hi,

i m from india, i have just bought a new FL Skoda octavia 1.8TSI petrol,

i am abit confused about which petrol octane 91/95 to use for this engine?? the dealer i bought it from told me to use normal unleaded petrol & not to use 97octane, Over here in india getting anything more then 91octane petrol is DIFFICULT, I guess thats why the dealer has told me to use normal unleaded petrol(91 octane)i am abit confused what to do, the new Octavia over here is called the Laura, it has the same engine specification like the ones available in europe, here are the specifications-

Skoda Laura :: Technical Specifications ::

Its in the first column, i got the 1.8TSI petrol engine, i was thinking of using 97octane fuel for it, what are people over here using in their octavias? nomal unleaded or 95+ octane??

i m so confused :confused:

thanks..

Whilst the (online) handbook specifies 85 RON minimum the UK July brochure on the 1.8TSI specification page says :

Fuel Lead-free petrol with RON 95 or Lead-free petrol with RON 91.

Lower efficiency when using lower RON petrol.

I cannot see how Skoda could expect to sell cars which required a minimum of 95 RON in a country where it's difficult to obtain it so I expect 91 RON would not do any damage and maybe the engine is tuned differently for your market. Perhaps you should confirm what the dealer said with Skoda in India.

Whilst the (online) handbook specifies 85 RON minimum the UK July brochure on the 1.8TSI specification page says :

I cannot see how Skoda could expect to sell cars which required a minimum of 95 RON in a country where it's difficult to obtain it so I expect 91 RON would not do any damage and maybe the engine is tuned differently for your market. Perhaps you should confirm what the dealer said with Skoda in India.

yes, you are right its pretty weird but i dont think the cars are detuned as they are still the same in torque & Hp specification like the european ones, so i guess the engine might have an auto detune mode in the ECU with knocking sensors?? i guess i should fill 95+ octane as the engine will run better?? the place where i live in india(mumbai city) 95+ octane is more easily available.

thanks..

If it's avavilable in some parts of India then the published specification maybe for 95 RON fuel but as you say the ECU etc might detect a lower rating and adjust accordingly. If you have access to 95 RON fuel in your particular locality then you should of course use it. If you need to re-fuel somewhere where only 91 RON is available then I think you would be okay but I would put in only the minimum amount needed and fill up with 95 RON as soon as possible.

what does it say in the fuel cap?

try & run 98ron (do they rate the octane using RON or MON in India?) if possible.

I've run my 1.8TSI on 92, 94e10,95,95e10, 98 &100e10 and it runs the sweetest on 98ron.

95ron sees a slight increase in fuel consumption & a slight reduction in low-end torque.

92 sees a signifcant increase in fuel consumption & a general loss of power throughout the rev range. If you intend to run 92ron in the 1.8TSI then I'd recomend you don't buy it & get the diesel model instead.

98ron is about 20% more expenive to buy in Australia but running costs on 98ron are only a couple of percent more because of the fuel consumption improvements.

Subaru did a very similar thing with the original Liberty 2.5DOHC in Australia. It should have been 98ron minimum & Subaru Australia had an addendum put in the owners manual to say it was OK to run 92ron "occasionally" and that it wouldn't hurt the engine. All the tight-**** Aussies (including my Father) took this as meaning you could run 92ron all the time. It didn't damage the engine but the performance of the 2.5 was less than the basic 2.2 running 92ron. I bought the Liberty off him & it never recovered the performance it should have (so maybe there was some long term damage?).

I would run the best fuel you can buy so that when you are out in the sticks, you can add 92ron without a huge decrease in power/economy.