Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines

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Wed 18 Jul 2018 10:22
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - diddy1234

I was wondering if anyone has had experience of using super unleaded fuel in a small turbo engine.

did it run smoother, accellerate smoother or go quicker ?

I am asking as i had no choice but to put super unleaded in my car and the engine feels like it accelerates smoother now. no hessitance while going through the rev range (like the blow off valve is modferating the boost pressure) but My car only has 700 miles clocked up so it could just be the engine is still bedding in.

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Wed 18 Jul 2018 11:11
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - Avant

We've had this discussion many times before, and you'll probably get a lot of replies strongly disagreeing with each other.

Whether super unleaded makes much, or any, difference seems to vary from car to car. In your case, after 700 miles the engine is loosening up and will continue to become livelier for the next 1,000 miles or so. With dlesels the loosening-up process takes several thousand miles.

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Wed 18 Jul 2018 13:12
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - skidpan

We are on our 5th small forced induction petrol (3 turbos, 2 supercharged).

All have come with the manufacturer requirement to use 95 RON so that is exactly what we have used, normally from Tesco or Asda. If the manufacturer had said 98 RON that is what we would have used.

So I will ask the question, what do Dacia say. Normally its only the mega fast exotica that can benefit from 98 RON stuff and even those will run just fine on 95 RON with a small loss of performance and economy. Putting 98 RON in an engine mapped for 95 RON is just wasting money.

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Wed 18 Jul 2018 13:59
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - diddy1234

thanks for the reply Skidpan.

I have looked at the owners manual and all it says is :-

It is essential to use unleaded petrol. The octane rating (RON) should match the information given on the label B located inside the fuel filler flap

further in the manual it shows :-

The use of unleaded petrol is essential, with the octane rating as stated on the label inside the fuel filler flap. If not available,for a limited time only, use unleaded fuel: –

with an Octane rating of 91 for a label showing 95 or 98; – with an octane rating of 87 for a label showing 91, 95 or 98.

On the fuel filler cap it shows 'the two rons' 95 and 98

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Wed 18 Jul 2018 19:26
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - daveyjp
Never used superunleaded in our smart with the same engine. It did 15,000 miles before the turbo expired.

No idea if the two are linked!
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Wed 18 Jul 2018 19:39
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - diddy1234

only 15,000 miles ?

why so low milage ?

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Wed 18 Jul 2018 23:05
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - daveyjp
Because the 900cc turbo unit isn't one of the most reliable engines ever made. I have read of similar failures at much lower mileages.
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Wed 18 Jul 2018 20:02
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - Leif
The more expensive fuel has more additives to clean the engine, but your engine is nearly new anyway. Some cars are said to restrict the revs for the first miles, 650 in the case of the Polo GTI apparently. Maybe the manufacturer has done something like that with your engine?
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Wed 18 Jul 2018 20:05
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - diddy1234

The manual did say for the first 600 miles :-

dont rev over 3,000 rpm (virtualy impossible with 0.9l engine)

dont stay at the same revs for a long period (varying the cruise control got around this on long journeys)

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Fri 20 Jul 2018 01:22
Dacia Sandero Stepway - super unleaded petrol and small turbo engines - focussed

I don't know that engine in detail but it more than likely is equipped with a knock sensor that supplies data to the ecu which advances the ignition timing to the preset point that the sensor can sense knock and then retards the timing a tad on a dynamic basis that is always varying according to load and rpm. With 98 instead of 95 the timing can be advanced more before the sensor knock point, which results in a bit more power and better economy.

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