I have never seen a gas pump in Vermont with more than 10% ethanol in it ..... I always get gas with 10% ethanol, .... currently my P-0171 code is re-occurring during almost every ride......Mike
Do you run whatever your 'standard' grade of gas is over there too, Mike?? I think over there it's labelled AKI 87 (??) & can have varying levels of Ethanol in it?? I know there are some over there who run 87 all the time, and claim to never have any issues with it, so I hafta ask... What grade of gas do you run?? :dontknow:
Here in Oz, we have 91 RON ULP as our 'standard' grade; the next level up is Premium grade 95 RON; then there's Ultra, which is 98 RON - the labels they get called may change a little depending upon which petroleum company is supplying the gas or what retailer is selling it, but they all basically have those same Octane levels - 91; 95; or 98 RON, and they can all come with a mandated 'less than 10% Ethanol'; or various levels/% of Ethanol that are permitted to be greater than 10% only if labelled accordingly, right up to 85% Ethanol!! :shocked:
But the Ethanol bit aside, our lowest grade of gas, or the standard/basic ULP that's available here is that 91 RON, which I believe is pretty similar to your US 87 AKI gas; and here in Oz, owners of Spyders,
especially those with ECU Upgrades, are told that they should
always run 'Premium' or better gas, not just the basic ULP, and
never more than 10% Ethanol - which for us means we need to run 95 or 98 RON with less than 10% Ethanol
I have an ECU Upgrade and I rarely ever run less than 95 RON, using an Octane booster if I can only get Standard ULP,
AND I ride less vigourously than I do/can when running 95 or 98, but that's just me. :thumbup:
Still, the point of all this is that I'm wondering, is this one of the first incidences being reported here of a Spyder having 'issues' stemming from it being run regularly on less than 'Premium' gas, even if it is only a code so far?? :dontknow: I shouldn't
THINK it's that, cos the ECU computer should easily be able to compensate for the lower Octane gas, even if it is at the cost of a miniscule loss of power/
tiny gain in fuel economy, buuut... :helpsmilie: :gaah:
Ps: Just another thoughty - running lower Octane gas in an engine that
CAN compensate for it usually means that you'll get better milage out of it, cos amongst some other esoteric bunf, the lower octane stuff is usually more 'thermally efficient' than the higher octane versions...
was that 2mpg better, that you said earlier?? :dontknow:
