Best fuel?

[Mavrick 0]

Whats the recommended fuel that should be put in my car? Its a 87 m325i.

Was just wondering as with rising fuel prices would it still be all good if I were to put 91 in?

[westy 614]

91 should be sweet

96 is a have for std cars.

[petone 0]

96 ain't a have. My car runs way worse on 91.

Mavrick- if you want run it on 91 for a while, if you notice it knocking, running way worse or anything like that then obviously just stick to 96. If you can't tell any difference then stay with the 91

Edited August 18, 2005 by petone

[westy 614]

A have as in waste of money.

Min octane 89 according to BMW for most cars.

Does it have anything inside the fuel flap to tell you?

[Mavrick 0]

Cheers, theres not alot of difference between them so I myte put in 96 when im feeling wealthy.

[m325i 705]

Cheers, theres not alot of difference between them so I myte put in 96 when im feeling wealthy.

Its sickening. I have dropped $120 since saturday, and i haven't left Auckland.

[vonripsnorter 0]

I would not run that jungle juice called 91 in anything

96 or even 98 is what we recommended to our customers

the 91 we have here is of a lower quaility than the 91 in Europe so not all 91 ron fuel is equal !!!

why is this...........well there is what is knowen at RON ( research octane rating ) & the unpublicized MON ( motor octane rating)

the oil companys will always refer to RON (you will see this on the pumps) but the important one is the MON , and this will always be lower & the MON of the NZ fuel is lower again than the MON of the european stuff even though the RON is the same!!

phew!! got that??

this can cause damage to an engine & you dont always hear it as pinking as someone mentioned!!, sometimes your engine can "pink" & you wont hear it at all & this is called..you gessed it."silent pinking"

you will also see that in the handbooks that come with the car, they talk of the "MIN" octane rating, not the recommended ( the mores the better )

other probs you can have with jungle juice is poor fuel economy & sluggish running

Yeap its cheaper to buy, but you use more of it !!, the oil companys love people to use it as its cheaper to make & tend to give worse economy so your back for more, more often!!!

[M325is 0]

$1.30 p/L at 30L p/wk =$39 which is $2028 p/yr,

$1.50 p/L at 30L p/wk =$45 which is $2340 p/yr.

Oh my god! If you cant afford and extra $312 (average) a year you shouldnt own a bmw.

[Mavrick 0]

Thanks for that vonripsnorter a bit of usefull infomation. When you put it like that I might just start using 96 all the time.

[vonripsnorter 0]

$1.30 p/L at 30L p/wk =$39 which is $2028 p/yr,

$1.50 p/L at 30L p/wk =$45 which is $2340 p/yr.

Oh my god! If you cant afford and extra $312 (average) a year you shouldnt own a bmw.

& dont forget to factor in the fact that you will go further on the higher octane fuel , with all things being equal ( ie driving style )

[bravo 34]

Havn't done the calcs on the 320, but we did on the 323. On 96 vs 98 - the extra kms driven almost exactly matched the extra money paid.

98 was just as cheap as 96 in other words because same route, same time of day, same traffic, same driving style = less fuel consumed using 98 and after working it out, there was less than a percent difference on the cost per km (sorry can't remember the exact figures)

It was 98% open road driving.

Not 100% scientific, but I'm convinced.

[Mavrick 0]

Yeah I never knew you would get more k's if you used a higher octane fuel. But as they say you learn something every day.

[Carl 3]

I've been experimenting with the different octanes as I have several chips to play with.

What I notice is that the 91 doesn't burn aswell as the 96 and on cold mornings it complains bitterly, the 96 is by far the superior fuel to use and I wouldn't go back to 91 after playing with it.

[Guest Andrew]

I would not run that jungle juice called 91 in anything

96 or even 98 is what we recommended to our customers

the 91 we have here is of a lower quaility than the 91 in Europe so not all 91 ron fuel is equal !!!

why is this...........well there is what is knowen at RON ( research octane rating ) & the unpublicized MON ( motor octane rating)

the oil companys will always refer to RON (you will see this on the pumps) but the important one is the MON , and this will always be lower & the MON of the NZ fuel is lower again than the MON of the european stuff even though the RON is the same!!

phew!! got that??

this can cause damage to an engine & you dont always hear it as pinking as someone mentioned!!, sometimes your engine can "pink" & you wont hear it at all & this is called..you gessed it."silent pinking"

you will also see that in the handbooks that come with the car, they talk of the "MIN" octane rating, not the recommended ( the mores the better )

other probs you can have with jungle juice is poor fuel economy & sluggish running

Yeap its cheaper to buy, but you use more of it !!, the oil companys love people to use it as its cheaper to make & tend to give worse economy so your back for more, more often!!!

You have missed the point slightly -

Europe use the AKI index for petrol. Which does lead into MON sorta.

Anyway AKI is anti-knock index.. so roughly 91 AKI = 95 RON on our pumps.

[bumpstop325 0]

cain's 540 is something like 7kw at the wheels higher on 98 than 96 i think.

he has both dyno runs to prove it.

we need shell optimax over here. it pwns noobs

[Jazzbass 1]

I've tried both and can't tell any difference at all in round town driving. I mean the max speed I can do is 70kph on the way to work and most of the way its 50kph - I'm not caring about performance on going to work days. However, when I'm driving out of town, I use the highest octance I can find - currently 98.

[bravo 34]

I didn't notice any difference in the way the car performed except it helped my hesitation problem and cured the hard starting problem (although in conjunction with an injector flush).

So I wouldn't vouch on extra power - but as far as economy goes - open road driving - you may as well use the better fuel if you want. I won't be as my understanding is that chopping and changing fuel is not a good idea, but I will run a tank of 98 through every so often for a clean out considering the improvement from my first try at it.

[ScD 0]

...but what about all the 'cleaning agents' the oil companies add to their fuel

[Guest Andrew]

...but what about all the 'cleaning agents' the oil companies add to their fuel

i noticed an increase of approx. 13.4534243 lbs of VT@k

[vonripsnorter 0]

I would not run that jungle juice called 91 in anything

96 or even 98 is what we recommended to our customers

the 91 we have here is of a lower quaility than the 91 in Europe so not all 91 ron fuel is equal !!!

why is this...........well there is what is knowen at RON ( research octane rating ) & the unpublicized MON ( motor octane rating)

the oil companys will always refer to RON (you will see this on the pumps) but the important one is the MON , and this will always be lower & the MON of the NZ fuel is lower again than the MON of the european stuff even though the RON is the same!!

phew!! got that??

this can cause damage to an engine & you dont always hear it as pinking as someone mentioned!!, sometimes your engine can "pink" & you wont hear it at all & this is called..you gessed it."silent pinking"

you will also see that in the handbooks that come with the car, they talk of the "MIN" octane rating, not the recommended  ( the mores the better )

other probs you can have with jungle juice is poor fuel economy & sluggish running

Yeap its cheaper to buy, but you use more of it !!, the oil companys love people to use it as its cheaper to make & tend to give worse economy so your back for more, more often!!!

You have missed the point slightly -

Europe use the AKI index for petrol. Which does lead into MON sorta.

Anyway AKI is anti-knock index.. so roughly 91 AKI = 95 RON on our pumps.

the europeans still talk of RON as you will see in all the vehicle lit, the problem is our fuel quality here in NZ

we may have the same RON , so when a German car company says that the min octain rating is say 91 , they are talking about a better quality fuel which they have

Our 91 is not the same & has a lower MON (as mentioned) hence that is why a european car tuned to run on 91 ( in europe) can have bad pinking probs here in NZ

I know for a fact that our fuel has been tested by several european car companys in the past as they were experiencing problems here in NZ that they didnt get in Europe

& it was because of the MON

I remember Porsche listing "all" the contrys in the world with "poor quality" fuel & listed all 2 of them, yeap only 2 & good old NZ was one of them ( though I'm sure they must have excluded parts of easten Eurrope )

so i dont think I missed the point really as even though your hand book may say "min octane 91" that will not apply to our 91 which is jungle juice

I also remember VW a few years back now changed all the hand books to read min 96 for NZ only where 91 was fine & dandy for the rest of the world ( oh except for that 'other place" :thumb: you mentioned AKI, which is correct then 91 in europe has a higher AKI than the 91 here!!, hence , all of the above

Edited August 18, 2005 by vonripsnorter

[Jazzbass 1]

In my filler cover it says ROZ/RON 91 - 98.

I now know what RON stands for - thanks, mate. but:

What the smeg is ROZ.

[cainchapman 0]

96 Pump gas.

[cainchapman 0]

98 BP Ultimate.

You decide.

[Carl 3]

Cain, rolling road dynos aren't very precise though are they, and you have to remember that different batches of fuel can vary alot.

Are those dynos adjusted, SAE?

Edited August 18, 2005 by ///Carl

[Palazzo 438]

Same temperature and humidity as well?