Herman and Operation 30MPG

[wizechatmgr]

Volvo says minimum 87 octane for my 1999 ( or 91 in EU)

We can't afford expensive gas Teddy, it's up to almost 0.5 Euro per liter

Abscate has been known to condense the exhaust fumes of his cars running premium (and other visiting Volvos) in order to get some premium fuel back that was unburnt during cold starts...

[Rattnalle]

Volvo says minimum 87 octane for my 1999 ( or 91 in EU)

We can't afford expensive gas Teddy, it's up to almost 0.5 Euro per liter

Come back when it's 1.5 and we can have a serious discussion about it. 'You people' are driving around for free.

[Teddy1975]

Come back when it's 1.5 and we can have a serious discussion about it. 'You people' are driving around for free.

+1
True that

[Teddy1975]

Volvo says minimum 87 octane for my 1999 ( or 91 in EU)

We can't afford expensive gas Teddy, it's up to almost 0.5 Euro per liter

Minimum yes.

20180226_145928.jpg (139.98 KiB) Viewed 1332 times

Though it's in Danish and I know it's for the 850, it says unleaded octane 95 (EU spec premium) is recommended.

It was the same for the '99 S70 I had.

Even worse is the T5, recommended 98 octane which isn't even available here anymore. Only octane 99 from Shell, and it's $2.14 USD per litre.

[Rattnalle]

The octane ratings aren't the same though. So 98 in Europe is closer to 93-94 in the US IIRC.

95 is euro spec regular btw, not premium. I've never seen lower that I can recall. 98 is premium.

[Teddy1975]

What about 92? That's regular here.

[Rattnalle]

What about 92? That's regular here.

In Denmark? I've only driven through to be honest but in Germany, Italy and France my memory is that 95 is regular, though that term isn't really used. Norway and Sweden as well.

[June]

Volvo says minimum 87 octane for my 1999 ( or 91 in EU)

We can't afford expensive gas Teddy, it's up to almost 0.5 Euro per liter

Minimum yes.

20180226_145928.jpg

Though it's in Danish and I know it's for the 850, it says unleaded octane 95 (EU spec premium) is recommended.

It was the same for the '99 S70 I had.

Even worse is the T5, recommended 98 octane which isn't even available here anymore. Only octane 99 from Shell, and it's $2.14 USD per litre.

Boy I wish I could get 99 octane premium here in the states. For a while Shell offered 95 octane Super Premium 15 years ago. Back in the 1980s SUNOCO had 107 octane Super Premium leaded gasoline. The 1964 Mercury big V8 loved it than poof gone and only 89 octane leaded, than only unleaded here by 1990. June

[Teddy1975]

Yes, Rattnalle in Denmark it was 92/95/98, then 98 was discontinued some 10 years ago I think. A couple of years back Shell then introduced their V-Power 99 octane ethanol mixture.

To get back on track, OP may want to read the this blog post regarding whether to use premium or regular:
https://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage ... ne-ratings

A snippet from it:

To sum up, if the car’s handbook says that premium petrol is “recommended” (rather than insisting it is “required”), then the engine will automatically adjust itself to run smoothly on a lower octane fuel. Because of the retarded ignition, the engine will, of course, produce less power, and have slightly higher fuel consumption. But the poorer fuel economy is likely to be outweighed by the savings at the pump.

Even so, your correspondent remains reluctant to make the switch. One reason is that no one has been able to tell him what damage is done, if any, by running the engine permanently in a retarded state, and forcing the anti-knock system to remain active all the time.
...
But his biggest reason for sticking with premium, though, is that he was well aware that the car needed 91 octane to work properly when he bought it. And having paid upfront for the higher performance, he is reluctant now to throw that benefit away.

[Rattnalle]

The anti knock system is always active either way. Its just a question of where the adjustment ends up performance wise.