What MY car do you have? This determines whether you need to do a reset. Running a UK car of any MY on NUL will not damage it IMO

Justin

[Edited by Jay m A - 8/6/2002 12:42:37 PM]

Can anyone tell me what is the best petrol.I`m using regular unleaded-is this ok?The can is std apart from a scooby bb and a scooby-doo air freshener!

I think with the scooby-doo air freshener you should be ok on normal unleaded...:):) JOKE.... what car have you got is it an import, uk car...??

It is always safer to put in super unleaded just as a safe guard, but if its a uk car i think it should be ok... however you may find some improvement with either super unleaded or optimax from shell garages...

Dan

Super unleaded or optimax are better fuels for you to run, it does cost more but you also gain more mpg and performance to boot ;) the car will feel better after 40-50 miles (depending on which MY you have) but overall they are safer fuels for this type of car.

Tony:D

uk model-why super unleaded when handbook states std unleaded?

Probably a 'political' thing - Euro models (identical to UK) have a sticker on the fuel cap saying 98RON only. 97 does OK, though :)

so can i just go and put super-unlaeded straight in after using std unleaded for about 3 months or does the e.c.u need to be reset?Does std unleaded do any harm to engine.?

A uk car can be run on 95 ron but 97+ ron will give you the following benefits ;)

1. better fuel consumption due to better burn of the fuel
2. better performance due to the fuel being burnt better
3. no chance of det happening! ;)

Tony:D

PS, yes if you have an MY01-02 then it should adapt very quickly to your fuel type!

The car is a MY00,so do i need a reset or will the car do it automatically

Automatically at that MY I believe..

JGM :)

Yep i agree mines changed dramatically on either super or optimax

On the MY99/00 it takes around 40 miles to adapt to a new fuel so a reset isnt neccessary but if you want to do one then you can, on MY01 and above, the reset aint worth it.
You may find that you notice the difference over a period of time as if your still running some 95 ron fuel in your tank the mixture may be "watered down" and the benefit will not be noticed as quickly (time for a bottle of octane booster ;))

Tony:D

how 'bout an my98 does that need a reset if u change to super/opti?

I think it all changed along with the slight facelift (new bonnet vents and grill) so I think an MY98 will learn for itself fairly quickly.. but someone correct me if I am wrong.

JGM :)

I may have missed out then. the facelift was my99. will have to find those wires...maybe

No that was the next facelift...

the one I mean is the MY97 lift, where bucket seats became standard rather than my tweed numbers..

JGM:)

cool thx

Yup major facelift on MY97 (different bonnet etc) my97-98 had a different ecu to MY99-00, my99-00 had phase 2 engine and better (but not fantastic) lights, 4pots as std and different alloys (plus more torque over my97/98)

Tony:D

I've been using Shell Optimax for the last 20,000 miles or so in my MY01 WRX and think its better than normal UL fuel. I've had no bad side effects. There are two other bonuses 1) if you are looking for super UL you are almost garenteed to get it at Shell. Also I get about 27mpg ! doing 70% motorway driving at 90 or so.

Thought I'd tell you guys what happened to me regarding fuel and my new Impreza (MY00) back in Jan 2001.

I was told from the outset that normal UK Unleaded fuel was fine for the car by the dealer, but Super/Optimax would make it run better. I ran it mainly on normal unleaded for the first 5000 miles. I stuck to the same source (BP Only). At 5000 miles I struck a problem one morning... the car would not start, then when it finally did it kept stalling when ever I came off the throttle plus I had an engine warning lamp come up. The car was immediatley taken back to the dealer and the fault was diagnosed to be the "AC Solenoid Control Valve". The valve was sticking. The dealer said that when they removed the part it looked like it had done 60,000 miles not 5000!

The cause of the failure was put down to the fuel type used. This was diagnosed by Subaru, not the dealer after the part had been returned for analysis.

But it wasn't just the fact that I was using standard unleaded but it so happened that BP had just introduced their low sulphur fuel and it was a combination of these two things that damaged the part.

The advice from Subaru & the dealer was to only use super unleaded, which of course I do now. I have tried OptiMax but found it poor in comparison.

By the way, the out of warranty repair cost for this failure would have been up near £400.00 !!!

One futher thing to note... BP Super Unleaded has now also got the Low Sulphur mark... hopefully we won't be seeing this value going bang again!

Dave.