Oh! Oh oh! Do they make lavender scented fuel additives? I'd go for some of that!

 

How about Grape ?
When you have been playing with cars for 30 years you get to know things.


http://www.speedwaymotors.com/p/1656...-Additive.html



FUEL FRAGRANCE ADDITIVE

Fuel Fragrance Additive
Amaze your friends! Cover up the smell of exotic fuels! Just add one 4 oz. bottle of this concentrated fuel fragrance to 30 - 55 gallons alcohol or you can add 4 oz. of fuel fragrance to 20 gallons of gas or nitromethane and you are ready to run. Scented Top Lube
If you're going to add a top lube to your alcohol or nito fuel, it might as well smell good! One 16 ounce bottle treats 55 gallons.

 

I had a '97 land rover discovery that specified premium gas but other owners told me it was optional. Turns out they were wrong; I had a throttle blow open during a mountain drive, then many times had starting problems. Finally switched to premium and all the problems went away.

 

I plan on using Shell premium v-power gas. It's additives are supposed to keep the engine clean and help performance. IMO, It really is worth the extra $5 per fill.

 

Fenimor......That's me! I own a Mini Clubman automatic with steering-wheel paddles for easy transmission changes. I don't know how/when to use this new gadget. I also am having trouble setting my personal computer preferences. Now, I realize my short comings on the computer but I really do need some help here. My dealer wasn't too helpful. HELP. Fenimor

 

Fenimor......That's me! I own a Mini Clubman automatic with steering-wheel paddles for easy transmission changes. I don't know how/when to use this new gadget. I also am having trouble setting my personal computer preferences. Now, I realize my short comings on the computer but I really do need some help here. My dealer wasn't too helpful.PLEASE SEND HELP. Fenimor[/quote]

 

1. it's a gimmick. they all claim to have additives that "_____".

2. the manual states to use gas w/o additives, 91+ octane, and atmost 10% ethanol (I believe; correct me if I'm wrong). but like I said, the 'additives' claimed in gas is bs, and isn't so great that it effects anything major.



In theory, you should be able to run 87 or 89 octane if you had to. Cars these days are equipped with knock sensors that retards the timing when lower octane gas is used...lower octane, earlier combustion, need to retard timing.

The only time I really noticed 'crappy gas' was when I was on my 600RR, and got some gas in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. I experienced some bogging, pretty much for that load of gas.

 

+1

One of the things we do here at work is design fueling hydrant sytems. I can tell you that BP, Phillips, Citgo, etc...all use the same pipelines. When one is done pumping 20 million barrels, the other starts. They dont drain the pipeline, so a good portion of what ends up in a BP truck could be Citgo, or Marathon, or whatever. "Top Tier" is marketing bologna. Nearly all gas is of very very high quality when compared to the old days, or other nations. I dont worry as much about brand as I do grade. Premium when I can, but if I cant get it, Im not worried about it either. The engine wont blow up, and wont hurt anything in the long run.

 

You can always check your spark plugs to see how rich (or lean, for the pessimists) you are running.

I'm new to the Mini world, but I believe they run pretty rich out of the box.

 

My Mini is on order so I do not have an owner's manual, but what about altitude? The manual for my current car states that I can use a lower octane gas if you are driving above 5,000 ft.

 

Octane Booster... Fuel Fragrance... Fuel Lubricant.....

Ha! Here in the South we just brew our own fuel and that way if we need to we can also drink it...

 

is that you can't stuff as much oxygen into the cylinder, so you won't get to the ragged edge of tuning and knock induced timing retardation won't occure. Sounds good but I've yet to see any data one way or another. Ask those that live in/around Denver!

Matt

 

In a naturally-aspirated car (no forced induction like a supercharger/turbocharger), the reduced atmospheric pressure at high altitude limits the maximum cylinder pressure, so you can get away with lower-octane gas (most studies show the reduction to be about a 0.5-1.0 decrease in required AKI per 1,000 feet), which is why the highest octane available is often 91 AKI in high-altitude locations.

Unfortunately, supercharged and (especially) turbocharged engines do a better job of regulating intake pressure regardless of atmospheric pressure, so they could probably take full advantage of higher-octane fuel, even at high altitude.

You're not going to hurt anything running 91 octane at high altitudes, but it's possible that you won't be getting the maximum possible performance with it, either.

 

US and UK MINIs have the same engines, and UK MINIs need 91-98... I just use super - runs better and more efficiently. Also the oil lasts longer - less servicing!

 

For reference, octane is measured differently in the UK than in the US. So a range of 91-98 in the UK ("Research Octane") is 87-94 in the US ("Pump Octane")

...and gas doesnt have anything to do with oil life...

 

When I filled up my MINI for the first time, I didn't think and put in Regular. I wondered what was wrong with her. DUH, so next time I put in 89 (haven't seen 91 here). There was a noticible improvement and I was happy. But, just the other day, I noticed 93 was cheaper than the 89 I filled up with before. OMG my baby purrs like she's meant to. I think I'm gonna be stuck with 93 from now on.

 

I purchased a pre-owned MC from a private party despite the fact that I felt the engine needed tuning. After running two tanks of premium fuel through the car, it began to perform like a different vehicle. I later learned that the party who sold the car to me had started using regular grade fuel as prices began to escalate. There is no comparison in performance between the two grades. 91 or higher octane is the only way to fly.

 

I have had a similar experience to stjohn7 in that when I started running 95octane compared to the 91 that I had been using the MINI has responded with a powerful growl and extra umph.

 

I've read through several pages of this topic and I am surprised that so many people have wildly fluctuating average MPG between regular and premium. I live in Georgai and my daily commute is 42 miles each way with about 35 of that highway. I leave home early so my highway mileage is usually nonstop and the average speed is probably about 70mph on the highway portion. I used only 93 octane in my '05 MCS conv. auto since I bought her. When prices got crazy a few months ago I switched over to 87. Before doing this I kept a close eye on my avg. mpg on each tankful of premium to see if I would ultimately be saving any money in switching to 87. I averaged 27.9 to 28.4 mpg on premium. This was over 8 tankfulls. Since switching over to 87 I've averaged 27.6-28.0 So I have experienced a .3-.4 mpg difference. That's always driving the same route. Any ideas why some people have great variances between grades while I've experienced almost no difference? I assume it's the higway driving that results in my near same experience on grades.

Thanks,

Ron B.

 

I think the large percentage of highway driving is the reason. I tracked my mileage on a cross-country interstate drive, purposely alternating between the highest octane I could find and the lowest I could find at each gas stop. The MPG didn't seem to correlate at all with the grade of gas I was using. There may have been differences, but if there were, they were swamped by other variances like altitude, temperature, winds, average speed, etcetera.

 

Speaking for florida, i use the midgrade since all the fuel in south fla (with the exception of BRANDED marathon stations are now 10% ethanol)..believe me this is my business i know about it, and even though your mileage is LESS with ethanol, burns hotter blah blah blah the octane level is higher, i use to use nothing but premium and once we went total ethanol i started running midgrade and have no discernible difference, the only good thing about ethanol is that UNLIKE conventional gas where you can have up to and even more than 2" of water in the tank at the station, ethanol has phase separation when water is present and it also turns milky to a degree so the station owners have no choice but to stay on top of it, at least the ones we deal with at my company do. I also think there is a difference whether you have the "s" model or just the base model like i do, One thing i do know, on my next custom mini purchase within the next few years i will be getting a s model, i just feel the need for performance and i like it, and btw this is my first post here, cant believe it took me so long to find this website, glad you guys are here and hopefully i can gain mucho mini knowledge with the help of those of you more knowing than i, thanks for reading.

 

Dang, I've been running el-cheapo gas in my twin-turbo Bimmer. I can't imagine how much faster that car can be. The last two factory delivery representatives both told me the "super" grade was only recommended and not a necessity. My last car I drove with reg unleaded for 3 years and 30,000 miles. Hmmm, this one has been 1 1/2 years and 5,000 miles. Good thing I found this out before my race with one of those new Dodge sedans with the HEMI... hate to lose a race. Guess I need to go spend the extra moola.

 

Wow, I didn't know that so many were in the dark about this.

If that's the case, to all that don't know...please do your homework on ALL fuilds that run through your car.

I was going to write out a long post, but just remember a few things: make sure that cheap, conventional oil is not used (i.e. Jiffy Lube/your local corner gas station oil changes), never use tap water to mix coolant, it's always ok to do oil changes early. I personally would check the oil once a week/2 weeks to check the color and level.

 

Well, I used to use only 91 octane when I first got mine, I would never use any less than that. If you were told to put a fan in your computer so it doesn't overheat, you'd do it, even if you wouldn't see the effects right away, overtime it does it damage.

But trust me, the day I started to try 93 octane out, WOW what a feeling! Suddenly the shifts were smoother, and the acceleration was consistent. It might not make it much faster, but trust me, It really makes a dramatic difference when you first use it, and you wont want to go back!

 

My car never had anything less than 93 Octane until I was on a roadtrip and came into a situation where the highest Octane I could find was 92 Octane. I'm sure it's just coincidence, but later that week I had a trouble code for an O2 sensor. Since then it's come back periodically, despite staying at 93 Octane but it seems less frequent as time goes on. I figure with my pulley and the fact that it's always had 93 Octane I should just stick with it and enjoy whatever minuscule power gains it might give me for what's at most a few cents more per gallon.