Shell Optimax etc

In alt.autos.ford.focus Robin Smith :

IMHO, complete nonsense in addition to respectable rip-off. The Focus ignition/injection system is programmed to use the petrol quality outlined in your owners manual by Ford nothing else.

Sure it would be great, just filling up your car with this magic fuel and have your engine run like Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, while reducing fuel consumption.;)

This subject has been done to death on the FFOC forums but here is my tuppence worth...

There is definitely a (slight) performance benefit in using Optimax over 95 RON fuel, but whether it's worth the extra cash for that alone is very debatable.

The main improvememnt I noticed was that the engine appeared to run more smoothly and was slightly more responsive.

My consumption stats for a 2.0 Focus are:

95 RON: 32.28 mpg over 28173 miles 97 RON: 29.89 mpg over 7996 miles 98 RON: 30.65 mpg over 4517 miles

As you can see, the economy figures for standard unleaded are best.

I'm sure Optimax could produce similar results, but when you've forked out a significant premium for it, you're going to use every last drop of extra performance it gives. Unfortunately as far as fuel economy is concerned, the greatest performance benefit over standard fuel appears to be at 4500rpm upwards and that puts a big hole in your pocket where economy is concerned.

In alt.autos.ford.focus Paul Gibson :

Times the fuel came up, it has been tested by various car magazines over here, they put different cars on a power-absorption roller and there was IIRC nothing that couldn't be explained with measuring tolerance.

They compared with the fuel quality outlined by the manufacturer. Sadly RON/ROZ are not directly comparable, so I don't know which quality 95 RON would be over here and if it's in the spec for Foci over here.

IMHO, you'd need a reprogrammed ECU or so to take advantages from the fuel. It's easy to fool oneself, only a power-absorption roller would show if there's a real gain.

Sure anyone who thinks he could benefit from it should simply test it out and see for himself and his car. It doesn't cost you a fortune to fill up your car once or twice with it.

Your fuel consumption is 7.2-7.8 l/100km, never got this out of my Focus (2.0l manual), I'm lucky to get below 9.0 l/100km (26 mpg), with some care. As soon as you drive >160 km/h (>100 mph) the Focus starts guzzling fuel, >200 km/h (>125 mph) an you can watch the fuel gauge fall.;( On the other hand you aren't really annoyed about a partially speed limits on your way, it helps to keep the average fuel consumption in acceptable regions.

Of course, if the highway is empty enough, which is rare enough, the weather fine, mostly it's not and no speed limit, you should have more luck with that, it's nice letting the Focus run. DON'T look at the fuel gauge... ;-)

It's the bog standard unleaded in the UK. Your engine would be same as mine, so I'd expect the fuel requirements to be similar.

I have Bluefin and an induction kit.

I agree that having laid out a few extra pennies per litre, you really

*DO* want to notice the difference, so there is the obvious danger that you'll perceive something that's not really there.

I never did try Optimax on a standard ECU, but a good few folk have reported the same as I described.

Carcare tells me I've had 150 fuel purchases and I've never had less than 25mpg. I do drive my car hard...

...but never at that speed!

I'm surprised it actually goes that fast because it really does run out of steam at high revs.

The car is reasonably economical at lower speeds, but once the revs climb, it's disappointingly thirsty.

I had a 2.0 Primera that was way more lively than my chipped Focus, revved forever and was still waaaay more economical at high speeds. Maybe I was spoiled. Anyway, I digress...

[..]

Ah, so your ECU is reprogrammed, it's likely your engine can gain from higher ROZ fuel.

Questionable, with "bluefin" like you have mounted it should be quite possible and measurable. [..]

Sad thing is, speedometer stops short before 220 km/h, revs climb up a little bit more. To find out speedo tolerance, tested with my GPS one/twice.

Astonishing the tolerance with original tires 195/60-15 is only

5%. GPS shows 209 km/h at 5800 rpm, it does some more revs, but those times had no GPS with me. Not that bad, thinking about the 201 km/h Vmax outlined in the registration.;) [..]

Full ack, matches exactly with my observations.

[..]

Thx Paul, good data

If you're interested, that data and a whole lot more is generated by Carcare.

If you're interested, that data and a whole lot more is generated by Carcare.

Cheers! Have you tried the sowtware yourself? Is it worthi ti and does it support UK operation?

Rgds

[Carcare]

I'm in the UK and it does everything I want and a whole lot more. I've been using it for a LONG time now and it's great. There are links to independent reviews on the website and you can download a trial copy for evaluation if you wish to give it a try.