I have bought a 04 Lupo 1.4 16v Sport I decided to use Optimax fuel as it helped my Octavia to run a lot better. after I had used the car for about a week the engine check light kept coming on the fault code is(17598) so I took the car to my local vw dealer (harperandhebson:finger: who are the most useless stuck up waste of time in the country).

They told me that the exhaust wasn

Anyone had any probs with Optimax?

I hope not' date=' I just put some in my car!!! :rofl[/color']:

I have never had problems with it in the car, but my Triumph gummed up a set of plugs running on optimax. My tuner / engine guru said to stay away from optimax with the bike and go for "standard" 98 octane (as it's mapped to 98).

Maybe something in the additive package for optimax was fooling a sensor or clogging it?

never had a problem with it in the octy though.

I have never had problems with it in the car' date=' but my Triumph gummed up a set of plugs running on optimax. My tuner / engine guru said to stay away from optimax with the bike and go for "standard" 98 octane (as it's mapped to 98).

Maybe something in the additive package for optimax was fooling a sensor or clogging it?

never had a problem with it in the octy though.[/quote']

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Thought 'standard' was 95 ron?

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Tesco 99 ron soopa doopa unleaded works well and the missus gets her clubcard points too...

There has been a couple recent reports looking at Optimax (Auto Express & 5th Gear I think) both with similar conclusions. Optimax and similar fuels in a smaller engined car, such as a 1.4, is a waste of time and money. In fact one test (Sure it was in Auto Express) showed that bhp actually fell when Optimax was used in a 1.4 VW Fox.

There are no gains to be had and it can indeed mess your engine management up as it isn't programmed to adapt to higher Octaine fuels etc.....

It was concluded that Optimax is only worth while in performance cars (Scooby's, Focus ST's, Octy VRS's etc....) where gains of 10bhp + can be had over useing normal 95ron spec fuel...........

Might explain your problems :confused:

read a test on auto express the other day how optimax actually decreased the bhp on a 1.2 polo down by 4/5bhp and the increase on a astra vxr was 40+bhp! i use optimax because its cleaner for the engine notice a very minor differnce but its the way the engine becomes alot more smoother and quieter!!

erm didnt notice the others got there before me, sorry:P

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Thought 'standard' was 95 ron?

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Tesco 99 ron soopa doopa unleaded works well and the missus gets her clubcard points too...

what I meant was just "plain" 98 octane without the optimax additives.

what I meant was just "plain" 98 octane without the optimax additives.

I thought Optimax was 95 ron + additives making it 98ron??

Majority of SUL is 97ron...like BP Ultimate.

BP are bringing that new petrol into certain stations that has an octane rating of 102 (so i hear anyway) anyone else know about this.

BP are bringing that new petrol into certain stations that has an octane rating of 102 (so i hear anyway) anyone else know about this.

Ooh yes, stonking stuff but expensive. I was talking to some of the petrol guru's on the BP Ultimate stand at Goodwood Festival of speed and basically this is specifically for track/performance days not as an everyday fuel, would cost around

I Tried Optimax In my Fabia, 1.4 8v MPI and I was expecting a bit of ectra oomph, and I did get a bit of extra poke. What it also did was make the car stall easily at lower speeds. I don't think it quite adjusted the timing correctly.

Im just using sainsburys SUL 97RON and its fine to me no need to pay the extra 3p a litre for Optimax as far as im concerned

I know that the Scooby had two maps in the ECU, the super-unleaded one and the standard unleaded one. It would try to use the super unleaded one, but if it detected knock, would then switch to the unleaded one. I'm guessing that most non-performance cars don't have two maps (unless they say super unleaded is recommended) so won't be able to benefit from it?

Likewise, I'm not sure the new 102 RON fuel will be of any benefit, unless the car is specifically mapped for it? :confused:

Chris

Am new here, so hi, (just bought a VRS). Please don't think I am trampling in here as a newbie, but I just wanted to answer with what I know, as I also have run a 600bhp 22b, and currently have a 500bhp evo 6.

Strictly speaking all cars should benefit from higher octane fuel, either by producing better performance, or by getting better fuel consumption. This is because they allow the engine to run more advanced timing, which brings it closer to optimum running (without getting too involved). I dont know of any standard cars that have two maps, but they do have the ability to adjust the timing in the one map they have on the fly. They use feed back from a knock sensor, which is effectively a microphone tunedd to listen to specific frequencies in the engine block. If the timing advances too far, you get localised explosions in the fuel which act against the direction of the piston at the wrong time in the pistons stroke. This eventually leads to a hole in the piston. This is (loosely) known as detonation, should be explosive deflagration, but that doesntmatter right now.

Advancing the timing will of course yield far more torque in a more powerful engine as it will be a function of engine max torque.

This can mean it is pointless in smaller engines.

The bad running of some cars, may be due to the excessive detergents in the fuel which can force the engine to clean itself in the initial period and burn off the impurities. I would be surprised if the was really noticable or lasted too long due to the amount of impurity compared with the amount of fuel being burned.

and finally, fyi, optimax is blended from scratch. Unlike other high performance fuels it is not an additive package mixed with 95 ron, such as tescos 99 or BP ultimate was (may have changed now). It therefore is supplied in special tanks, from optimax silos.

Hope that helps and wasn't too annoying a first post!

Great first post

On the optimax front, in evo a couple of months ago they had a rep from Shell in a feature and iirc he did say that Shell fuels can come from the same storage / refinery as other brands and it's all down to the additive package that is used.

So, is the guy from Shell wrong :confused: :confused:

other shell fuels such as 95 unleaded, and diesel will come from the same refinery and then yes, they will add their own additive package.

This is not the same for optimax. optimax cannot be created by adding an additive package at the refinery.