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Does anyone use unleaded 88? I cant find anything from VW that says it is either safe to use or not safe. I can find information that says the minimum octane rating is 87 though.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Thoughts on Unleaded 88
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88 is typically a 15% ethanol based fuel vs. the standard 87/regular with 10% E hence the slight increase in octane rating. I see no reason why you can't run this without issue. 5% E isn't going to have f-all of an impact and will be well within the range of the fuel system's capacity. Just my $0.2...as always, internet so take that for what it's worth.
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Of course you have no issues, VW has tuned the engine to be able to run 87 as the min without issue. 40K/4 years on straight 87 for me with zero drama as would be expected. My graphs earlier in this thread show the difference - you want max performance, towing, mountains,etc.? Run higher octane fuel. Around town normal daily life? Save your money.
I am not putting E-15 fuel in any car that does not say it is approved for use in the car.
The owners manual on our 2021.5 Atlas SEL says minimum 87 octane up to 15% ethanol. The fuel door says 87 octane. The manual also recommends Top Tier fuel, so we use the 87 e10 from Costco here in PA. Not much more expensive than the 88, considering the car is still in warranty and little sceptical about going to the 88 for this reason. We also drive a Flex Fuel Expedition and the 88 runs great and saves us between 50 and 75 cents a gallon.
There are plenty of videos out on the internet with evidence (not subjective) that more ethanol = fewer mpg and less power to your engine because there are fewer BTUs in ethanol than in gasoline. My own experience bears that out. Take an older car (pre-2007) and put pure, non-ethanol gas (which is available in some locales, mine included) and run on exclusively that mix a tank or two, and measure your average mpg. Then run 10% ethanol and be blow away by how much worse your fuel economy is. This is not rocket science. Just because more modern cars can adapt the timing and spark to run "efficiently" on ethanol blends doesn't mean you will get any more power out of it. It's just not there to begin with. I do not want to run "88" through my Atlas, even though it says it's okay to do so for that reason alone. 87 octane regular with 10% ethanol will get you more mpg than 88 octane 15% ethanol.
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Check your owner's manual, E15 is perfectly fine/within the window of fuels that are ok to use.
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That is correct but you need to do the math on the cost difference - 5% E difference will be almost impreceiveable w/r to mpgs but will be cheaper per gallon so may or may not be a better deal..just need to calc it out....it's ~$0.40/gal less than 87/e10. You won't beat it with the slight drop in mpgs...
In my experience the drop is not slight. It is very perceivable. Do not want.
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5%? I run 25% in my Sportwagen and it's minor vs e10 93.
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