My local trusted gas station just dropped their Super Plus pump and added 10 E-10 pumps. They still have 1 Super pump but screwed my normal visits.. Can I run the E-10 in my mini? I'm scared. :shocked:
All we have in Chicagoland is up to 10% ethanol for quite some time.. Car seems to work, but I don't have anything to compare to. I think our government is looking to go to 15% MotoringFile » Archive » Exclusive: BMW Says “NO” To E15 Gas Blend
David.... You shouldn't have a problem. I was running 10% ethanol gas in my 09 without throwing cel's. I found my MINI got better gas mileage with 100% gas and maybe ran better. Ethanol doesn't produce as many BTU's as gasoline. The biggest concern with the adding increasing amounts of ethanol is the corrosive effects on some metals and problems with seals in the fuel system. MINI/BMW has come out against the 15% E-Gas. If I were you, get the 100% stuff when you can, use the 10% E-gas when you can't. And walk when neither is available. Most, if not all "modern" cars built after year XX???, could handle 10% E-gas. Certain auto makers have developed their cars to run on 15% E-gas (they have that emblem with that little green leaf). Not sure what MINI/BMW will do when you can only buy the 15% E-gas. Probably change their fuel systems on the new vehicle production. But for now they have gone on record not supporting the change to 15%. Ethanol gas has a higher octane rating, so with a custom tune you can generate higher HP. But the concerns have always been with fuel system corrosion, and seal issues on cars not designed to handle the E-gas.
Yeah... Our government want's to reduce petroleum imports. You can still get the pure stuff, but the big elephant in the room is 10%. Just outside the room is the 15% elephant...... and you can bet behind that is one with a big 20% decal on it's hide. Our 100% pure elephant unfortunately is slowly withering away.
We have a big oil distribution place here in the Triad and I was told by a fellow who picks up and delivers fuel from there that there is 20% now but it is underestimated for our consumption and well being....another case of the Government protecting us from the truth for our well being.... Right. During the winter we always get it in our gas here and our MPG drops along with it and goes back up in the spring when the gas is pure again.... Another caveat to all this is that the increased use of ethanol in our gas is having an adverse effect on food prices... Whoops.
Certain 3rd world countries are already rioting in the streets due to increased food prices. You guys pulling the wrong strings won't stay in office long if all the people can't even afford to eat Ramen with a small piece of Tofu.
Exactly! The way to reduce foreign dependence on oil is not by replacing it with our food sources... More efficient vehicles, developing better alternate energy scources other than our food and harvesting more of our own fuel reserves is the only way. Then we can break the monopoly that is OPEC. It wont happen in our life times but oil is a finite resource and the future without a viable replacement will not be a pretty place at all.
A few Comments may be a little Hypocritical in a humorous sense from some of us considering we are driving MINIs with internal combustion engines.
True..lol But efficient can be applied across the range... Example my old 1972 Corvette got about 10-12 MPG with a good tail wind; now with today's advancements, a new Corvette with substantially more horse power gets more than double that. So making cars more efficient doesn't always mean slower....heck, forty years from now a new Corvette might have 1000 HP and get 60mpg....lol
It seems I may be ok with the Super they have there. I have been reading up and the Germans list a different rating than the US AKI rating but it seems that the Super plus I have been running is about 95 AKI and we need 91 AKI in the MCS.
Ok, here is an update to this.. After the discussion sparked by this post I jumped into research mode and found one simple statement that was supported everywhere I searched. "run the lowest octane fuel you can run without pinging" This morning I filled up Donkey (cringing) with Super (91 AKI) before my 1 hour 1 way commute.. results? No pinging, may mpg average is up from 33 (cold as crap winter in the low 30's temp) to........ 38-39MPG (bouncing off 44mpg on the MPG gauge)!!! same road, same speed, the engine feels fresher than is has in a while, it snappy to accelerate, it is even running quieter! I have yet to run the Super with my tune but I may this weekend to see how it does. The car is telling me I should be able to accomplish 520 miles to the tank. I has a happy!!:beer
Our cars have knock sensors, you can burn low octane in them, no problem. The ECU just retards the ignition timing. Performance will suffer though. Dave
Remember, they measure octane differently in Europe than they do in the U.S. so you can't really compare the numbers. Dave