Since in my ownership Ive always used Esso E5 normally from the same garage in my 848 evo as it has a plastic fuel tank, Esso now adds up to 5 percent ethanol to there Supreme+ 99 unleaded. Interested to know what fuel you guys are using and anything else you are doing to try and avoid tank swell..
The Esso fuel without Ethanol in wasn’t nationwide some areas did have ethanol blended fuel at the pumps. Iirc the non ethanol fuel was mostly confined to the South of England. You may have been filling up with blended fuel without realising unfortunately.
Thanks my area apparently was ethanol free when I looked in to it, we are East of England. I would be happy to find we hadn't been ethanol free as in the last 2 years i've had no issues using the same garage..
It was available everywhere except Cornwall, Devon, Teesside and Scotland. I don’t think any premium unleaded is ethanol free anymore, your only other option is specialist fuels like Aspen+ don’t think you can get it in the uk though but it’s about £100 for 25 ltrs from Sweden. You can get Aspen4 here but it’s designed for small capacity petrol engines like gardening equipment.
Think im going to try Shell premium for a few months and see if how it goes, Shell is our nearest garage at around 5 miles away, about 10 miles to nearest Esso. My tank just kisses the damper mount at its closest point but not got any worse the last 2yrs ive owned the bike..
Have esso changed their specs recently, or made some announcement? Their specs from a few years ago allowed for up to 5%, but they also publicised that their supplies in the south east were ethanol free. When I asked my two local esso stations in Leicestershire which refinery their fuel came from, neither could give me an answer. I did some checks on E98 fuel from a major supplier (shell I think) and it turned out it was 2% ethanol. Unfortunately they can all increase it to 5% at any time without notice. You did used to be able to buy equipment (ethanil) that would enable you to seperate out the ethanol, but that involved you buying it in jerry cans and then chucking up to 10% of it away.
Esso are no longer doing ethanol free fuel anywhere in the uk, its now 5 percent of less at all garages inline with the other suppliers. Apparently this happened September last year.
They announced it last year, from Sept 23 they’ve been adding up to 5% ethanol to their supreme unleaded nationwide.
I’d be surprised if E5 Ethanol causes issues even in the Ducati with plastic tanks, I always used it but I used ethanol stabiliser over winter. Generally for some reason they seem to swell when left sitting
I always use Shell V Power in both my cars and bikes. Can someone please enlighten me as to whether I’m wasting my money or not. Obviously V Power carries a premium over the other options. I do sometimes wonder if it’s all the bloody same…
Same I only use Shell V-Power in any bike i've ever had. In terms of it is better, I dont know any scientific facts to back it up or not. Only thing I can say from a comparison point of view, all but 15 of the 6k miles on my V2 have been on V-Power - when we had the fuel shortages there was no unleaded at all at shell, went to BP down the road and put a tenner in of there premium which is 97 not 99 I think, and could feel a difference in performance almost straight away
As already stated above it can be absorbed into plastic fuel tanks causing issues. Some model Ducati the tank swelling interferes with steering dampers and such. Aprilias it causing the fuel to leak around the seal under the tank. On Steel tanks as the ethanol absorbs water it causes the inside of the fuel tank to rust eventually affecting it’s integrity. It’s also claims it is good for rubber seals on pre 2006 vehicles. You can if you’re minded to seperate the ethanol from the petrol but it’s a bit of a faff. If you’ve no old motorcycles it isn’t or shouldn’t be an issue.
Low ethanol fuel is good if you have the habit of leaving the bike standing for a long time as it will reduce water absorption, as said above it affects some plastic tanks causing them to swell. Think later materials are better in this case. This usually means using "super" fuel as it will only contain up to 5%ethanol. Unless the engine has been adjusted for super you will probably not get any gains from it, however most petrol cars (and performance bmw bikes I think) have knock sensors so you will get better performance out of super as the timing is adjusted to suit
My bikes are all modern these days and I am not fussy over what fuel I put in when they are in constant use. When laid up for over a month I use a fuel stabiliser as recommended via this site. I even put this in my lawn mower and generator over winter nowadays.
Both my Son and I use super unleaded. Although his moped wasn’t adjusted for Super there was definitely a difference both in performance and fuel economy. Whenever he had to resort to 10% fuel in Wales both of the above dropped measurably. I’ve not ever noticed a performance gain but I have with MPG. It’s also been blind tested by my Daughter and Wife whenever I’ve put super in their cars they get more MPG. Although oddly they won’t fill up with it when they’re paying.
Good to know. I run all my bikes and cars on Super, as the fuel consumption/ performance benefits are worth the extra cost. I don’t think any of those have plastic tanks, so will carry on!
