Placebo Effect? V-Power "Nitro" After 113 Miles

it stopped years ago, along with my heart.

 

What’s a watch?

 

usually 8 hours.

 

You can use more than 87 - this is the USA manual:


AUSTRALIA:



Can I suggest you come back after 3 tanks and advise us if we should try PREMIUM - is it worth the extra 16% cost (for Aust RON 98)?

I tried PREMIUM, both 95 and 98, but only for one tank each - yes they did use less fuel, but not enough to justify the cost.

 

Interesting. I usually use regular in my MINI and Corvette which "recommend" premium, and in normal driving, I can't tell the difference. I'll have to try premium in my Prous.

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On a recent trip to the West Coast, I stopped at the station and Oregon and the attendant filled it up with regular. It was the first time that I had filled up while I was in Oregon. I did not get very far down the road before I noticed mid throttle the engine was definitely pinging quite a bit more, or perhaps just noisier in general I don't know. I ended up stopping in an auto parts place and dumping a couple of cans of octane booster in there. So it doesn't surprise me that some variant of fuel may be quieter or noisier in a particular engine. I'm driving a 2008 with 237000 miles on it. There are apps you can get that will measure sound output in decibels. You could try one of those drive on the same road the same time in the same temperature with one Fuel and then the other and see if it measures any difference in sound.

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That's understandable with a 2008 - the Gen 4 doesn't specify as high an octane as the previous generations.

 

I think even in the 08 it says just use regular unleaded... Which I do in my home city. 85 octane.
I've tried non ethanol fuel.. got about 5mpg higher. But the cost of the fuel negates the benefit.
Regular fuel here is 85 octane because of our altitude.

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Here, the Gen 3 specified PREMIUM (called RON95 here), whereas Gen 4 specified REGULAR (called RON95 here):

Gen3 Gen4

 

We don't use RON here in the states. Best I can figure out. 91-92RON is equivalent to 87 with the standard we use.. generally the lowest you will see for sea level areas. I live at 4500 feet. So we get 85 octane for our lowest level.
When I filled up in Oregon. It was close to sea level and 87.. and the car did NOT like it.
They use a different fuel formulation in California and Oregon.. supposed to lower pollution.

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I used Shell V-power in the Gen 3, it ran smoother, seemed to pull better but returned less mpg. Apparently you need to run 2-3 tanks through to get the effect. Tried it in the Prius+ (v wagon), no difference in smoothness or pulling but still less mpg, went back to regular unleaded (fuelsave). Tried it in the Gen 4, same effect as the Gen 3. I will occasionally run a tankful through but generally I use the regular due to the exorbitant cost of petrol here in the UK, currently £1.32 ($1.75) per litre.

 

No it won't........unless the lower octane fuel was causing "spark knock".
The engine has no other way to know what the octane value IS.

 

No they will NOT. They will tune themselves to eliminate spark knock, if present, but there are no detectors present to measure "variations in fuel".

 

Different measurement systems......result in different numbers for exactly the same thing.

 

I think what he's trying to say is, with a higher octane fuel, the engine will advance the timing slightly more than with the lower octane because the engine will now knock at a higher advance.

 

In Canada, I've seen a couple of labels about ethanol content. Shell stations say:

Regular (87 octane): 10% ethanol
Plus (89 octane): 5% ethanol
V-Power (91 octane): 0% ethanol

And Chevron:

Regular (87 octane): may contain up to10% ethanol
Plus (89 octane): per above
Supreme (91 octane): per above
Supreme Plus (94 octane): contains no ethanol

I've also read some out of the way stations, small towns, may sometimes (or always?) sell ethanol-free in all grades, due to "problems" getting ethanol.

From what I've read here, in the States all gas has 10% ethanol?