Does the 350z HAVE to run on higher octane fuel?

[martinmac]

When I am on a run with the forum I use the higher octane. Otherwise I use what I can get in the sticks. No problems here.

[spursmaddave]

I bet 90% of members couldn't tell if their car was filled up with Supermarket Unleaded of BP Ultimate anyway

[Sarnie]

I bet 90% of members couldn't tell if their car was filled up with Supermarket Unleaded of BP Ultimate anyway

 

Exactly.

[JetSet]

Average price difference around me is +7p for Super over normal Unleaded...

 

Yeah, profit margins on 95 octane are very tight, they make a good profit on Super though.

 

Pete

[spursmaddave]

I bet 90% of members couldn't tell if their car was filled up with Supermarket Unleaded of BP Ultimate anyway

 

Exactly.

 

Exchange the Petrol bit with any of the following -

 

Tyres

Air Intake

Brake Pads

Exhaust

 

[BulletMagnet]

Only thing I know is that when I filled a motorbike tank at Shell with V-Power, that on a full tank I could see to the bottom of the tank.

Filling up at Sainsburys, I could not see to the bottom of the tank, because the fuel was cloudy.

 

I only feed the Zed V-Power.

[JetSet]

Only thing I know is that when I filled a motorbike tank at Shell with V-Power, that on a full tank I could see to the bottom of the tank.

Filling up at Sainsburys, I could not see to the bottom of the tank, because the fuel was cloudy.

 

I only feed the Zed V-Power.

 

Without going into the rights and wrongs of using V-Power there is no way that any petrol should be cloudy or hazy. There are very strict standards applying to fuel and a batch of hazy petrol would be rejected straight away. Cloudiness would mainly be caused by small globules of water from steam cleaning a tank without drying it out properly but there are other reasons, for example, rust in a holding tank, contamination from a different product, dirty hoses, etc. This kind of thing was pretty common in the 70's, should have been cleared up by now though.

 

Pete

[un1eash]

Our old C2 VTS use to run rubbish on Tesco unleaded but fine on BP/Shell so i tend to avoid there normal stuff now. I always put 95 Ron in my 350Z as i only drive around town and it seems fine, will be trying Shell v power next time i run my tank down though.

 

On the Swift Sport forum i was told by members that the Sport has to run on Super Unleaded and if you dont it will damage the engine and they can tell and wont pay out on any warranty work. Lets just say i dont believe everything i read on the net.

[nzd31155]

the car will adjust to run on the lower grade fuel. some cars deal with it better than others. lower fuel generally loses you about 20-30 bhp and worse fuel economy,

 

wow 20-30bhp?! that's more of a difference than I'd thought, makes me feel a bit better on filling up with the expensive stuff now!

[un1eash]

Watch the fifth gear test they did a while back and make up your own mind about power....

 

[spursmaddave]

I remember seeing that on 5th Gear, would the difference be a lot more on a car with a big turbo though against a NA engine. In the same way that you can get HUGE gains on a turbo against NA does it follow that more can be lost through poor condition / lesser fuel

[Cal]

Was in Ellesmere Port getting tyres for the Zed on Friday... was really low on juice, had to put a tenner 'Murco' standard petrol in my Fairlady to get me home.

 

Been topped up with V Power and Ultimate since, but on the way home today the car had started to splutter/kangaroo and pass black smoke, pulled over and the car struggled to idle/electrical power dwindled. No engine lights came on as far as I know.

 

Have I knackered my car?

 

I have searched... come up with stuff like ECU reset, O2/MAF sensor, injectors etc... if anyone can help a worried noob I'd be extremely appreciative.

[Sarnie]

Sounds like you put diesel in

[kcw1556]

iv bin runnin my zed on tesco 99 for a while now & its runnin sweet as a nut & it aint that much more expensive really, i dont think so anyway.

[JetSet]

Sounds like you put diesel in

 

 

That was my first thought too, but you don't get far once you've put it in, a couple of miles if you're lucky. Fairly easy to rule it out though just by smell alone. A common problem years ago was water or rust in the fuel, that would certainly make it splutter. Could be one of many things though, fuel, alternator, battery, belt tension, difficult to pin it down. Have you managed to get the car home?

 

Pete

[Cal]

Car is home fine Pete cheers, the electrical power thing was literally just when it wanted to cut out in idle, it's fine holding power.

 

Take it to the stealers? Or book it into local garage probably not experienced with Zed's

[Cal]

Just tried leaving it idle from cold now, splutters... Idles gently rises and falls in RPM, eventually want to cut out and battery light comes on.

[JetSet]

Hmm, could be a partial blockage somewhere. It's possible that if you were very low on fuel then adding more would have stirred up something already in the bottom of the tank. It might work its way through in a day or two. Kangaroo jumping is usually a symptom of fuel starvation and that's probably as good as any a place to start looking.

 

 

Pete

[Cal]

Shoved a jerry can of V-Power in, and Wynn's injector cleaner... same story, loads of black smoke and cuts out

[Watshot]

Unless it's something obvious, like your intake hanging off and screwing with the maf, you're not going to know until you hook it up to read the fault codes. Most places should be able to do that without getting too hands on, giving you the option to go elsewhere when you identify the fault. Don't assume it's 'bad fuel' just because that's when it appeared to start playing up. There will have been hundreds of vehicles through the same station and if there had been a problem to that extent it would probably have made the news! Hope it gets sorted without too much bother.

[Daryl]

Our old C2 VTS use to run rubbish on Tesco unleaded but fine on BP/Shell so i tend to avoid there normal stuff now. I always put 95 Ron in my 350Z as i only drive around town and it seems fine, will be trying Shell v power next time i run my tank down though.

 

On the Swift Sport forum i was told by members that the Sport has to run on Super Unleaded and if you dont it will damage the engine and they can tell and wont pay out on any warranty work. Lets just say i dont believe everything i read on the net.

 

My Mrs has a 58 plate SSS,and they told her at the dealership that up to a certain reg,the car had to be run on high octane fuel,but i think that my Mrs one says on the fuel flap 98+ octane,but il check.

Iv told her since she got it to run it on super,and she even tells me when she occasionally has to put normal stuff in,and the car is performs badly,so that puts her off anyway. She puts in Tesco 99.

[Cal]

Ok, ran injector cleaner and v-power through it yesterday... cleared up and ran sweet as for a day.

 

Now it's developed a sharp knocking noise under acceleraltion, kill me now.

[Neilp]

Our old C2 VTS use to run rubbish on Tesco unleaded but fine on BP/Shell so i tend to avoid there normal stuff now. I always put 95 Ron in my 350Z as i only drive around town and it seems fine, will be trying Shell v power next time i run my tank down though.

 

On the Swift Sport forum i was told by members that the Sport has to run on Super Unleaded and if you dont it will damage the engine and they can tell and wont pay out on any warranty work. Lets just say i dont believe everything i read on the net.

 

My Mrs has a 58 plate SSS,and they told her at the dealership that up to a certain reg,the car had to be run on high octane fuel,but i think that my Mrs one says on the fuel flap 98+ octane,but il check.

Iv told her since she got it to run it on super,and she even tells me when she occasionally has to put normal stuff in,and the car is performs badly,so that puts her off anyway. She puts in Tesco 99.

my swift sport is run on normal shell fuel save stuff constantly and runs a treat.

[Dblock]

Ok, ran injector cleaner and v-power through it yesterday... cleared up and ran sweet as for a day.

 

Now it's developed a sharp knocking noise under acceleraltion, kill me now.

 

any fault codes? Best get it to a garage if they are open?

[Mark@Abbey m/s]

knocking noise , detonation maybe? was you running low on fuel when you added the injector cleaner?

 

Do a ECU reset and make sure the ca rid fille dup with Super before running it again.

 

But reading the problem I suspect a Air flow meter problem , Zmanalex can supply these as a good price at the moment.