Fuel Grade for 1.2TSI

[Newbie84]

Hi team,

I've recently acquired a 2014 Mk7 1.2 TSI (77KW) as my daily driver and the car is a japanese import which has put me in a bit of a conundrum. The fuel filler cap has a sticker that says Minimum 96 RON, which I understand 96+ is the standard "high" fuel grade in Japan as they don't sell the usual mid-grade 95 that we do. The dealer I purchased the car from said that it's all good to put 95 in the car but I'm taking that with a grain of salt as I'm sure he was somewhat biased in wanting to sell the car.

So my question is, did VW specifically tune Japanese cars to run on a minimum of 96 RON, or is okay to run 95? I ask because 95 is about 20c/L cheaper and 98 isn't always readily available outside of the cities.

Thanks 

P.S. I tried checking the manual but it's in Japanese and sorry if this has already been asked before

[brian]

I would run 98 and only use 95 in an emergency.
Sales people will tell you anything to make it look more inviting. Anyway a 1.2 is so economical a small saving on using cheap gas is not worth the risk.
Get a Mobil card and save 10c every Tuesday

[zark]

I know this topic is old but maybe it is interesting for anyone reading it later. In Germany we have 91, 95 and 99-102 (depending on the petrol station). I don't think, VW puts different motors or different motor management for different countries. If in Japan, they sell 96 instead of 95 at the stations, then it would confuse the customer to say "95+". So I think, they only change the sticker to 96+. All petrol VWs in Germany run on 95 or above.

[superfueler]

Not a fan of 91, euro's dont seem to cope well with it. 98 is what goes in my petrol cars.

[le mans]

I know this topic is old but maybe it is interesting for anyone reading it later. In Germany we have 91, 95 and 99-102 (depending on the petrol station). I don't think, VW puts different motors or different motor management for different countries. If in Japan, they sell 96 instead of 95 at the stations, then it would confuse the customer to say "95+". So I think, they only change the sticker to 96+. All petrol VWs in Germany run on 95 or above.

I think they have been known to detune some engines for hot climate countries eg Australia.

[GLIDN]

As others have stated, technically 96+ would refer to our 98 octane.
On a Stage 1 6R golf R tuned for 98 octane and running 95 octane sees an astonishing 43hp loss. (yes really that much along with -4 degrees of timing pull across all cylinders, ending up with the engine running hotter than it would)

If you're really after 95 octane, you're welcome to shoot me a message, I could retune the car down to 95 compliant fuel. At least you'll always have peak power even with 95 octane fuel.

otherwise, if you have a way of logging the vehicle, you could do this to monitor what effects if any are subdued by the vehicle.