Lum

I regularly run my Legacy on Ultimate + Millers, I do this because work give me a BP fuel card and I don't have to pay for my petrol. I am aware that Optimax is better.

Anyway under harsh acceleration I can easilly get both orange lights to light up on the knocklink and the car feels sluggish. If I want to go out for a blat I pay for my own optimax and try to slip it into my expenses saying I was nearly stranded and there was no BP nearby.

I recently found out that BP cards now work at Total, and found myself low on fuel near to one of the three Total grages in the country that do Super unleaded. Expecting the worst I filled up.

My god what a difference, It's almost as good as optimax, and i never managed to get more than two greens on the knocklink despite flooring it onto the A41 and kitting 7.5K RPM

So all of you who claim "Optimax, or Ultimate if I'm stuck" should think again.

Anyone care to offer an explanation as to why Ultimate is far from it. I'm almost tempted to see if I can get watchdog to finger them for misleading advertising with that name, it's not even Penultimate.

tuscan57

funny you should mention the ultimate....... i was stuck so put some in the spec 'c' before a rolling road but did fill up with optimax and millers before..... when the car was run they informed me that it was running rich and it may have detected some knock and corrected itself...... no-more ultimate for me...........

JamieMacdonald

Our work van has a BP card in it and I use it at Shell all the time . The symbol on the BP card is 'A'. Unfortunately it's only for deisel so I can't fill my tank up on it

elgordano

what fuel is your car mapped for??

tuscan57

mine?????? its had the litchfield uk fuel map........

Mog

Never seen a Total garage round our way.

Mog

Brian the Sn@il

TOTAL ??

Always use either BP or Optimax its all the same stuff

Lum

Interesting. mine says "valid for use at any service establishments bearing the ROUTEX logo"

If that works at Shell then I will be very very happy.

elgordano: My car is a JDM MY99 Legacy and is not remappable at it uses a totally different ECU to the Imprezas and the later twin turbo Legacies.

Brian the snail: I beg to differ. My car runs significantly better on Optimax (and now Total) compared to BP Ultimate

Interesting that someone else is getting knock correction too. I wonder what is going on with ultimate, do you reckon franchises mix it in with regular to increase profits or something?

speedystu

this is very true most of all the fuel in all the garages across the country is the same stuff its just comes from a different refinary, like if you are from the south south west all your rocket fuel come from either avon mouth(gatex refinary) or southampton,it a big con really same stuff from the same place but called diferent

JohnD

iTrader: (5)

It's the bleach they put in it to keep the engine clean - it ruins the octane No
I've got both BP and Shell stations within 1/2 mile of me and the only liquid I buy in the BP station is a bottle of wine from the mini supermarket there!
Optimax 1st Esso super 2nd
JohnD

wbm3

I use V Power 100 Ron myself

tuscan57

Mark_S

No its not.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

I had a mapping session with Bob Rawle last Saturday......... I couldn't find any petrol stations and ended up putting in a few litres of BP ultimate to get me to the next optimax outlet !!


Bob Could tell that I had adulterated 50 litres of Optimax with 10 litres of BP ultimate..never again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Midlife.....

Vegescoob

Left over rocket fuel?

Daz34

Heple

I use Optimax, Ultimate is around 10p / per litre more expensive round my way aswell. Whats that about????

MattPiece

So far, the Esso SUL stuff I find is rather good. I got 300 miles on a tank driving mostly at swift, , motorway speeds. Thats in my JDM STi V.

I dont use BP-U unless I have to.

Lum

I'm rapidly begining to think that Ultimate is a triumph of marketing and branding over actually having a decent product. Like MS Windows.

I hear their Ultimate Diesel is good though.

Heple

Prob because there is no rival product.

shaunywrx

Last time i was in a BP station i asked the guy behind the counter if "Ultimate" was there equivilant of super unleaded, and he said "NO", all it is "supposed" to do is burn cleaner, thus producing less harmful emission's, it's for the "save the planet/greenpeace type people",( his word's not mine.) Nothing to do with performance of engine.

tuscan57

german optimax......

punkie

Well i've used Ultimate for ages and also Optimax and noticed no
difference in performance what so ever.

R*** ANT

Can't get optimax as there are no shell garages near me so have been using ultimate.

However the other day I was desperate so filled up with a tank of Super from sainsburys and my scoob runs much better no activity on knocklink at all. Won't be using ultimate again. Especially at the price they charge.

Lum

So if it burns cleaner, does that mean it's going to be screwing with our lambda sensors and whatever other trickery goes on to adjust the engine based on what comes out of the engine after combustion?

mag6/4

esso ultimate is a lot better than the old super ulp that they had used bp found in aint as good in perforamance never used optimax esso is good stuff (cos i work for them)
chris

Mark_S

You might not 'feel' a huge difference but if youre running a lot of ignition advance you'll certainly see it on the Knocklink.

STi-leVictim

Yeah, same here. Couple times I've been caught out without a Shell in sight and ended up in BP, e.g. Reading services .Bluh ! Ultimate is ****e and ~10p/l dearer than regular. Screw that - I put in minimum qty of unleaded sufficient to get to the next Shell oasis.

Even Sainsburies super is better than BP!

As for cost, well my Shell is just around the corner from a Safeway filling station so Shell price match

As for the Sn@il comment - for a start Ultimate is 97 RON to Optimax 98 RON - ***

JamieMacdonald

Depending on the MY of your car, you might need to reset the ECU to see any benifit of using a higher octane fuel. Applies to <MY99 Imprezas I think.

WR1 Ant

I normaly use total super unleaded and find mine flys on the stuff, filled up with optimax on the way to a rolling road day and got 322 bhp, dont know whats better total or shell !!!. May be at the next RR event I will put total in and see if it makes the same bhp, However saying that there are so many other factors that affect power prob wouldent be able to tell anyway.