Scirocco Register

Ok guys 'n' gals,

Last few months i've been running purely on Sainsburies standard unleaded at 126.9/litre.

The highest I can get the MFA to display is below. That took approx 30 miles on the motorway at trucker speeds being rather careful. My questions are, should I be happy at that? Would a change in fuel change the mpg? What do you use and what mfa reading do you get?

I'm not overly fussed I must say, it is 25 years old and on rather high mileage. Anything over 25mpg seems good enough for me.

i used to find that running my old scala on expensive fuel made the mpg (calculated from brimming the tank each time i filled it, no mfa fitted) was considerably worse running on the expensive stuff, as it did go better, which just encourages yo to give it a bootful more often.

and what do you mean 25mpg is ok?! i get more than that out of my 2.4 Seat!

I run both of mine on Shell Optimax as the cars were designed to run on 'Super' when they were made. I generally get high 30's/low 40's when I drive them, but that is motorways mainly going to shows.
Give it a go and post your results.

Run normal 95 octane unleaded with ignition retarded as per all tech instructions since 1976 for any 'big block' 1471cc and above engine other than the asthmatic 1595cc/84-88 Mk2 GT. If you must.


To get best performance and mpg on EG 1.6gti or DX 1.8gti or EX1.8carb cars run min of 97/98 octane with ignition set to standard factory set up.

It is that simple.

I only use Tesco Momentum 99 and get about 35mpg, which is a mixture of short urban trips (< 5 miles) and longer runs of about 110 miles at motorway speeds.

I use shell vpower and get around 40 mpg usually on just motorway driving. But I do find giving it a boot full ruins the mpg.
I regularly get 370miles to a tank of fuel which I think works out at 30 mpg average.
Which is a good mix of town and motorway driving.

marcus wrote:I only use Tesco Momentum 99

^^^^^^^^^^this for me too.

I used to use Esso super but found I get better performance with the 99ron (every little helps )

I've just necked it with Shell V-Power Nitro so I'll report back after a few days if there has been a difference.

I'm sure I read that to get the RON count up Tesco/shell use ethanol and that is a big no no for older engines?

Yes, some do put ethanol in. This is not a new thing, it is the ethanol in fuel that makes it go "off" so quick. It is only a small percent ethanol though. I think its more the e10 fuel you can get in France that is a no no for some cars. Afaik, the problem is that in some cars the rubbers and plastics used in the fuel system won't withstand being soaked in ethanol for any length of time. Kinda like what petrol would do to a coolant hose over time.

That said, I filled my Toledo with e10 last time it went to France, as it was cheap. Sat on the train coming back I flicked thru the manual and found that it said don't ever even think of running this car on ethanol. Oops. Does seem to have done it any harm, and it did clear up the missfire until I filled up again over here with normal petrol

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/992 ... -cars.html

Idiot EU. Well evil genius actually. They make us use more fuel whilst looking environmentally responsible plus as a bonus increase the chance of having to fix our car due to the ethanol wrecking it!

Shocking, can't believe a Telegraph journalist wrote the words "gives less miles per gallon"...

Not an expert on the various engines but DX and EX engines have a 10:1 compression ratio so need fuel of at least 98 RON, and I imagine the E10 fuel will be based on regular unleaded so probably won't be suitable.

The study was funded by Olleco, a business which collects and refines waste cooking oil to be used as biodiesel in vehicles, which Mr Bailey found was a better option to be mixed with fuel than ethanol.

a better option how? i don't know of a modern common rail diesel that will run on biodiesel without massively shortening the life of the high pressure fuel pump

Nate wrote:

The study was funded by Olleco, a business which collects and refines waste cooking oil to be used as biodiesel in vehicles, which Mr Bailey found was a better option to be mixed with fuel than ethanol.

a better option how? i don't know of a modern common rail diesel that will run on biodiesel without massively shortening the life of the high pressure fuel pump

A better option for his bank balance methinks

Boumsong wrote:Ok guys 'n' gals,

Last few months i've been running purely on Sainsburies standard unleaded at 126.9/litre.

The highest I can get the MFA to display is below. That took approx 30 miles on the motorway at trucker speeds being rather careful. My questions are, should I be happy at that? Would a change in fuel change the mpg? What do you use and what mfa reading do you get?

I'm not overly fussed I must say, it is 25 years old and on rather high mileage. Anything over 25mpg seems good enough for me.

220 mile round trip, Harrow to Bexhill and back, 2 adults and full boot - 41 mpg. 203k on the clock.

Quite happy with that, I must say.

Cheers
Jeff