98 octany in hybrid. Will it harm anything?

[Søren Hansen]

Hi all. 

I'm currently on a road trip in Belgium with our corolla cross hybrid. 

Back home(Denmark) I normally fill it with E5 95 octane petrol. But here I can only get E5 as 98 octane. 

I prefer E5 because I'm of the assumption it's a better petrol. And a local Toyota mechanic mentioned E10 might cause injector issues over time. 

But my question is..will 98 octane fuel harm the engine in any way? More precisely it is Esso supreme+ 98 E5. 

Thanks in advance. 

Kindly

Søren 

[FROSTYBALLS]

It will be fine. Toyota's octane requirement is '95 or higher'.

[TonyHSD]

It will be actually better for the car. Try it and you can share your thoughts. 👍

[Trewithy]

Running on Esso Supreme you will find that the engine is smoother and has improved fuel consumption.

[Søren Hansen]

26 minutes ago, Trewithy said:

Running on Esso Supreme you will find that the engine is smoother and has improved fuel consumption.

Also on a hybrid? 

[TonyHSD]

3 minutes ago, Søren Hansen said:

Also on a hybrid? 

Yes, hybrids are even more sensitive to fuel types and quality as they are running Atkinson cycle and has less torque than standard Otto cycle engines. 

[AisinW]

Premium fuel will harm your bank account for sure. Fuel are generally good if they are new, fresh, cheap.  

Higher octane fuel is harder to be burned and will not make the engine cleaner either. Especially for hybrid that is very mild engine. No turbo, no crazy advanced timing. 

Get the super 95 with the lowest ethanol you can find.  Most E5 are actually less than 2.5% ethanol and some even 0%. Especially Esso fuel station. 

The effect of ethanol is mild below 10% level.  Only basic aluminum engine like lawn mower will get corroded and get problems with 10% ethanol fuel that left inside the tank and carburetor over the winter.  It is a common problem back then in USA where E10 is indeed at 10% unlike in europe <6%. 

[AisinW]

This is what common problems we have with E10 on Lawn Mower. Replacing the carburator bowl is pretty cheap but not the carburator.  So, if we have older car with carburator, we should use E0. Some gas station offer E0 on their most expensive fuel or at least, do not let the car sit for very long or add some stabilizer.   Generally speaking, we should not let the car sit for years. At least we start it up and let the fuel and oil recirculate every 1-2 months. 

 

[Søren Hansen]

10 hours ago, AisinW said:

Premium fuel will harm your bank account for sure. Fuel are generally good if they are new, fresh, cheap.  

Higher octane fuel is harder to be burned and will not make the engine cleaner either. Especially for hybrid that is very mild engine. No turbo, no crazy advanced timing. 

Get the super 95 with the lowest ethanol you can find.  Most E5 are actually less than 2.5% ethanol and some even 0%. Especially Esso fuel station. 

The effect of ethanol is mild below 10% level.  Only basic aluminum engine like lawn mower will get corroded and get problems with 10% ethanol fuel that left inside the tank and carburetor over the winter.  It is a common problem back then in USA where E10 is indeed at 10% unlike in europe <6%. 

Well. Getting the 95 E5 was pretty much my plan. The problem was that the only 95 I could get was E10. Therefore my question about the 98 octane E5. 

[TonyHSD]

33 minutes ago, Søren Hansen said:

Well. Getting the 95 E5 was pretty much my plan. The problem was that the only 95 I could get was E10. Therefore my question about the 98 octane E5. 

You can try 98 e5 and see for yourself. It won’t harm your engine. I mostly use e5 99 and the engine sounds and perform much better than with if filled with e10 95. 

[AisinW]

Tony is right, there is nothing harm our engine these days because our cars post 2000s can take as much as E10 in most cases.  You can still use E10 also that in practice is about 5-6% ethanol.  No need to worry to much with E10 either.  98 fuel is usually E5 and often has higher amount of PEA detergent.  It gives some benefit if you have such an old cars that sits for years. Fortunately, our hybrid cars are driven regularly, the injectors and combution chamber is already very clean. 

If you are curious, you can use simple method to measure actual ethanol contents on any of gasoline station.  Just some pure water with dye and measuring tube (have lid).  Once you drop about 10-20% of water to the fuel, the alcohol will be separated. The additional volume from your dyed water is the amount of ethanol you extract from the gasoline. 

[YarisHybrid2016]

The difference between E10 95, and E5 99, is significant. I get at least 50 miles more range from the "more expensive" E5 vs. the E10. That represents a difference of about 16%! That may appear to be wrong, but it is in fact correct. It doesn't take much on a hybrid to go from 60 MPG to 70 MPG (a difference of...16%).

The junk fuel makes a much greater impact to fuel economy the more efficient the car is to begin with.

A car that only achieves 35-40 MPG won't see the difference as much (but it will still be present).

The ecological argument for putting ethanol in fuel is just completely bogus. You require 16% more fuel to go the same distance (and this is comparing E10 to E5; the difference between E10 and E0 is even greater - around 20%!). It means more refuelling, which requires more energy. I could scream at the stupidity.

The price difference between E5 and E10 is less than 16%, so it is still cheaper to buy the more expensive fuel. The literal lower price of E10 is a scam; it costs more per mile. 💩

[Søren Hansen]

12 hours ago, YarisHybrid2016 said:

The difference between E10 95, and E5 99, is significant. I get at least 50 miles more range from the "more expensive" E5 vs. the E10. That represents a difference of about 16%! That may appear to be wrong, but it is in fact correct. It doesn't take much on a hybrid to go from 60 MPG to 70 MPG (a difference of...16%).

The junk fuel makes a much greater impact to fuel economy the more efficient the car is to begin with.

A car that only achieves 35-40 MPG won't see the difference as much (but it will still be present).

The ecological argument for putting ethanol in fuel is just completely bogus. You require 16% more fuel to go the same distance (and this is comparing E10 to E5; the difference between E10 and E0 is even greater - around 20%!). It means more refuelling, which requires more energy. I could scream at the stupidity.

The price difference between E5 and E10 is less than 16%, so it is still cheaper to buy the more expensive fuel. The literal lower price of E10 is a scam; it costs more per mile. 💩

I can say for sure the car drives perfect. Sometimes it feels like the car pulls a bit better. But IF there actually is a difference. It's so small it's hard to say for sure. 

The car also gets a bit better milage on the petrol. But again it's hard to say if it's because I drive different roads then I normally do. 

[Dala]

I've been driving on 100 octane gasoline since the beginning and everything is ok.

[AisinW]

E5 and E10 MPG varied between cars and drivers.  Personally, I always get Super 95 E5 because it is only 5 cents more than E10.    I do not want to waste my good money for Premium RON100 or more because it gives no benefit. I tried couple times and stop completely, the difference is within error bar (+ or -).  Some small turbo engines runs better with premium fuels that often has 0% ethanol. The extra oxygens detected by the 1st O2 sensor sent a false signal to the MAF that the car runs too lean and add more fuel/air ratios. At the end, the E10 MPG droped. But for most non turbo engines, the difference is so small, less than 2%.  Theoretically, E10 has 1.5% less energy than E5. 

[Søren Hansen]

On 6/29/2023 at 3:56 PM, Dala said:

I've been driving on 100 octane gasoline since the beginning and everything is ok.

Also on a hybrid? 

[Dala]

Only on a hybrid 

[Søren Hansen]

9 hours ago, Dala said:

Only on a hybrid 

Thanks.. nice to hear others experiences 😊