Waste of money?

**RoknRob** · 05-10-2015, 05:12 AM

Speaking of wastes of money, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that our local servo... Which used to be a Caltex, but is now a United... had a pump of "Racing Fuel", 105 octane.
Would there be any benefits at all to using that on the road? Maybe fuel economy?
I am astounded at how many different types of fuel my local now sells...

**Snail Style** · 05-10-2015, 05:39 AM

Tried it on my MPS and found I could get a slight bit more timing into it/power out of it. However it was using between 5-10% more fuel on average, and for the additional cost in a daily driver i could not justify it.

I believe it is an ethanol blend as well, so keep that in mind as most direct injected vehicles tend to have issues over 30% ethanol mix.

**gavs** · 05-10-2015, 06:53 AM

As snail style said, make sure it isn't an ethanol blend. Volkswagen do not recommend any ethanol blended fuels with the polo engines and seeing as it's a united servo, i'd be pretty confident it is an ethanol blend....

**woofy** · 05-10-2015, 08:00 AM

Is there a racing circuit or drag strip nearby? I see that when you live near a place where some higher tuned engines might be in use.

**RoknRob** · 05-10-2015, 10:49 PM

I didn't look closely enough to see if there was ethanol, but it was well advertised on most of their pumps.
The closest track I can think of is Lakeside, 45 minutes away, at least. Surely that's too far?

**ill0gitech** · 06-10-2015, 09:33 AM

I told my wife not to fill up at United for this very reason.
I think what you saw was United E85 - 105 Octane.
E10, E85 - the number is the percentage of Ethanol content.

**Sydneykid** · 06-10-2015, 10:51 AM

I always use United, of my 6 cars, 2 use E10, 1 uses 98, 1 uses 95 and 2 use E85.

Cheers
Gary

**trive2** · 06-10-2015, 12:44 PM

105 is an ethanol blend, and does create a performance increase when the car is tuned for it.

**ill0gitech** · 06-10-2015, 12:46 PM

As Gav said, Volkswagen state that ethanol isn't suitable. If I recall, my Polo has it in the manual and possibly even in the fuel cap door. In any event, it's on the VGA Website. Made up words and all.

Volkswagen Group Australia does not recommend running their vehicles on biodiesel or ethanol blended fuels, as it could affect the longevity and driveability of the engine.
Volkswagen understands our customers are enviromentally and/or financially conscious and are working on a satisfactory outcome as interest increases for this fuel.

If you ever develop engine issues and they determine ethanol blends were the culprit, you're out of luck.