Škoda TSI octane requirements 95 or 98?

[woofy]

Mine is pre FL, as are most on here, but others from the same year have 95 as the min. I've never found out why, as I found it said 98 in all my research before buying the car.

[Graybags]

Having a modified Dyno tuned turbo engine with knock monitor for the past 8 years I can tell you that it knocks with anything less than 98. We took our cars to Tassie a few years ago (WRX car Club) where they only had 95 and we had to add octane booster to stop even stock engines check engine light coming on with high engine load. Agree with the last caller for piece of mind and maximum performance why not the extra $ for 98?

[backdoc]

OK, the hype behind higher octane fuels.
- Less prone to detonation ( if you run a performance Turbo motor or high compression motor, detonation is a really bad thing, so to protect against it, you need to run higher octane fuel)
- depending on the company, the higher octane fuel is generally better quality ( more consistent Octane rating ) and burns cleaner. which means less contaminants in the oil and less carbon build up.
- 98 rate fuels are generally have a higher density, which means more "bang" for your buck, that's why you get better fuel mileage. The car doesn't need as much fuel to burn to get the same amount of power.

Generally I'e found that BP have the purest form of 98 fuel (Ultimate), as it contains the least amount of benzines etc. Jump on the sites and check out the MSDS sheets for each fuel, it will give you density's and what it contains etc

Run what ya want people, it's your car, if you think the fuel companies are just hyping it up, then put what ya want in your car and be happy with your choice. If you run a Turbo'd or high compression motor and you run 91, or possibly some 95 rated fuels then you could be doing damage to your car with out even knowing. Yes I know cars have "anti'knock systems on them, and that's when you'll feel the power drop off to protect the engine...........but why buy a performance car to only have it run at 95% of it's efficiency/power??

My work car is a typical Ford Falcon, and it only see's 91 as it has a very stock motor, and due to that i dont get to see much benefit in performance or economy from slipping in 95 or 98, although it does run better on 98 ( drives smoother etc)

I'm looking forward to when BP bring out the BP Ultimate diesel with it's higher cetane rating. The Skoda RS TDI will be living on that stuff if it makes it to NSW servo's

If the fuels were the same price, then yes, "bang for your buck" applies, but when you're paying more "buck" for your "bang", then I'm no expert, but that doesn't seem to make fiscal sense.

Like I said, happily put 98 in a car designed for it, just don't believe in putting 98 into a car designed to run on 95. But that's the beauty of a democratic society, you can use what you want!

[Antiplastix]

Out of interest,my 2008 Triumph Street Triple with filter mods,Arrow 3>1 and a Power Commander III with custom map ran basicly the same figures on 91 as it did on 98. I think you will find that post modern FI engines will adjust down for lower ron fuel but you dont gain anything by putting in a higher octane than it is tuned to run on. The higher the compression level of the engine the higher the octane needed for the motor, this gets confusing in force inducted motors as their static compression is differant to their pressurised compression.

[dazag]

Backdoc - yep you're right, you do pay more for the extra bang, but I should have worded that a little differently though to get across what I was talking about.
And yes you are right, if you have a turbo'd skoda that is tuned and designed to run 95, then there is no need to run 98 if you leave it in Stock trim. But if you ever decide to tweak the settings (especially with turbo boost settings) then fuel requirements will change, purely to ensure the engine doesn't detonate.

Antiplastix - with the PCIII , Did you play with it when running the different fuels to get the best out of each?? What fuel/air ratio did you have set up through the rev range and did you play with the ignition timing at all??
If you didn't play with the set ups when running the different fuels then I'm not surprised that the figures didn't change (assuming you're talking about dyno runs??)

All I'm saying is that if you have a stock car that says to run on 95 then that's fine, but if you have a car that says to run on 98, then make sure you do because there is either a compression difference or a boost difference between the engines and if you run a lower octane fuel then you can risk doing damage to the motor - it might not cost you now, but give it time your engine could be up for a rather hefty repair bill.

I wont go into the new E85 fuels you can get in some places (or the Shell V-power R 100 octane ethanol boosted fuels) , but to say a mate who has a very tweaked up Nissan GTR has had his car re-tuned (only fuel mapping as E85 runs leaner) to run E85 and got more HP & torque at the wheels, but again he wasn't tuning for efficiency.

[K1W1]

Us diesel drivers don't have any of these problems. We just occasionally fill up and continue driving.

[Antiplastix]

Us diesel drivers don't have any of these problems. We just occasionally fill up and continue driving.

Bloody, tractor drivers !!!!!

[Graybags]

A bit off topic but if you have a diesel and want more power maybe this could
be the answer?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy9vy0pduMA

[selurs]

Mine is pre FL, as are most on here, but others from the same year have 95 as the min. I've never found out why, as I found it said 98 in all my research before buying the car.

There was an official statement made back in August about the VW group switching to 95 RON minimum for almost all their cars. Oddly can't find anything on the VW or Skoda websites, but a search of the Aussie car news sites turned up these from themotorreport.com.au and caradvice.com.au among others.

Anyway, the gist of it is that everything outside of the R32/R36 and GTI are now deemed 95 RON compatible, and that includes all Škodas.

Hopefully that's helpful and not pointing out stuff you already know

[woofy]

Hmm that article about the fuel only relates to the 2010 Skodas, although the engine is the same....still weird that some earlier 2008 cars had 95 in the fuel door and others didn't. It seems to only apply to 2010 released models for VW as well.