I was wondering how many of you either don’t use E10 in your 5’s or other vehicles, or is using an additive when using E10?
Also, has anyone had a mechanical issue they are pretty sure is down to E10?
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Unsurprisingly yet another green enitiative turns out to be a boondoggle!
im not Boycotting E10 i just dont use it!
the label on my filer cap says use super! so i use super!
my fuel of choice is the 99 octane shell super or 99 octane esso super supream.
since i brought the car in september iv only used normal 97 octane super on 2 occassions.
so theres no way that i would ever use 95 octane unless i was out somewhere and there was litterally no other way to get home.
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I use Esso Supreme + in all our petrol cars, all of which are 2001 or older. If that isn’t available then Shell V-Power or BP Ultimate.
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Sainsbury’s super unleaded which equates to 97 Ron in the NC. Going to start a trial of it in the daily, it has a 1.2tsi engine of the VAG variety although it seems to run ok on E10.
Early yesterday morning I went to fill up the Mazda3 with V-power as usual, and after 14.74 litres the pump ran dry. Run out. So I finished off filing the tank with 26.93 litres of Regular. Both on the old prices.
Yesterday evening, after having done her regular fifteen minutes each way return journey in it, SWMBO commented out of the blue; “The car didn’t seem to go as well today.”
Same again today. “Something’s not right with the car, it feels sluggish.”
I still haven’t told her the tank was half regular because I didn’t think it would make much difference except for mpg. But if she noticed twice, than it is a significant variation in performance.
I use the V-Power to keep the inlet tract clean on the direct injection engine with EGR function. 10% better mpg and better performance are also worth having for 9% extra cost.
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Jag runs on E10. Don’t feel any difference in performance, but then, its an engine designed from the outset to run on 10% gasahol thats been on sale in the US for the past 30 years. Net no difference in costs for me compared to using E5. Bonus is that my car will use less oil, which has a beneficial effect on the biogenic carbon cycle, and means less oil imported. The ethanol is mostly derived from food and agricultural waste. As a former microbiologist who helped unravel CLAW, that process and reason appeals to me.
MX5 isn’t used enough. Its old enough that I am sure, despite Mazda ignorance, that it will run fine on E10 without consequence. American Miatas have run fine for 30 years on this, and they are basically the same car.
Of course, E10 means less profits to the oil companies, and more revenue to local firms (the ethanol firms are all European).
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I’ve always used super unleaded (usually Tesco momentum which is E5 where I live) in my 5, and after a noticeable increase (measured) in fuel use during an experiment with E10 in my UP! GTI I’ve gone back to super unleaded for that too.
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I always use Shell V Power in my cars - the youngest one being my 2001 MX5 MK2.
The rest of the fleet are classic cars, and clearly are not compatible with E10.
I don’t do huge mileages each year, and everything I have read about E10 makes the extra cost for using V Power seem well worth it?!!
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My BMW is virtually undriveable on E10.
It’s jerks, surges, and is really lumpy on E10
It’s excellent on super unleaded. (But expensive to fill up)
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2 x E10 tankfulls in my Up! Tsi = 320 miles per tank approximately.
VPower returns about 370-390.
No difference other than mpg.
I’m putting E10 in my NC2, no noticeable difference as far as I can tell.
I am aware storing E10 may cause issues but I use my car regularly (when it stops raining).
NC’s should be compatible with E10 from info I can find, just a shame they don’t have plastic tanks.
Roy
Blimey.
I take a few days off and arrive back to…a badly needed 
Petrol Thread for the Petrol Head.
Just use E5, use more torque instead of revs, and…Lordy Lordy… walk a bit more to offset it.
Job jobbed.
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After doing some research on other forums I think that small engines working relatively hard, especially in the larger, heavier applications (think Focus/Golf/Octavia etc) are using noticeably more E10 fuel, which doesn’t bode well for either the environment or peoples pockets.
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My wife’s 2016 Mazda 3 seems perfectly happy on E10, although to be honest, we haven’t done an MPG comparisons yet, but it runs OK.
I’m sticking to Shell V-Power with my NC1 2.0L Sport as long as it is available. The cost doesn’t bother me, because it’s a second-car, my little toy, and doesn’t do many miles per year anyway.
I have used either Sainsbury’s 97 octane or Shell, Tesco, Esso, BP 97/99 octane fuels
in both MX5’s '14 MK3.75 2L Recaro Sport & the '94 Eunos 1.8 S Special Mk2.5 VVT since I got them.
My wife’s '94 Skoda Fabia 1.6 Tdi uses any regular diesel ALWAYS Millers additive
with every fill. (Refused the dreaded “VAG Fix”)
Emergency fill of 15 litres of the “old” 95 octane in the Recaro brought on a dash light,
the Roddisons conversion did not like it one bit!
All was sorted by filling up with Tesco 99.
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The Mx5 NC fuel filler label is confusing to say the least as it uses the terms Premium, Super and 95 minimum in the same context. When the label was designed e10 was not available and the fuel types are now as follows: according to the RAC,
Regular (95 octane) e10
This became the standard grade of petrol in Great Britain on 1 September (2021), while it is due to be rolled out in Northern Ireland in 2022. According to Mazda the NC is compatible with this grade of fuel, whether it runs better on other fuels is the subject of much debate as in this topic.
Premium Unleaded (95 RON)
Although it’s called premium, this is actually the standard unleaded petrol available across Europe ie e10, and is suitable for almost all petrol engines.
Super Unleaded (97/98 RON)
The highest-octane fuel widely available is required for some high-performance Japanese cars and preferable for others (like Porsches), although in most cars any benefits are negligible.
Premium fuels
Some retailers sell their own high-performance, high-octane fuels, e.g. Total Excellium Unleaded and Shell V-Power Unleaded, which has an octane rating of 99 RON, the UK’s highest.
So from a Mazda point of view as long as the fuel has a rating of 95 RON and above it’s suitable for the NC.
My ND on E10 does about 5mpg less, 43mpg vs 48mpg on E5
I tried adding a bottle of fuel additive to see if it makes a difference - basically none.
Back to Esso Supreme wherever possible.
It’s getting a new fuel pump next week (recall) so they want it with less than half full before they do the work, so will fill it up when I get it back.
My Eunos only gets Esso Supreme or equivalent.
My point was that (anecdotally in many cases, measured in mine) cars appear to do less miles per gallon on E10, not that the fuel wasn’t suitable for them.
The ND Skyactive engine has a very high (for a petrol engine) standing compression ratio which allied to a reasonably sophisticated knock sensing system means it will probably be more efficient on higher octane fuel, E10 or otherwise.
Ethanol has a lower power density than petrol, so inevitably more will be used if everything else is equal and 10% of a gallon is ethanol and 90% is petrol.
This is not directly related to the octane rating which is something else entirely - indeed I think that at one time one of the ‘super’ unleaded fuels was 5% ethanol, and may still be.
Most modern IC engines with knock sensors will produce their maximum design power on 99 octane, 100% petrol, but less than this once the octane rating is reduced, and less again if ethanol is added.
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i not going to get into this deeply as i dont want to hijack the thread but i get the feeling that the next 20 years or so, as electric cars become the normal and petrol cars become the rarity, are going to be very “interesting times” for petrol engine nuts like myself and many of the other members!
on the one hand we are going to be under constant attack by the enviromental lobby but on the other hand the oil companies are going to turn their marketing and products to us, which means we could end up once again seeing 100% petrol/101 octane being sold at the pumps again!
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You’re correct regarding Ethanol as an Octane improver. Remember Cleveland Discol? From a refiners point of view you can refine petrol to a lower basic rating and then add Ethanol to raise the RON to a higher level and as Ethanol is cheaper than the extra refining cost it’s an interesting alternative future possibility. However adding more Ethanol does bring downsides with increased fuel consumption and the other problems.
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