Originally Posted by
ChaosMaster
I've used E10 a few times at places that didn't have premium (or pumps stopped working for some reason). As far as I can tell, it performs just like on 95 performance wise, but you do lose a bit of fuel economy, although I don't have exact figures as I haven't tried it a few times in a row to test it out.
I disagree with Androo, actually I reckon this baseless and lies conducted through his own prejudice. E10 isn't for emergency use. If it was, they wouldn't even advertise it on the fuel filler cap. I mean you might as well use 91 if it were an emergency. E10 used to be bad because ethanol would burn through rubber. New cars don't have the rubber seals in the fuel lines. Actually most cars made in the past 20 years are ok with E10.
Increase chances of ping and lose power? In the Euro? Seriously? E10 has a RON of 95 just like "premium" 95 petrol. Do you know what Octane even stands for? Heck, Shells 100 octane (don't sell it here anymore) and United Petrol 100 RON use 5% ethanol. The octane rating is basically how resistant the fuel is to ignition. What this means is that the engines can run leaner and/or higher compression meaning more torque/power and better economy.
Running 91 on the other hand, would be bad. However, because the Euro's have sensors which measure the quality of the fuel, it can tell when it's running 95, 98 or 91. And when it detects the RON falls below 95, it runs a richer A/F ratio to prevent the engine for going bang.
Just in case you didn't know, A/F stands for Air Fuel Ratio. The golden ratio is 14.7:1 meaning 14.7 litres of air to 1 litre of fuel. The optimal ratio for cars though, is 12.5:1. Cars are normally tuned to run rich, which basically means a lower ration e.g. 9:1, as they would use the fuel as a coolant as well to cool the bores of the engine, as well as preventing early combustion or engine going bang in laymen terms. As mentioned, the Euro's have sensors built in, so with 91, it maybe running 9:1, with E10 or 95, it maybe running 10:1, and with 98+ it maybe running 10.5:1. Which is why fuel economy and power changes with the Euro. Do note that some other cars don't have the sensor in them, so they will perform the same regardless.
Fuel economy is worse with E10 because Ethanol has a lower energy than Petrol (KJ/L). In E10, I think the difference is 5% which is why the fuel economy drops by 3-5%. Has nothing to do with power or how the engine runs though.
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