182 Petrol placaebo effect?

[dk]

Having owned a 182 for over 18 months now and only running it on Optifeece and BP Ultimatprice and NEVER having put the cheap stuff in I was caught short the other day and the BP garage had no liquid gold so I had to use 95ron.

Now I have always said I would never put it in as its designed to run on 98 etc but this was an emergency.

I just put half a tank in so i could fill up when I got back with Optifleece.

Anyway, was driving round yesterday and had forgotten about the cheap fill and thought my car was rather spritely for a change, it really did feel different and faster than normal. I then though back to what I had filled it up with last and realised that it was the 95???????

I am really confused now as my car seems to be quicker, more responsive and better on the 95ron fuel. Is this just a freak occurence or is the 98ron a placaebo really???????

 

[badinvincible]

You should know better than to start this shizzle...

 

[jon_r]

Right who's ready for 5 pages of people trying to justify why they pay £1 a litre for Optifleece when they don't really need it.........












Like me.

 

[Turkish]

Ban him.

 

[Rcbuk]

Probably because you had less petrol in the car, saving some weight.

 

[dk]

LOL, I have always been an advocate for the Opti etc but having never tried the 95 ron it was all based on opinion and not fact, now i have tried it I am confused?

 

[badinvincible]

Probably because you had less petrol in the car, saving some weight.

OK.

 

[jon_r]

Its like the Tesco Rocket fuel, all fine and dandy for a month then the car refuses to start first time every morning. I swap back to my mix of Optimax/BP/normal 95 and its been fine ever since.

 

[JoelDee]

Ban him.

haha

 

[seb]

i have never found optimax to be any better really, i use a mixture of sainsburys normal and sainsburys premium.

 

[dk]

LOL, exactly, trust me, the petrol is the least of my worries for weight in the car!!!!

With half a tank in its not like i went from a full tank to an empty one, its not a F1 car

 

[Phill1978]

Its like the Tesco Rocket fuel, all fine and dandy for a month then the car refuses to start first time every morning. I swap back to my mix of Optimax/BP/normal 95 and its been fine ever since.

tesco are using 10% veg oil in their products, i think people need to be aware of this.

 

[Ian_182]

I used to use 95 a couple of times in my old 172 and did notice the difference.Since ive had the 182 ive used opti all the time and am happy with it.It also says 98ron on the inside of my filler cap so i stick to it

ian

 

[dk]

I used to use 95 a couple of times in my old 172 and did notice the difference.Since ive had the 182 ive used opti all the time and am happy with it.It also says 98ron on the inside of my filler cap so i stick to it

ian

I have always done the same until now, do you always stick to speed limits and NEVER go over them though? I guess its one of those you will never know until you do it and now I have I seem to prefer the 95ron after 1/2 tank, will need to do some more research as I can't base it on 1/2 tank but it had the opposite effect to what I thought it would?

 

[len_beach]

Common sense would say that a higher RON fuel should burn quicker and more efficiently than a lower RON fuel. However there are alot of tales of higher RON fuels degrading so that they may leave a refinery as a 98 but by the time they have been sat for a few weeks and reach your fuel rail they are around a 95/96. I suppose the same could be said for 95 RON fuel though.
I always stick to Sainsburys 97 RON as it is only 2p more a litre and can't really do any harm.
Are both Optimax and Ultima 98 RON?

 

[dk]

no bp ultimate is 97 ron

 

[hyby]

It takes 3-4 fill ups before the ECU really adapts itself to RON level anyway

 

[len_beach]

Would it help if you disconnected the battery overnight after a change in fuel type prompting the ECU into learn mode?
Or does the Clio not have this facility?

 

[Bryan]

here we go again, but i always use bp standard stuff, i have a garage forecourt behind me back garden, never notice any difference between that and any other RON rating fuels

 

[kieron]

I have owned various sports cars, 205 1.9 gti, lotus elise. lotus exige, bmw z3m coupe, clio 182, and now the v6 255, and i have never noticed any difference between 95ron and optimax. i used to use optimax all the time and would drive a few extra miles to use a shell garage, but after hearing various stories i decided to try 95ron, and it has never caused me any trouble in any of my cars and optimax has never given me any performance gains what so ever. so now i just use unleaded from any garage.

going back a few years was at a shell garage putting in optimax when in drives a ferrari f50 amazing looking car, anyway he stops gets out and loads up with 95ron! so if its good enough for a £300,000 supercar im sure its fine for the clio.

 

[JayGTT]

There is a difference between the 2, it isnt really meant to give you a performance increase but it DOES help stop PINKING, i cant run my GTT on 95RON it just pinks its head off which would lead to a big bang. On 98 RON fuel i can run 20+ PSI with no pinking.

im sure 95 RON is fine for a standard clio but once you start messing around with things, it might not be.

 

[SteveC047]

I had the same problem a few weeks back, had no fuel and filled up with 95 as they had sold out of 97/8.

Bearing in mind my car has only done 2000 miles i was a little bit worried about this, but filled it up to half a tank and drove home.

The one big difference i noticed was the engine noise, it didnt sound as refined as it did using 97/8. TBH I have yet to fill it up with Optimax, and have run it consistantly on 97 since the day i bought it, all apart from that 1/2 tank.

I dont know what to think, but all i know is it is costing me a fortune in fuel, and if it is ok to run std 95 ron SOD IT I WILL..

 

[simonr]

Its like the Tesco Rocket fuel, all fine and dandy for a month then the car refuses to start first time every morning. I swap back to my mix of Optimax/BP/normal 95 and its been fine ever since.

Weird, mine has been doing this since using Tesco 99. The scoob is fine thou so I thought that it was down to the weather?

 

[jon_r]

I stopped using the rocket fuel in August, when the weather was fine.

 

[rory182]

It takes 3-4 fill ups before the ECU really adapts itself to RON level anyway

yup i'd agree with that, I always use 95 ron myself

 

[rory182]

The one big difference i noticed was the engine noise, it didnt sound as refined as it did using 97/8.

noise might change back to what you're used to after a few tanks full of 95 and the ecu adjusts the timing to suit...

 

[edgerfs]

I personally think SUL is a good half way point between the two. Its only 2p more a litre then regular unleaded compared to optimax which is 6-7p a litre more - that puts optimax over £1 a litre in most places!!

In other words fillling up with sainsburys super unleaded is gonna cost u 80p a tank more then regular where as filling up with opti is gonna cost u £2.40 a tank more.

Super is the way forward.

 

[blink172]

Optimax seems to have a better tickover and isnt as lumpy when cold. But it runs fine on all of it, think that sticker is stuck on the filler cap by shell workers at the docks.

 

[dk]

The one big difference i noticed was the engine noise, it didnt sound as refined as it did using 97/8.

noise might change back to what you're used to after a few tanks full of 95 and the ecu adjusts the timing to suit...

i also noticed this, made mine sound more meaty!

 

[SteveC047]

The one big difference i noticed was the engine noise, it didnt sound as refined as it did using 97/8.

noise might change back to what you're used to after a few tanks full of 95 and the ecu adjusts the timing to suit...

Ah right well i might try that and see if it makes any difference.

 

[benji&eka]

all i can say is the manufacturer suggests 98ron
and they built the damn thing!

 

[Munson]

Everyones an expert

The car is ideally meant to run on 98RON. I'm quite sure there's a reason that sticker is there eh? Obviously the engine is not going to blow up if you use 95RON though, so people will just use what they're happy to use

 

[Leeshez]

I use tescos 95 ron and on the odd occasion i use super uleaded or optimax. One thing i have noticed when the tank gets low or the orange fill up light comes on it seem to run like a bag of spanners and goes smooth when i top it up.

 

[fUbAr]

my car idles badly using 95ron.

it could be that it hadnt had time to adjust, or it could be that its inferior petrol.

However, for £2 more a tank... i will put in what i know is good for it

 

[rory182]

they idle badly as it is, its the vvt keeping emissions down.

each to their own, its default settings (timing) are for 98ron but it can easily cope with 95.

 

[Craig Ed]

Optimax takes my vote, the exhaust sounds louder for a start

 

[y0z2a]

LOL, exactly, trust me, the petrol is the least of my worries for weight in the car!!!!

With half a tank in its not like i went from a full tank to an empty one, its not a F1 car

falls of chair laughing.

:-D

/y0z