Ethanol in Fiesta

[csv8]

I thought I would give ethanol a go in my Fiesta.
BIG mistake!!
It normally drops a bar on the fuel gauge, around 90km's. With ethanol fuel it was 77km!!!
Back to PULP.

[Teki04]

That drop of the first bar is not accurate though.... yesterday i put fuel in (but didnt fill it up)... it had 1 bar less then an indicated full. After a day of driving, i was leaving subway and it said it was full.......odd

[GROOV3]

mine drops at about 60kms a block

[Danny]

Mines not consistant enough to make any conclusion. I agree with Teki, its not accurate...

[csv8]

I usually get 320km's to the half way mark. On ethanol it was 240km's. So, no more ethanol.

[mitch_lx]

if theres one thing i REALLY hate about the fiesta, its the fuel guage, they should of made it have like 12 bars instead of like 7. to make it more accurate
HATE IT HATE IT

[GROOV3]

yeah i never go by the guage its like i can get 450kms to the tank comfortable when it gets down to the last little things and thats when i fill up

[Fez WQ]

I have only use premium in my car since new ,I get about 610km a tank with about 5l to spare, On the fuel gauge I get 152km-160km from the 1st bar. I also do about 600kms a week.

[Teki04]

Im like Groov3.... 450km a tank

[SpoolMan]

ethanol will use more than petrol, i think its around 10% which kills the supposed savings..

[Fez WQ]

I do about 100km to work in the morning and 100 back at night , this gives me good fuel economy sitting on about 105km/h +

[0xyg3n]

I'm with Aaron here I do similar mileage a week and get about 150 - 160kms to the first bar and around 650km to a tank.

[mitch_lx]

I filled up yesterday, and for the first bar with a mix of city and highway driving i got 96kms which is pretty darn good i think.
when i got onto the highway though it was like my car wasnt even turned on, airfilter and exhaust really help with economy, especially if your sitting on a constant 3- 3.5 thousand rpm

[xurbanx]

*nods*
i filled mine up to full, travelled from narre warren to lilydale, lilydale back down to city, city to narre warren, then narre warren to lilydale and it was only one bar (: then from lilydale back down to narre warren it just started the 2nd bar

[FlaminFiesta]

hmm hey i filled up recently with 45 litres i got 300kms i was like WTF i think ethanol !! and i thought it was PULP !!

[Cypher]

I thought ethanol was corrosive? Toluene is the other stuff I was thinking of thats bad for engines...

Ethanol is an octane booster, so did U see any increase in performance?

[joshf2]

another misconception that people have is that octane boost = boost in performance.

this is wrong

when you increase the octane rating, you increase its resistance to combustion.

the only time you'll see some "increase" in performance is when performance is down due to detonation.

however, different fuels have different specific energy rating, which is what gives you your extra oomph when youre driving.

[Cypher]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrol - have a look here

[simonr]

I read somewhere that it is pointless to put Higher octane fuel into a lower octane engine...
e.g. Putting 98 octane into my 95 octane rated zetec...

Can someone tell me if this is true or not?? and maybe explain why..

[joshf2]

you'll find that stuff like optimax blah blah blah has higher specific energies than std fuel

and if you look at the wikipedia thingy, you'll see that although ethanol has a much higher octane rating, its specific energy is lower than normal fuel

this is why your fuel economy suffers the more ethanol you put in your car

[Teki04]

Originally Posted by simonr

I read somewhere that it is pointless to put Higher octane fuel into a lower octane engine...
e.g. Putting 98 octane into my 95 octane rated zetec...

Can someone tell me if this is true or not?? and maybe explain why..

Fiesta is recommended 95+.... and i do notice a slight difference with using the 98 octane.... the car is less thrashy at higher rpm > not struggling as much.