Dodgy fuel

Personally not been affected by the dodgy (allegedly, your Honour :-) ) fuel, but limp mode on Audis works the same on all cars - usually restricting engine revs to half the maximum, and generally running like a bag of $h!t. Whatever caused the limp mode, the stored fault codes from the ECU will need clearing, and provided the original cause of the limp mode trigger has been eliminated, all will be fine again.

Have you been affected, Mick, or know anyone who has?

Rgds, Sean

Thankfully not to date Sean (fingers crossed) :)

I have an A6 and wondered how the big beast would behave in that scenario.

Shell V-power - so not in the zone thankfully.

Mick

Dunno about others, but my new A3 3.2 can get by on 87 Octane. I've tried it and it runs well enough. It doesn't hurt the gas milage or performance for conservative driving but the engine wimps out when you stomp down the throttle.

My wife put a tankful of regular in my car last year. Same deal, didn't run terribly but I could definitely tell when I tried to spool up the turbo. I do put mid-grade (89) in occasionally and the performance and mileage are the same as with 91+.

Dan D '04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6 Central NJ USA

It isn't about octane, but contaminated fuel...

Over in the UK btw we only have the choice of 95 or 97 octane fuel, nothing as weak as 87.

In most countries (including all of Europe and Australia) the "headline" octane that would be shown on the pump is the RON, but in the United States and some other countries the headline number is the average of the RON and the MON, sometimes called the Anti-Knock Index (AKI), Road Octane Number (RdON), Pump Octane Number (PON), or (R+M)/2. Because of the 8 to 10 point difference noted above, this means that the octane in the United States will be about 4 to 5 points lower than the same fuel elsewhere: 87 octane fuel, the "regular" gasoline in the US and Canada, would be 91-92 in Europe. However most European pumps deliver 95 (RON) as "regular", equivalent to 90-91 US (R+M)/2.

In high altitude areas of the USA you can purchase 85 AKI fuel which most normally aspirated cars happily digest with no problems. My 5000CS gets

87 most of the time and is glad to get it...

Interesting. I wonder if the article meant to say "silicone" rather than "silicon". Silicon is an element resembling a rock. It won't get past the fuel filter in any quantities that would damage an O2 sensor. Silicone, on the other hand, can be an oil that's soluble in gasoline. It is very heat resistant but it will still burn into a powdery mix of silicone dioxide and silicon carbide. Even small amounts of silicone in the fuel could wear down engine parts or glaze over an oxygen sensor.