[amberzombie]

hey guys...

was just having a chat with a good mate of mine who works in the petroleum industry. he knows about fuel grades and which companies sell what.

According to him, all E10 and Unleaded 91RON fuels are the same across all brands (Shell, BP, etc). In fact, the whole of Western Sydney uses Shell's E10 and 91RON and the whole of Eastern Sydney uses Caltex's.

as for 95 and 98 RON, they are mostly imported so it's different as you go between brands.

in terms of this E10 business, he says that the tests his company has done shows that it actually burns less energy so you end up using more petrol to get the same power as 91RON. so in his opinion, stay away from E10.

in terms of premium unleaded, BP Ultimate 98RON is the best as it has extra detergents that other brands don't have. this cleans your injectors as you go along, thus prolonging the life of your engine.

Feel free to discuss/agree/disagree. Obviously some people might have heard different things and/or experienced different things.

For me personally, i have been using E10 in my Mazda2 and BP Ultimate 98RON in my 3-series. After hearing this from my mate i think i'm gonna move up to either 91 or 95RON for my Mazda2.

[WOPALX]

Ethanol blended fuels, much like LPG do require more to yield the same power. But as they are generally cheaper you come out even if not in-front.

Not 100% sure but with the direct injection of the N54 a lot of the 'cleaning' additives never come in contact with areas such as valves etc that traditionally benefited from these. There have been some reports OS of excessive carbon build up and the need for cleaning manually, whatever that entails.

Originally Posted by amberzombie

hey guys...

was just having a chat with a good mate of mine who works in the petroleum industry. he knows about fuel grades and which companies sell what.

According to him, all E10 and Unleaded 91RON fuels are the same across all brands (Shell, BP, etc). In fact, the whole of Western Sydney uses Shell's E10 and 91RON and the whole of Eastern Sydney uses Caltex's.

as for 95 and 98 RON, they are mostly imported so it's different as you go between brands.

in terms of this E10 business, he says that the tests his company has done shows that it actually burns less energy so you end up using more petrol to get the same power as 91RON. so in his opinion, stay away from E10.

in terms of premium unleaded, BP Ultimate 98RON is the best as it has extra detergents that other brands don't have. this cleans your injectors as you go along, thus prolonging the life of your engine.

Feel free to discuss/agree/disagree. Obviously some people might have heard different things and/or experienced different things.

For me personally, i have been using E10 in my Mazda2 and BP Ultimate 98RON in my 3-series. After hearing this from my mate i think i'm gonna move up to either 91 or 95RON for my Mazda2.

[bcoz]

Originally Posted by amberzombie

in terms of this E10 business, he says that the tests his company has done shows that it actually burns less energy so you end up using more petrol to get the same power as 91RON. so in his opinion, stay away from E10.

The E10 limitations are certainly confirmed by other tests, including this one from Drive in December 2008...

http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/Ar...7&vf=1&IsPgd=0

Drive put the 3 most popular fuels (E10, unleaded, premium unleaded) to the test using identical Camrys. A summary of their findings:

A fuel-efficiency showdown between the three most-popular types of petrol on the market concludes the ethanol blend will cost you more in the long run and may not even help the environment.

Ethanol-blend fuels are about three cents a litre cheaper than regular unleaded at the pump but Drive found bills are higher overall because it burns less efficiently.

[deep green]

I can also confirm the marketing mith surrounding the use of E10 fuels. I used to use it in my daily drive that faithfully gets me to and from work. ('95 Camry wagon) I stopped using it a while ago due to the very apparent need to fill up much more often. Looked like false economy to me.
Most interested in any substantiated feedback on the alleged quaility difference in premium grade fuels between different suppliers. I'm currently under the impression that in this country at least, they're much of a muchness?

[VGR00]

I agree on the comments made on ethanol based fuel. I think if the oil companies + government are serious about getting people to use ethanol based fuels then they need to price it in a way that it clearly comes out as the best value for money.

All the petrol companies have reciprical deals with oneanother. Over the last Christmas break, the Caltex refinery in Brisbane had a fire which caused 98RON to become unavailable for a couple of weeks. Almost all BP service stations ran out of BP Ultimate as Caltex is their supplier (at least in Brisbane). When you think about it, it doesn't make sense for each petrol company to have their own refinary in each city or to transport fuel between states when they can have receprical deals with each other.