Just run your subaru on bog standard Tesco UL 76.9p per litres. What a bargain. And no noticeable diff on my MY00 Classic PPP

 

Yeh! No more optimax!

 

Well to be honest unless you have blueprinted engines with special low tolerance ignition, normal unleaded is fine unless you have jdm that has ECU which cant handle 95 ron. I cant see diff on UL and SUL !!!

 

Oh! and I will keep running it on this until something maybe goes bang and let you all know what bull**** high octane fuel is with "self learning ECU" !!! NOT

 

that .1 of a sec acceleration and extra 10 bhp maybe really makes a diff on the road NOT lol

 

I have had my Scoob over 4 years now and in all that time have never ran her on optimax, dealer told me as it was a UK car I didn't have too, but saying that I always use Shell petrol.
Cheers
Colin

 

Our local Shell has he same deal on UL

Optimax is 85p per litre at the mo

 

IIRC a PPP needs +97 Ron

 

Shell in Basingstoke are doing SUL for 82.9 and UL for 76.9 same as Morrisons and Sainsburys not sure about Tesco.

Daves99

 

I used to use Tesco's NUL in my scoob. Was fine for the 55k miles I did in it. I ran Optimax thru it occasionally to clean it out and for trackdays!

 

tesco petrol = Total petrol (same refinery, different tankers...)

 

I ran my MY00 Impreza on 95 when I brought it to the UK as I couldn't find 98 and it sounded like a VW Beatle after about half a tank. Would be interesting to see what my knocklink says after running on 95ron **** water.

 

parents have ran a standard my97 and now a my00 on tescos unleaded for about 5 years and had no problems. they don't drive that hard tho. gave their car a good thrashing the other day and it ran fine. not a world apart from my my99 ppp (using optimax).

 

I have always fed her optimax. I feel the car picks up quicker and responds better. Local Shell doing optimax for 82.9!!! regular 76.9!!!!

 

I'll stick to optimax thanks.

 

Cars will often run fine on s/market petrol. It;s the long term benefits that will make a difference as s/market fuel is cheaper primarily because it has far less of the additives, cleaners etc that real fuel stations have to help keep your engine in tip-top condition. I've seen a fair bit of research into this and while s/market fuels are cheaper, they are not as kind to your engine. Will we every notice this - who knows, but if you;re engine on 100k goes bang, it may be because the cheaper fuel had something to do with it. Who knows - the research seems to point this way.

Besides, worried about fuel prices and economy? - buy a diesel or a Focus...

 

Ray think your right, have always been advised to use Optimax rather than cheap supermarket fuel.

Anything mentioned in the Subaru Manuals just out of interest?

 

Manual for my WRX 01 says 95 octane ul or higher

Some fuel injections systems behave better with 98 octane picking up, especially in town. My Daytona 955i is substantially better on 98.

 

Dont run a scoob yet but here's my opinion

Shell charge 76.9p per litre here for UL
They charge 83.9p per litre for SUL
At my mums they charge 89.9 for UL (small osland NW of scotland)
Therefore I am cheaper running Optimax than I would be with UL if I lived o there.

Then there is the fact that my flat spot dissappears when running optimax

The magazine EVO ran 3 cars and the valves were noticably cleaner after 1000 miles on optimax.

 

Sainsbury's 97 RON is 79.9p at my local one. (there's another plug, Ubik) Why pay another 7p per litre for Optimax or 10p per litre for BP Ultimate?

 

IIRC it was the MY01/02 brochures actually quoted power outputs for 95 & 97 RON, maybe even graphs. So it will run on 95 OK, but for max output 97 or better. Either way mine is smoother on Optimax and always starts first time. Anything else and it is a pig in traffic and takes 2-3 goes to start when cold.

 

Thats cheap, pity I dont have a sainsburys nearby. Wish Tesco did 97 here

 

Its a real simple choice tbh, your ecu is adaptive and will advance and retard the igniton depending on the fuel you are using. The higher the octane the more advance you ecu can set. The ignition can be retarded on a standard UK model to handle 95 RON fuel but it can also advance to take advantage of higher ron fuels. Thats why I run optimax 98+ RON.

So the choice is yours.

 

Optimax 82.9p a litre round 'ere

 

To be honest I dont actually see a diff running optimax even after an ecu reset and hammering it around to benefit from full ecu self learning optimisation. I have had the car since last october 2004 and ran it on Optimax for 2 months and decided to give 95 RON a go with ECU reset. I drive the car a lot and honestly cant tell the diff. And I know the PPP upgrade makes it much better low down torque wise as I have driven bog standard classic also. Anyway thanks for input!

 

It doesnt as it states on Prodrive website that you can do ECU reset and run on 95 . Thats for MY99/00 classic PPP.

 

They all sound like beetle engines dont they ?

 

Also states you may not get the full advantage of the PPP if you run 95 RON fuel.

 

"May not" doesnt categorically mean you wont . If it may not I cant see diff! Maybe Prodrive have shares in Shell

 

Here is some more food for thought from Australia, I wonder how they manage with high spec cars running on there SUL 95 RON, which is our UL ....

Premium Unleaded Petrol (PULP)
PULP is a special blend of petrol designed to bring high octane, and hence high engine power, as well as knock- free performance to unleaded cars with a high-octane requirement.

A knocking noise can occur in an engine when there is a mismatch between the fuel characteristics and the engine's design, particularly its compression ratio, resulting in pre-ignition (also known as 'pinging').

Selecting fuel with the correct RON for your engine will prevent the knocking fuel effect caused when the fuel combusts in the compression chamber too early.

Many imported cars, and particularly those with turbochargers, are manufactured to run on premium unleaded petrol.

PULP has a Research Octane Number (RON) of 95.

RON is a measure of a fuel's compression performance and the RON rating translates into the amount of engine power. RON requirements vary according to engine type.