Has anyone ran less that Premium fuel ? I see the manual says that you can run 89 that seem to be the mid grade ?

 

I have run lower grade gas without any issues. However, studies have been done on other turbo 4s (non-MINIs) and found that premium fuel is cheaper per mile than mid grade gas. From what I understand, to run the lower grade gas the engine has to retard and timing so it is decreasing its power and mpg in the process. So in the end, the car will run on 89 but 91 will probably give you more power, higher mpg, and lower cost per mile.

 

I get the same mpg whether I buy 89 or 91. Most of the time it is 89 for me...

 

This question has been asked many times on this forum and the answer is still the same. High performance engines require high performance fuel. Simple as that. Trying to be economical by running cheaper fuel is penny wise and pound foolish every day of the week.

http://www.toptiergas.com/index.html
http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?

 

Running 89 is approved...so no problem running. If 91 is what you like go for it.

 

89 will run just fine, I wouldn't call a 181 Hp 1.6 exactly high performance.If MINI says it's ok then you can bet it is as MFG usually are on the cautious side. Maybe if it's 90+ and you are running the hills but day to day it's fine.

But you can also look at it as the price diff is normally about 10 cents per gallon so you are saving a whopping $1.20 +-

 

The term high performance is derived from the fact that the little 4 cylinder engine under the bonnet is designed by virtue of head clearance, stroke, valve clearance and a couple of other cute ideas to provide more horsepower than it could normally provide. The compression ratio is decidedly different than your average commuter box. So yes, it is. If it weren't, what would be attraction to MINI and the proliferation of aftermarket competition equipment?

 

Just use What THE MANUAL FOR YOUR TYPE OF MINI CALLS FOR....
for a gen1 prem is needed, but this is a gen2 countryman thread...diff motor.

 

Hey Zippy.... can you clarify generation 1 vs generation 2? Is a 2011 (1) and 2012 (2)? So if I own a 2011 I should use premium gas?

 

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Fords 1.6 turbo makes 178 HP I wouldn't call that high performance. They make aftermarket parts for the early 100+HP civics so that doesn't make it high performance either. To be honest when I floor my mini the last thing I think is high performance but that's me.

 

i would think any motor that was able to make 100hp per liter would be high performance. so a mustang 5.0 liter should make 500hp right?

 

2011 is 2nd gen.

 

So what's considered 1st Generation?

 

No more like 700+with boost As the mini without boost makes 120

Like I said I personally don,t consider this anywhere near high performance I guess some others do. But in the end this was about octane and Even though I choose to run93 if mini says 89 is ok that tells me that it is.

 

For most models, 2002 - 2006. iirc, verts didn't switch until 2009.

 

I use bananas and miller beer in my mr diffusion. I only need to get up to 88 miles per hour

 

You would be wrong! It is not an agree to disagree proposition.

The Prince 1.6L is definitely a high performance engine. The Compression ratio is in excess of 11:1, it is direct fuel injected and has a very high HP to weight ratio.

High performance is not about speed, it is about getting the most power from what displacement you have.

Yes, Ford's new ecoboost engine is also high performance although the compression ratio in the 10:1 range.

Most engines have compression ratios of 8 or 9 to 1. Anything in the 11 or above range will most likely need high octane fuel to prevent early detonation.

Porsche's state-of-the-art new Boxster engine has a 12.5:1 compression ratio
for comparison.

 

Like I said I don't agree, compression isn't the only determination of high performance. Ecoboost high performance? That must be why they call it ECO boost.

There are 4 cyl motors out there that I would consider hp just not this one. 120 hp without boost is a joke and 181 with isn't impressive to me either. But like I said this was about octane and I would rather listen to the people that built the car instead of some guy on the Internet that thinks he knows what he is talking about.

 

2002-2006 hardtop, non s and s (r-50+r53), and 2005-2008 cabrio, s and non s(r52).
These gen1 cars all had the Tri-tech motor...
The Prince motor was introduced on the new chasis...hence the seperation in gen1 to gen2.
I pointed that out because some folks think of all mini's as just mini's...but due to the motor changes, there are differances....
Heck even among the prince engine gen2 cars, there are some pretty major differences...look at rhe specs for cars with vvt as compared to without in gen2. I just saw a fellow gen1 owner trying to tell a gen2 owner about their car, and figured i habetter point out this was a gen AND model specfic thread...not a general thread...
The important thing is to use the octane reccomed in YOUR manual...never less..
More, in some cases allows the computer to add timing to make more hp, but less can cause detonation, ping and other major engine dammage.

 

It also dependd on where you live...in the northeast, we have 93 or 94, with 90 being mid...
in the west or ca, 90 or 91 can be the top grade.....so hence a bit of the confusion...

 

For me personally,
I have used both and I do get a Few more miles out of the higher grade gas.
And in actuality, On a fill up, It's about $2.20 more

 

A Service adviser mentioned to me they have fuel testing equipment at all BMW service centers for this reason.