No Ethanol Regular or E10 Premium?

[skeith5]

There's one pump around me that has no ethanol... but, it's regular. Has anyone had experience using no ethanol regular versus e10 premium? The pump that has no ethanol also has biodiesel for my Jetta so I'd like to support them as much as possible. I'm thinking of running the regular and throwing in some Octane booster. I've done 1 tank of regular and the car doesn't seem to have as much power.

Scott

[vova]

if i am correct the owners manual suggest to use fuel with octane rating 91 or above. the lowest rating that is possible to use is 87( but your octane corrector will have to work hard)
personally i do not put anything but 93
i would not recommend octane booster simply because it is not a GEO METRO that you can make experiments( if something goes wrong what do you lose???-$600 or so..but with Volvo...)

[Leto Atreides II]

Where in Seattle are you?

If you make it out to Issaquah somewhat regularly, The Grange has premium fuel without ethanol.

http://www.grangesupplyinc.com/fuel.htm

(But truth be told I always just fill up at Costco.)

[Julien]

From experience, E10 kills fuel pumps. It killed the fuel pump in my old BMW. Also, my wife filled our XC with E10 a couple of weeks ago and gave the car fuel guage sender problems. Luckily it has come good after a fill of 98 RON, fingers crossed there. From memory the manual specifies 98 or 95, although the car will run on 91 if you are stuck.

jc

[XC70XC]

One night, went to refuel. The particular station does not have the 95 RON which I regularly use. Instead it has 95 RON with Ethanol. Did consider it but decided against it. So in goes 98 RON. Good thing I made the sensible choice.

[billr99]

I lived in Ohio up until 1997 and for at least 20 years you could get E10. I only ever had two problems with it. One was on a '77 Honda Accord where in humid weather the carb would ice and a '87 Porsche 924S where I lost 2 mpg and the edge in performance; just didn't seem to run well. And one time, just one time, I had a weird and extreme case of vapour lock on a Volvo 245 but I had gotten fuel from a station that was just about out of fuel in their tanks so I got a tank full of crud. Other than that, I saw no difference and put quite a few miles on the cars running it. I have even run it in everything from chainsaws to mowers, as well.

The beauty of E10 was was that on some cars I could increase the advance and not only recover any lost mpg, but also get a bit more performance. In theory at least, engine managed cars should do the same thing on their own thanks to the improved anti-knock properties of ethanol.

It hasn't been readily available up here and now that its use is increasing in Canada, it is a bit humorous to hear the same anti-E10 BS that I heard 20 years ago in the States. Such things as dissolving fuel lines and bad pumps. Facts are that the OEMs knowing that E10 is more prevalent have engineered the components to work with at least E10 if not higher ethanol levels. Anytime I've done to the states over the last few years I've run my Canadian-spec cars on E10 with no problems. If there are problems, I would suggest it is more from those stations whose fuel quality and attention to things like filter change are questionable. In other weds, they would be bad even with straight gasoline.

Cheers,

Bill

[skeith5]

Thanks for the feedback... I'll just stick to the premium stuff.

BillR I'm sorry that you've lost your 2 sons and wife, but find it really morbid that you list what car killed them...

Scott

[Leto Atreides II]

Scott -- Bill is listing who killed the car, not who the car killed...

[billr99]

Thanks for the feedback... I'll just stick to the premium stuff.

BillR I'm sorry that you've lost your 2 sons and wife, but find it really morbid that you list what car killed them...

Scott

Ah, you are the first to notice, but alas all are alive and well. It was the cars who succumbed from the abuse put upon them by said persons. But not to worry as I have forgiven them.

Cheers,

Bill

[XC70XC]

Ah, you are the first to notice, but alas all are alive and well. It was the cars who succumbed from the abuse put upon them by said persons. But not to worry as I have forgiven them.

Cheers,

Bill

Which poor cars that went to auto heaven?

[skeith5]

Ah, you are the first to notice, but alas all are alive and well. It was the cars who succumbed from the abuse put upon them by said persons. But not to worry as I have forgiven them.

Cheers,

Bill

I figured as much, when I first read it though the first thought that popped into my mind was that you were listing which family member died in which car... Maybe I'm the one that's morbid? Glad to hear that's not the case!

Scott