Type of Fuel

[MiniNani]

I am a new Mini Cooper S owner. The dealer said that it was "recommended" that I use premium fuel. Has anyone had any trouble using regular?

[bad venge]

Trust me USE the Premium .... This is from a friend Sam who Also happens to be a service manager at a dealer
Sam "The MINI's seem to be good cars & long lasting, but run hight test gas of good quality in your MINI. I've seen MINI's coming in carboned up. Some so bad that one of the valves do not close all the way. That leads to a burned valve. While your MINI will run on regular it's the regular fuel that leads to those carbon deposits."

I told Sam that I add a bottle of Chevron Techron at every oil change.

Sam "Techron is good stuff, but use a good quality high test fuel too. Shell, Marathon & even BP now have additives in them to keep the valves clean. Shell is the best"

There you have it. Some good advice from someone that I trust. I know some of you run regular to save a few cents on fuel. You do so at some risk it seems. You will never save enough money buying regular to pay for the potential damage it causes,

Motor on, with high test!

[cougsfan]

I have absent mindedly put in regular into my Mini a couple of times. (everything else I have ever owned uses regular). The car runs like crap, and the milage goes down. It ain't worth it.

[Adam]

Yep, save yourself a headache and use premium.

[jrzapata]

How about the medium level gas? has anyone tried that one?

[bad venge]

I'm not risking a $3000 motor repair on saving $1.40 a tankful ...
I've got 40K of trouble free motoring ... I used Midgrade ONCE (they were out of premium) and I INSTANTLY noticed lack of power and the gas mileage dropped , I added 1/2 a tank of premium and power was back

[jrzapata]

I will continue to use premium fuel then, I did notice the difference in power when I switched to medium gas.

[orca17]

Glad to find this thread. I just had my '03 Cooper in for an oil change at an independent mechanic shop. The owner, who owns a Cooper S, asked me what fuel I run in my Cooper. I told him that I run premium unleaded, always Shell or Chevron (the stuff that my Jaguar mechanic recommends for my '99 XJ8). He told me that because of the compression ratios and a bunch of other technical stuff, I don't need to buy premium. In my opinion there is a reason the manufacturer recommends premium unleaded. If an extra dollar or so per tankful keeps me out of the repair shop, it is money well spent. I will keep burning premium.

[Makkybarr]

Regular gas usually has an octane rating of 87, while premium is rated at 91 to 93. But octane grades don't represent "good, better, best"; they simply measure a fuel's resistance to pre-ignition, a situation in which gasoline burns hysterically in the engine’s combustion chambers, possibly most important to engine damage. The higher the octane rating, the more conflict it provides.Most engines are intended to run fine on regular gas. Using premium in them doesn’t improve performance; it only costs more money.Even many cars for which premium are recommended can use regular gas without a trouble. That’s because most current engines can identify the existence of pre-ignition which usually occurs under high-load conditions and automatically make adjustments to abolish it. The exchange when that happens is a minor decrease in power and gas mileage, but most people possibly won’t notice it. If your owner’s manual says "premium recommended," you can securely make use of regular gas.

[KeemaLamWoria]

The fuel tank is almost all clean. Im having trouble reaching the apex of the fuel tank to clean it. Any suggestions?-Chris