or Esso 99 stuff only.

James McScotty said: This is what you do at petrol station forecourts, before filling up? No, at petrol stations I just give it a quick taste.

I use Esso Supreme+, as recommended by PCGB. I only fill up with E10 fuel if I can’t find any E5 97+, and have found that it reduces my mpg.

Shell V-Power or Esso Supreme + 98 Ron and over basically.