Better Performance - tip

R

rlc

Member
I've had my A2 1.6FSI for nearly 4 years now, and recently made a great discovery.

Having tried various premium and non-premium, 'plus' fuels, I stumbled into a Shell garage a few months back to fill up.

Saw that new V-Power petrol and gave it a whiz. Noticed an instant improvement, makes the car just drive beautifully. Totally amazing, now I fill up with that whenever possible.

Not wanting to sound like a Shell salesman, I honestly can say other fuels have always had slight performance differences, but not enough to warrant this much hype. Give it a go and let me know what you think...is it just me, or is this really better?
 
even the regular shell makes a difference and this is not my own experience. It is with my scooter, my friend's scooter + car and another friend who borrowed my car. Same opinions exchanged when no one was specifically talking about shell fuels.

V power is good. But try the Tesco 95 (provided by Grenergy), highest octane in the UK apart from bio fuel (bio petrol from Morrison). Tesco 95 really shows its power when my 1.4 is on the motorway.
 
I've tried Shell V-Power and BP Ultimate diesel over the last six tankfuls.

With BP Ultimate there was no difference in mpg and no difference in performance, compared to supermarket fuel.

Shell V-Power also showed no improvement in economy (constant at 63–65mpg), but the car was much smoother, quieter, quicker and pulled even better from low revs. It gets my vote.

Incidentally, I always take economy measurements by brimming the tank, etc, and have found the onboard computer reading to always be within half a per cent of the actual figure.
 
1.6 FSi

Hi All,
I have seen a number of comments on the subject of fuel for FSi engines and I am keen to understand what the "best" fuel is, I have seen comments that advise low sulphur, high octane ......
I have no technical knowledge relating to cars or engines and would be very grateful to hear personal thoughts - Thanks Ric, does anybody else have any experiences or can somebody advise on what VAG recommend and which brand best meets those recommendations

Cheers and Happy Christmas
 
I have always stuck with quality fuel since starting with diesel cars 21 years ago. Having just aquired an A2 TDi I will be taking the first opportunity to try BP Ultimate in it, V Power diesel is not yet available here in the north. From past experience the Ultimate gave smoother running and better mpg especially with a re-mapped engine! I find it takes a couple of tankfuls to get the benefits.
 
Adrian888 said:
I will be taking the first opportunity to try BP Ultimate in it, V Power diesel is not yet available here in the north.
Click to expand...

See my google spreadsheet (link below). My experience was it made hardly any difference and certainly didn't justify the premium price.
 
the highest octane pump fuel is bp ultimate 102(very expensive) then tesco super 99, then shell vpower also 99 octane, i believe everything else "super green" is 97 octane.
i have a lotus 340r track car and have been told by all the specialists only use shell vpower to avoid engine problems.
i'm told most normally aspirated road cars do not have a learning type ecu so would not benefit from super(excluding fsi etc etc).

ps. just trying vpower in my 1.4 to see!!
 
Radical view here , but have you felt how heavy the rear seats are in an A2. I occasionally take mine out if I am going kayaking or biking and dont want the drag on the roof bars, also its usually just myself or my myself and my wife in the car. Anyone worked out the improvement in performance?

One down side is everything start rolling around the boot, since there is no "back" to bulkhead the area. Also you hear saounds from your A2 you never knew were there.

Im going to try for a couple of days and see if I can discern a change in mpg or performance. And yes I have taken the roof bars off.

Things we do to decrease our carbon footprint!
Steve
 
Removing the rear seats does make a difference - I noticed about 3mpg over a 6 week period last year. However, the added practicality, reduced noise and more completeness of the interior made me put the seats back in.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Mike thanks for the metrics, I think you are right its a pity to spoil the look of the A2, also security of thing in the "upper boot" is lost.

Cheers anyway

Steve
 
smoother at low revs

We have a 1.6 FSi and I have recently started using Shell V-Power.
I am concious of the placibo effect but ......... I must say I am impressed by the difference over normal unleaded.
In our car the main difference is when just pottering around town, in 3rd at 1400 revs for example ...
this is notoriously a bad land for the FSi engine - sluggish and unresponsive :mad:
or approaching roundabout slowing down in neutral and oh a gap - quick engage 2nd and we are off (not in an FSi :eek:)

BUT NOW - all is good ....

Never had a problem at cruising speeds, the car has always been very brisk so I cannot really notice any differece here

2 last things - if my driving commentary scares you I can give my reg and description of the car so you can see me coming and avoid me ;)

and if it is all in my head, then it is a nice place to be at the moment :p
 
Having had my A2 for just over a year I have until recently, religiously stuck to super 97 RON unleaded..... however, due to the prices now going through the roof I decided to try a tank of regular 95 RON unleaded and to be honest the car drives so much more smoothly and the throttle responses are spot on, no lag which I was finding when running the super stuff.
My theory is that the car is set up to run on either 95 or 98 Ron fuels and as the super unleaded that most garages sell is only 97 this is confusing the ecu system within the car...another thing to note is that while running the super unleaded the car managed to need four coils replacing.. since the change of fuels the cars been sweet.:cool:
 
Hi AndyC
The 1.6 FSI engine is optimised to run on 98 RON petrol but will run on anything down to 91 RON. As I understand it, the engine is fitted with knock sensors which detect the small engine vibrations caused by pre-ignition under certain load conditions when using lower grade fuel. The ECU then retards the ignition timing to prevent the harmful pre-ignition and this reduces the performance while still allowing the engine to run smoothly.

Cheers Spike
 
so I should look for 98 ron petrol - where in N.Ireland sells this to make my FSI happy. My last car was a v6 3.2 alfa gtv, and petrol was a major cost - I want the extreme other end of the scale here to impress the wife. :cool:
 
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