New WRX owner/ quick fuel question
Discussion
Hi all,
Soon to be the owner of a blobeye WRX after a 6 hour train journey and a 5 hour drive home tomorrow!
Quick question for you though, probably been asked 100 times before too. What fuel do you run your UK spec cars on? I've heard it's good practice to use super unleaded of some sort, problem being I live out in the sticks where good fuel is hard do come by. Will it be detrimental to the car running on regular octane when there's nothing else avaliable?
Cheers
Soon to be the owner of a blobeye WRX after a 6 hour train journey and a 5 hour drive home tomorrow!
Quick question for you though, probably been asked 100 times before too. What fuel do you run your UK spec cars on? I've heard it's good practice to use super unleaded of some sort, problem being I live out in the sticks where good fuel is hard do come by. Will it be detrimental to the car running on regular octane when there's nothing else avaliable?
Cheers
Hi there 
I'm a recent convert myself, only had my blob for 3 weeks now. At first I ran it on regular, because it was cheap, and I thought it couldn't do any harm. It didn't.
I recently started making the effort to get super, bp ultimate, only type available locally.
What a difference. I was a complete sceptic as to whether it would make any worthwhile performance increase, it does. It's a general healthier feeling engine, to be subjective. It's 7ppl more for super here over regular, but I reckon it's worth it. I appear to be getting a little more range to a tank which is nice as well, 300ish compared with 270ish.
My 03 ppp loves the stuff, so I'm going to keep it happy
p.s. Regular supermarket unleaded did no harm at all
I'm a recent convert myself, only had my blob for 3 weeks now. At first I ran it on regular, because it was cheap, and I thought it couldn't do any harm. It didn't.
I recently started making the effort to get super, bp ultimate, only type available locally.
What a difference. I was a complete sceptic as to whether it would make any worthwhile performance increase, it does. It's a general healthier feeling engine, to be subjective. It's 7ppl more for super here over regular, but I reckon it's worth it. I appear to be getting a little more range to a tank which is nice as well, 300ish compared with 270ish.
My 03 ppp loves the stuff, so I'm going to keep it happy
p.s. Regular supermarket unleaded did no harm at all
Always use the very best fuel you can in a subaru, even normally aspirated subaru.
99RON from Shell (V-Power) or Tesco (Momentum) also 99RON will do the job nicely.
If there is only BP around your way fair enough but equally there must be a Tesco selling Momentum not far away from you and you will find the difference between 97 and 99RON to be significant in terms of how much smoother the motor will run not to mention it may even be cheaper than than BP 97RON.
However, once you have switched to the higher spec fuel you should try and do an ECU reset if you have an OBDII diagnostic error code reader, cable, hand held or bluetooth will do the job, otherwise it will take maybe 100-200 miles before the ECU has fully adjusted itself/learned to run on the new fuel.
99RON from Shell (V-Power) or Tesco (Momentum) also 99RON will do the job nicely.
If there is only BP around your way fair enough but equally there must be a Tesco selling Momentum not far away from you and you will find the difference between 97 and 99RON to be significant in terms of how much smoother the motor will run not to mention it may even be cheaper than than BP 97RON.
However, once you have switched to the higher spec fuel you should try and do an ECU reset if you have an OBDII diagnostic error code reader, cable, hand held or bluetooth will do the job, otherwise it will take maybe 100-200 miles before the ECU has fully adjusted itself/learned to run on the new fuel.
You're in the minority then, fair enough.
Try some octane booster from Millers (CVL Turbo) or Nos Octane Booster, the Nos stuff is very good and has had good reviews and been tested properly.
I travel to Scotland a fair bit and even in some of the most remote and out of the way areas i've been to there is always a Shell or Tesco fuel stop.
You're very unlucky in NI only to have BP nearby.
Try some octane booster from Millers (CVL Turbo) or Nos Octane Booster, the Nos stuff is very good and has had good reviews and been tested properly.
I travel to Scotland a fair bit and even in some of the most remote and out of the way areas i've been to there is always a Shell or Tesco fuel stop.
You're very unlucky in NI only to have BP nearby.
Yup, same up here, rural Aberdeenshire, mostly Shell garages but only sell regular. I shall have to keep a closer eye anyway.
Picked up the car yesterday. Filled the tank with Salisbury's super. Not sure what RON it is as I forgot to check but was pretty cheep at £65. Managed 200 motorway miles to just over half a tank which I was more than happy with.
I then added £20 worth of Morrison's regular as it was the only thing that was open and did a further 80ish miles of highland road on a third of a tank.
I know it's all subjective and early days but fuel consumption was nowhere near as bad as I'd been led to believe. All in all, over the moon with my new purchase.
Picked up the car yesterday. Filled the tank with Salisbury's super. Not sure what RON it is as I forgot to check but was pretty cheep at £65. Managed 200 motorway miles to just over half a tank which I was more than happy with.
I then added £20 worth of Morrison's regular as it was the only thing that was open and did a further 80ish miles of highland road on a third of a tank.
I know it's all subjective and early days but fuel consumption was nowhere near as bad as I'd been led to believe. All in all, over the moon with my new purchase.
Good to hear you got back ok. I only put Shell V-Power or Tesco 99 in our Forester and STI. Aside from the extra performance and economy it's a safety thing too to avoid detonation. I would never put BP in a Subaru though.
Get a Fuel app like MPG calc on your phone to see the true economy. Fill it, drive it, fill it and calculate. On your long trip if probably get 31.5 from the Forester and 35 from the STI.
And get something up in readers cars
Get a Fuel app like MPG calc on your phone to see the true economy. Fill it, drive it, fill it and calculate. On your long trip if probably get 31.5 from the Forester and 35 from the STI.
And get something up in readers cars
Lol, thanks. Now I've got it home I'm hoping that I'll be able to top it up with. V-power mostly when I'm in town but their may be an occasion or two when I've got to use the lower grade stuff. It's hard to grade anything just now as I've no idea what the last guy run it on but after a couple of tank fulls I'll start tracking what I get on my normal commute. It's hard for me to gauge as my last impreza was almost 10 years ago and I haven't had any real performance cars for about 5 
Pics will be up soon after this supposed storm passes and I've given it a good wash
It's mostly standard at the moment apart from exhaust, filter and a remap.
It's supposedly on standard suspension but I'm going to double check that soon, it may be just that I'm old now and have been driving the discovery for too long.
Pics will be up soon after this supposed storm passes and I've given it a good wash
It's mostly standard at the moment apart from exhaust, filter and a remap.
It's supposedly on standard suspension but I'm going to double check that soon, it may be just that I'm old now and have been driving the discovery for too long.
I only put Shell VPower in mine, it seems to like it. I would never put BP in it, I've heard they really don't like it much.
All UK cars should be mapped to run on normal (95) unleaded. Mine is a prodrive RB5 and the filler cap says to use super - so I figure if you've got to use super, might as well make it the good stuff.
As said, put the best you can afford in the tank. It should run on anything, except diesel (!).
I average about 25 mpg from the Impreza, which isn't too bad.
All UK cars should be mapped to run on normal (95) unleaded. Mine is a prodrive RB5 and the filler cap says to use super - so I figure if you've got to use super, might as well make it the good stuff.
As said, put the best you can afford in the tank. It should run on anything, except diesel (!).
I average about 25 mpg from the Impreza, which isn't too bad.
Checked the owners manual today and it advises that you put 98 or higher in or if that's not avaliable to use an additive. I've heard a few horror stories about using BP and some octane boosters so will be sticking with shell/ tesco wherever possible.
If I can average 25mpg (which is looking highly possible just now) I'll be a happy chappy
If I can average 25mpg (which is looking highly possible just now) I'll be a happy chappy
Art0ir said:
I use Topaz 97, best I can get in NI unfortunately.
There is one station in Donegal that has 98. Car ran like silk on it, went through three tanks of it during Rally weekend...
Do you reckon that it's better than BP ultimate? I have both within a few miles, but the topaz station is further so I've always just stopped at BP.There is one station in Donegal that has 98. Car ran like silk on it, went through three tanks of it during Rally weekend...
I think topaz may be a couple of ppl more as well
Art0ir said:
I haven't done any real comparison if I'm honest. I've heard Saintsbury's is 1.34 atm which I might look into.
It all comes from the same boat at Airport rd anyway...
Sainsburys at sprucefield stopped doing it last year (the tIt all comes from the same boat at Airport rd anyway...
ts) so it's only the Topaz on the lisburn road and BP/spar on the airport road that are near to me.To be frank, I'm starting to get a little sick of the situation here. I spent years in the west midlands, and shell, texaco, esso were everywhere, all with 98/99ron available.
I'm very close to buying a drum of methanol and blending my own! I've heard very good things about a 5% mix with 97ron, equating to about 99ron. Seeing as the 99ron fuels in britain are mostly 10% ethanol/methanol anyway (correct me if I'm wrong), this would make our 97 vaguely similar to what everyone else gets.
If I'm barking up the wrong lampost, let me know
You should be ok on 5%-10% methanol without having to remap. Factory maps on 2ltr cars run run little bit rich anyway so even though adding Methanol will add leaness to the air/fuel mix your octane rating will rise nicely and you shouldn't get an DET plus it will run super smooth. Just make sure you do an ECU reset once you have filled up and make sure you use the same quantities of each every time and only on an Empty tank so you don;t end up running with too much Methanol over time and that will cause you problems running too lean. Put your methanol in first then fill with fuel because Methanol doesn't mix well with petrol. It will also start to seperate after two to three days. If the car has been standing for a couple of three days get a long thin tube linked to a compressor or can of compressed air, feed the tube into the tank and blow compressed air into the tank to mix up your fuel before you start the car. It works well every time and is better than hoping your fuel will mix as it sloshes about in the tank but it doesn't very well.
Don't run too much methanol in the fuel. 5-10% should be OK, but older cars are not designed to run alcohol blended fuels. Methanol is extremely corrosive to various components in the fuel system, both steel and rubber parts. These need to be specially coated or particular rubbers to take the higher alcohol content, like 25% available in some countries now.
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