hi guys,i have a 2001 WRX and run it on normal unleaded but have been told i should run it on super unleaded?
when the car was made super unleaded wasnt around then so whats the difference and will it affect the car?

 

check the sticker on the inside off petrol cap it says super unleaded

 

ive never put anything but Vpower(optimax in some places) in mine. Shell all the way

 

Super unleaded will help against Detonation and i also find i get better mpg out of 99unleaded (Vpower or Tesco99)

 

Prodrive recommend using super unleaded with their PPP. I got better mpg with super unleaded so that's a huge bonus.

 

I've seen (listened to) quite a few mechanically standard newage cars that are quite sparkly with detonation when running the standard ecu map with 95RON fuels. - The ecu quite often reduces the IAM value and actively pulls timing from areas of the map, based on what it 'hears' from the knock sensor, which is evident in the Fine Learning Knock Correction table within the ecu.

If you're using 95RON fuel, you become more reliant on the knock sensor feedback (due to 95RON's reduced resistance to det over a higher RON rated fuel) and the ecu's knock strategy / ability to pull timing whenever it hears knock, which unfortunately is not always the case. On several occasions i've heard the motor clicking away with very audible det, and watched the ecu do nothing to combat it at all and it doesn't take much det to batter a piston/ringland/bigend shell to the point of failiure

In short, for safety stick to at least a Super Unleaded on a standard car, or have it remapped for 95RON if this is what you intend to run all the time. - Obviously if your car has been mapped, stick to whatever fuel it has been mapped on.

 

Try a tank or 3 of V Power /Tesco Momentum. See if you notice the difference in the way the car feels. The car will run smoother and be more responsive. I had to put 95RON in my standard UK Turbo 2000 years ago. It felt like driving with the aircon on at low revs. A tank or so of Tesco 99 later, it was back to normal. Your fuel consumption will improve on a higher octane fuel, another 40 miles per tank will offset the additional cost.

 

Not sure where you got that idea. Your car was made in 2000/2001. Super Unleaded pump fuel has been available since the early nineties, if not late eighties.

 

March 1989 super unleaded was sold in UK

 

+1 for the above my 99 uk turbo & 2000 uk turbo , both say use super-unleaded on the petrol flap, as does the drivers manual .

 

MY 2006 WRX petrol flap says "use only 95RON", needless to say I ignore it! Vpower for me every time, though it's been mapped to that. The one time I had to put normal **** in I had the same experience as s70rjw, dreadful times

 

+2

 

His is a WRX though, which is an import.... Thought Japan didnt move onto 98ron (removing the 95 stuff all together) till 1995ish....

Anyway, your car is a 2001, so Japan deffo didnt have 95 ron then, so yes you should be running your car on Super Unleaded

 

-1 my manual says 95 is ok.

 

What makes you so sure of that? You may be correct but it's statistically far more likely that Jase's "2001 WRX" is a UK spec bugeye than an import. If so the rest of your post is non-applicable.

Whatever your manual says, you should value the practical experience of people like Fiestaboy far more.

 

Good point splitpin as all 2001 cars onwards were called wrx whether import or uk

 

well mine is a uk wrx and its says super unleaded on the flap

 

my WRX has nothing but Jap on the cap......even though its not a Jap import?


if i remember right, the reason i stuck Vpower in mine to start with was a program showing tests on the different fuels. MPG, bhp, torque.... and one of them was an impreza. ran roughly same bhp on BP and SHELL but more torque and better MPG on the shell.
might have been top gear or Fifth gear

 

dont the Manual's say 95ron as a minimum? not a recommendation?

 

For the bit extra it costs per tankfull its just not worth risking detonation.

 

v power or tescos super.............not bp ultimate last i looked its only 97 octane.