Wrong Fuel
 

First time I've started a thread so please try your best not to flame me If I've stuffed up lol.

Today I put a full tank of E10 Unleaded into a 2002 Mazda 6, later finding out that this was the wrong fuel. I'm worried that this slip up may cause problems for the car. I drove it for an hour or so afterwards. Will this cause problems? I haven't had any issues so far.

I think in America we all mostly use E10...

I wouldn't worry about it too much. The odd tank here and there shouldn't do too much damage, it's certainly not like putting diesel in the tank.

If you're concerned, just try to keep your revs low until you can always get some octane booster from your local auto store. If I remember correctly, the main concern is the octane content of this fuel as it's 91 Octane. Regular unleaded is around 93 Octane, Premium is 95 Octane, and a few placed have their own special brand like BP Ultimate or Caltex Vortex, which are 98 Octane.

I think I remember reading somewhere that the 86 will require premium. I think a lot of Euro cars do actually too. I remember hearing rumours a few years ago that their main fuel is 102 Octane so it's not an issue for them.

Mate,

The Mazda 6 will be fine. In fact, Mazda Australia lists the Mazda 6 (all models except the MPS and diesel engine variants) as E10 compatible.

Mazda Ethanol E10 Compatibility Chart

So not to worry mate.

I would worry if your Mazda 6 is a diesel lol
Apart from that, if is a petrol engine you will notice more fuel usage, but the RON of E10 is RON94.5 so it is better than the low grade and almost the same as the middle grade fuel :)
Regular fuel is 91ron, premium is 95 and super is 98 so yeah don't worry about it. You can run it without a problem, it will run like a dog for a tank if you usually put super, then it will tune itself to retard the base timing more and more, and it will feel the same as normal, but it will use more fuel. If you usually fill premium, you won't notice a difference apart from fuel spent.

What he said, haha. This sounds more correct than what I said.

Thanks guys, really put my mind at ease; plus it's not my car so thank god it's compatible lol I think I'll do some research on fuel and get a better understanding haha. Any good sites you'd recommend for that?


Thanks mate, that link really helped me out.

lol thankfully it's not. Thanks for the info! Learn something new everyday haha

Curious about that, where would we get 102 in Oz?

haha it's all good man, thought all the info was great :thumbup:

i would imagine a mazda 6 would be fine on a tank of regular. my car has a label inside the fuel cap that says premium recommended, so i either go that or the high octane, highest of which is 98 everywhere i've been, in aus anyway.

Once the employee (we dont fill our own cars in Oregon) put regular in my Lexus es300 when I asked for plus. I just drove it like normal, and there were no problems or really any difference at all. It only felt like a small lack of power

If I remember correctly, Shell had a limited distribution of what they called V-Power Racing... not sure if it's still going on, but I think it was 100 or 102 Octane. It was pretty limited though, definitely not what you'd find at every Shell.

If you want to run anything above that you'll either need to buy it by the drum, or, add in some octane booster with every tank. To be honest though, running any 98 Octane is the best you're going to get without it costing you a lot more each tank or having to go out of your way.

With the 86, I don't think it'll still run on E10 but it won't be recommended due to a bit of power loss. I'm sure it won't damage the engine (ECU should adapt timing to compensate) but there will be a slight loss of power.

Correct.

Shell V-Power Racing was actually E10.

Serious? So it was ethanol blended but octane boosted?

It was basically just 98RON V-Power boosted to 100RON with ethanol (5 or 10%, can't remember).

Ethanol has a RON of 109, so when mixed with normal pump fuel it IS and octane booster.

I run my Liberty on Caltex E-Flex, which is about 105RON, depending on the ethanol content and am now tuning a few cars to do the same.