I am looking at buying a Mini Cooper S. The brochure that I picked up at the dealer said that "premium" fuel was recommended. This seems odd for a 4-cylinder engine. My wife's Dodge Viper uses premium, but it has nearly 400 hp. under the hood. What about it?

 

Yes - the manual does say to use premium. However, we have used a lower grade (as told we could by our service tech) and have noticed no difference in performance.

Some will probably tell you to stick with what the manual says - we haved tested the "waters" so to speak........no problem with the performance of the car

 

I use 93 octane gas. I know some states, Ca from what I was told, do not have any gas higher that 89 octane. You have to use what you can get.

 

>>I am looking at buying a Mini Cooper S. The brochure that I picked up at the dealer said that "premium" fuel was recommended. This seems odd for a 4-cylinder engine. My wife's Dodge Viper uses premium, but it has nearly 400 hp. under the hood. What about it?

You wife has a damn viper and we are supposed to think you dont have the money to buy premium?

Buddy, not to be mean but i can show no sympathy. I make so little i had to cancel my MCS order.

 

There's been lot's of discussion on this subject on this and other forums, and it boils down to this:

Primuim fuel has a higher AKI (anti knock index). This basicily means you can squeeze it harder berfore it will combust on it's own becase it's hot.
If the fuel does this before the engine tries to burn it with a spark from the spark plug you have pre-ignition, often called pinking or pinging. (<edit> or knocking, sorry!)
Pinging is not good for the engine as the cylinder is on the upstroke and causes a lot of stress to the components of the engine which are still being compressed further also you will lose power as the engine is now fighting to squash that gas even further..
The 'S' is a supercharged car which means that the whole system is aready under pressure from having lots of extra air rammed into it unlike 'naturally asperated' (sp?) engines so it's engine needs a premium gas that will not ping.
Others have said that the engine management system will detect pinging and compensate with a loss of power, I don't know if this is true or not.

but I belive this is true:
You will not get more power from an engine by putting a higher than recomended gas in. But you may lose power and damage an engine by putting a lower than required grade in.

So it's not the size of the engine or the horse power it delivers but the presure inside it before ignition that determins what grade of gas you need, and primium gas dosent give you a bigger bang, but it allows you to build engins that are at a highr pressure when they ignight, thus it's the engine design not the gas that gives you the extra power.

This is what I have gatherd from reading the other forums. Please feel free to correct me!

Sorry about the spelling i'm at work and typing fast!

 

I'm with JSCOBIE. If you own the Viper, buy the premium for the Mini.

 

>>Yes - the manual does say to use premium. However, we have used a lower grade (as told we could by our service tech) and have noticed no difference in performance.
>>
>>Some will probably tell you to stick with what the manual says - we haved tested the "waters" so to speak........no problem with the performance of the car

Donna/Mike, what are you getting for mileage...and just how much of a "lower grade" are you using? I'm interested 'cause just today someone posted that they feel there's connection between low octane and low fuel economy.

I'm not a chemist/engineer, but this makes sense to me. If the engine is tuned to work with a certain octane -- and there's no denying that the MINI's computer believes that you should be running 93 octane or better -- then it will be working less well with lower octane gas. Lower power, detonation (knocking...whether you actually hear it or not), etc. That seems like it could well translate to poor gas mileage...along with other longer-term problems.

I have to say that I've never heard anyone else report that their MINI service manager said it's ok to run on lower octane gas. True, some people are indeed doing it, but it's definitely at their own risk and not advised.

 

>>
>>You wife has a damn viper and we are supposed to think you dont have the money to buy premium?
>>
>>Buddy, not to be mean but i can show no sympathy. I make so little i had to cancel my MCS order. :evil:

Barneyfifebullet, welcome to MCO!!

(cool username!)

 

>>I use 93 octane gas. I know some states, Ca from what I was told, do not have any gas higher that 89 octane. You have to use what you can get.

Can't CA just like...secede or something?

 

I want to say I did not mean to be harsh or rude, but I was implying, if I had enough to buy a viper, I would definately use premium, even in my lawn mower!

I wish I could own a Viper.

Plus remember the Mini Cooper S is super-charged, and heck get all the performance you can right? Plus it has long been known BMW expects all owners to be able to afford the luxuries of premium to make the engine perform better.

**LizzyBobio** That mullet man scares me!

 

>>I want to say I did not mean to be harsh or rude, but I was implying, if I had enough to buy a viper, I would definately use premium, even in my lawn mower!

Oh! for love of little pupies!

Your Lawn mower will not produce enough compression to require premium! you'r just throwing your money away and making it harder to start your mower! Does nobody read my posts?!

:smile: :smile:

 

Let's do the math. $0.20 +/- more for premium times what, 11 gallons per fill up? You're sweating $2.20 per week? Give me a break!

 

We were told by our motoring advisor to use 89 in the winter and 93 in the summer. When I asked why she said that's what she was told to pass on to the new owners. Any idea why?

 

We have gas higher then 89 octane here in CA!!!