Which Fuel For Road Use?

[ian010778 21]

Hi all,

 

Just wondering if there is much opinion out there regarding which fuel I should use for everyday road use?

 

I've always been led to believe that my 205 would only be happy on 4 star, and following the phase out either super unleaded or regular unleaded with additive.

 

However, the last 'professional' mechanic that worked on my car had a little book that stated my 205 would run fine on normal unleaded.

 

Obviously with the current price of fuel I don't want to be using super or be buying additive unneccisarily but I'm a bit dubious about filling her up with regular unleaded due to advice I was given back in the day.

 

The car is a standard 1.6 XU5JA registered in August '89 and I don't think she has a CAT but in all honesty I'm not 100% sure about the engine/spec' as when I put my registration into sites such as the GSF parts website it comes back with different spec's which conflict with information I located regarding engine type and CAT/non-CAT here which I have corroborated with my car's registration plate.

 

As always, any help and/or advice appreciated.

 

 

Ian.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

89 car should not have a CAT. Only way to know for sure is to look underneath for one, but it is fair to say with 99% certainty that it won't have one.

 

Fuel wise you can use either, the ignition timing needs to be optimised to whichever you will use, using higher octane super unleaded means you can advance the timing and get more power. Vice versa for normal unleaded which will need retarding and you will get less. The 1600's are a bit less sensitive, the 1900's when retarded can be flat as a fart.

[Anthony 1,003]

1.6 GTi's were never sold with a CAT

 

As Tom says, 1.6 GTi's can have the ignition timing knocked back a touch to safely run on regular unleaded (95RON) without issue - if it's anything like just about every 1.6 GTi that I've owned, you'll likely find that it's already been done by/for a previous owner (or wear and tear of the dizzy internals has given a similar effect)

[ian010778 21]

Cheers guys,

 

I'll give her a run on a tank of 95RON regular and see how I get on - super's getting a little bit rare around my way and it would be great if I can move onto regular.

 

 

IP

[welshpug 1,657]

you're in Leicester, surely every garage does SUL?!

[ian010778 21]

I only know one locally (it's a Sainsbury's) and it only has 2 pumps which both close after the rush hour peak.

 

Yes I have, in the past, got them to open a pump for me at about 11.30pm

[welshpug 1,657]

SUL is everywhere here, never had a problem finding it.

 

We've even got Vpower diesel everywhere too

Edited March 6, 2012 by welshpug

[matt.f 16]

Use super unleaded(v power)in all my cars,remember years ago when reading an old Fast ford mag that one very well known tuner had run tests on two new engines exactly the same and when stripped down the car running on super unleaded was a lot better