wizard Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 I wouldn't personally run a zed (especially an import one) on anything below 97. I always run vpower. Regarding the tesco HO vs vpower debate. I was told by a tuner over the weekend who was mapping my mates civic that Tesco can be pretty hit and miss as to the quality you get, but vpower is pretty consistently good! My mate had a mixture of vpower and tesco and the tuner kept hearing det during and had to keep clawing back the timing. His opinion was that this could be due to poor quality fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Well that's my only option, but all those are only RON 97 and I really wanted the 98/99 that the car requires, not only to be OCD about it, but also because I don't know what fuel has been used in the car in it's previous lives. Also, I was looking forward to doing the 97 v 99 MPG comparison. As I said earlier, you will be perfectly fine on 97RON. It's the difference between 95 and 97+ that causes issues, not 97 and 99. My Zed was run on 97 and loved it, as is the 911 and the Impreza. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Well that's my only option, but all those are only RON 97 and I really wanted the 98/99 that the car requires, not only to be OCD about it, but also because I don't know what fuel has been used in the car in it's previous lives. Also, I was looking forward to doing the 97 v 99 MPG comparison. As I said earlier, you will be perfectly fine on 97RON. It's the difference between 95 and 97+ that causes issues, not 97 and 99. My Zed was run on 97 and loved it, as is the 911 and the Impreza. Do I really have to post my 2 rons pic again 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 If there ever was an invitation to, pretty sure that's it right there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 If there ever was an invitation to, pretty sure that's it right there! A difference of One Ron is ok A difference of Two Rons not so good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wesmin Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Went to fill up at Tesco's after alms running the tank dry at the weekend, only to find that it doesn't sell 99, then after checking the website, I discovered that Tesco 99 is only available on the mainland. So, that affectively means I can not put the correct fuel into the Zed as the only garages within 20 miles are BP, Texaco, Jet etc, not even a Shell. I might sent Tesco a little email notifying them of this, as there are probably quite a few people around here who would love to put 99 in their cars. Hi kyle I emailed Tesco last September to no avail, just got a reply back that it wouldn't be available in NI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleR Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 As I said earlier, you will be perfectly fine on 97RON. It's the difference between 95 and 97+ that causes issues, not 97 and 99. My Zed was run on 97 and loved it, as is the 911 and the Impreza. Yea I'm not really all that concerned about it being the right fuel, as after reading this thread through i've learnt that 97 will be ok to keep the car happy. It's more the point that I can't use the fuel recommended for the car and i'm sure other cars too as it's not available. More principle than anything else. Plus as I mentioned before about the mileage comparison between 97 and 99, it would have been interesting as Tesco 99 is a god few pennies cheaper than BP's 97. I'm sure it would have only been 1- 1.5mpg, but considering our cars high fuel usage, it could have saved a decent amount of cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleR Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Hi kyle I emailed Tesco last September to no avail, just got a reply back that it wouldn't be available in NI. hey wesmin, looks like you're in the same boat as me I may have found a closer Shell than Belfast in Banbridge, if it's still there, but it'll still be a 24 mile round trip for me to get the 99, which would leave me 5 miles down on a tank. There used to be one less than a km from me and then a bp a few hundred yards down the road, but they closed the BP, changed the Shell to BP then opened and brand new BP practically next door to me. If it was still there i'd even pay the extra penny or 2 for V-Power over BP Ultimate for the sake of the comparison. It's rather annoying that they're just saying it won't be available. I don't see the difference in putting it in mainland forecourts and here, especially as there is no competition for HO fuel over 97 in this country. It seems like an open market that Tesco could cheaply and easily corner as it's 100 times cheaper for Tesco to ship some 99 to it's forecourts here than Shell opening up stations. It's another typical example of us in this wee country getting shafted once again! Rant over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Plus as I mentioned before about the mileage comparison between 97 and 99, it would have been interesting as Tesco 99 is a god few pennies cheaper than BP's 97. I'm sure it would have only been 1- 1.5mpg, but considering our cars high fuel usage, it could have saved a decent amount of cash. There won't be any noticeable consumption change, the difference between 97 and 99 isn't that pronounced. You'd get better consumption by altering your driving style than you would changing fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleR Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 There won't be any noticeable consumption change, the difference between 97 and 99 isn't that pronounced. You'd get better consumption by altering your driving style than you would changing fuel. You're 100% correct, I had it up to 39.2mpg according to the computer on Sunday for half an hour or so, until I had to find a parking space in a very busy carpark, then it dropped to about 27/28 and it's stayed there ever since. However, the average is only 21, but i've never seen the mpg drop below 27 since filling up and resetting on Sunday? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 You're not driving it properly, clearly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleR Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 You're not driving it properly, clearly haha The road was awful! Not even close to being smooth and pretty narrow with no road markings, you know the sort! Going any faster would have either left me with sciatica and probably a large bill to foot for new suspension... hmmmm nice excuse to get coil overs. I could be down that road again pretty shortly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertfox Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Well the car that started this is now back on the road. New post to tell all..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaDMaXX Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Has anyone tried driving for a tank at the recommended change speeds in the manual? They're crazy low, 33mph in 6th, suggest 2.5k changes. Anyway, my mpg goes up considerably, even though driving this way and revving this low, goes against all i know about engines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Remember you have a 3.5l lump under the bonnet, it has a lot of torque low down, so 2.5kRPM really isnt labouring the engine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaDMaXX Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Oh, that's not the problem, though the torque this particular engine produces is impressive. The point i'm making is that your'e cruising just below 1500 rpm.... Check it anyway, i found good results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Oh, that's not the problem, though the torque this particular engine produces is impressive. The point i'm making is that your'e cruising just below 1500 rpm.... Check it anyway, i found good results. thats what big engines are supposed to do, my v8 is only just over 2k when cruising at 70mph, i think the zeds v6 sits at about 2.5k at 70 from what i remember. compared to a 4 pot which would be at about 3.5k rpm at 70. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deklan Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Always V-Power get a points card and get some money off each time you fill up and collect cool lego cars! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H1979 Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Apologies for resurrecting such an old thread, but it seemed more appropriate than any other thread I found and didn’t want to start a new one. I’m considering buying a 350z at some point in the near(ish) future and was curious about a couple of things regarding the use of 97+ ron petrol. Firstly I think I’m going to narrow my search down to reasonably low mileage cars so that if the previous owner has used lower ron then the potential damage would be minimum, is this a reasonable assumption or could the damage be done in as little as say 20k? Also, are there any obvious signs on the face of things that would indicate lower ron has been used? I appreciate there are no flashing lights saying ‘this has been fuelled with 95 ron, stay clear’. And finally I notice that a couple of you have had re-builds to fix this or at least have some money set aside if/when a re-build is required. What sort of money are we talking for this? Thanks in advance for your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 In theory as previously mentioned the ECU should be able to adjust the fueling and timing maps to accommodate the lower grade, however because the DE ECU has no knock control over 5K RPM it very much depends on how its been used, IE if the previous owners have been frequently been reving the engine to the red-line, then it could have caused damage even at 30K miles, if you wanted to put your mind at rest, then getting a compression and leak-down test done would give you an idea of the condition of the piston rings/bore which is where the det damage would affect. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H1979 Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Z Veteran - thanks for the reply. I did read about the 5k revving bit, wasn't sure how quickly the damage would take to happen based on what I read. Compression and leak-down test, is this something that all garages would be able to do and how much are these likely to cost? I've just found another thread where you mention you can buy the compression kit yourself, is this a DIY job then? What about the leak down test? Sorry if this info is available elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Not all garages will be able to perform a leak-down test, but most can compression test, but leak-down is more conclusive, for the costs involved in buying your own kit for doing a leak down test, its better to go with a garage, you can buy a compression tester for £20 and do this your self, if go this route just ask and I will tell you how if a how to doesn't exist here. Unfortunately det can cause damage very quickly if severe, milder det will just accumulate damage until the ring lands break and at this point the rings will quickly follow causing bore damage as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H1979 Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Thanks for the info and offer of a how to Tricky. Ideally is want to be doing such tests before buying the car, obviously not possible. If I go with the one I have my eye on I may take out a warranty, would this sort of thing be covered under a warranty? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Very unlikely. The manual says to use 98RON, the big sticker in the fuel flap says 98RON, if the damage was caused by not using 98RON then it's user error. Might not be your error, but they wouldn't pay out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delz0r Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 I still don't understand how all the Irish 350s haven't blown to bits, there has been no super unleaded here since 2007. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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