1BRACE

isn't it EPA mandated now that all gasoline sold at retail pumps in the U.S. have 10% ethanol added?

we don't have a choice in the matter I thought?

southerndoc

In most major metropolitan areas with heavy traffic, the EPA now mandates it. Here in Atlanta, you cannot legally purchase gas without ethanol in it (at least to my knowledge).

I find it funny that QuickTrip is listed as a top tier gas supplier, but BP and Exxon/Amoco aren't listed.

esmolol

My understanding is that the minimum gasoline rating for the e60 is 91 (R+M/2) and that the cars engine can use ethanol blend up to 10% does not void the warranty(that is a paraphrase from my owner's manual)

Howitzer

Look, everyone knows our cars run off pure Vodka. This "American" fuel is just NOT sufficient for our engines. Don't listen to Ric, he's older than God.

NobleForums

You can get the direct conversions in an easy to read graph here:

http://www.btinternet.com/~madmole/R...RONMONPON.html

ason

i have been having some problems with my engine when it was cold. (it felt like the car was shifting up and down, with rpm jumping between 1500 and 2000, i posted about this on here). took it to the shop in houston several times and they kept telling me its because of the us gasoline. i thought they were completely crazy.

i just brought the car with me to europe for work, picked it up in bremerhaven, filled up at the first gas pump and my problem went away. instantly. my car has been having the above mentioned problem for 2 years EVERY time the engine was cold and now its gone.

needless to say, i did enjoy the 300 miles or so of autobahn on the way to prague

so, i have no clue what the octane difference between us and european gasoline is, but it seems that the ethanol additive may cause problems to some cars. i guess my dealer was correct.

DD_545i

FWIW - my 545i gas filler door label says I don't need euro 98 octane (US:93). It says I should fill up with euro 95 octane (US:91). I know I could fill up with 98 and probably get better performance, but shit dude, I gots me a V8 with 333 ponies, that's more than enough.

I expect only the M5 would be needing 98 (US:93).

Dr Dave

hey guys, i must confess that over here (UK) we are constantly being told that US fuel is a "lower grade" than europian fuel? and that your cars are detuned for that. is that not the case?
jeremy clarkson from top gear is always saying how bad US petrol is?
its just what we hear over here
i do know that in asia (thialand for instance, and bali) have a much poorer grade of petrol.

i didnt realise the grades were the same.

swajames

I like Clarkson, a lot, but he's falling into same octane rating trap.

As for cars being detuned, again it's generally no and again I think it's broadly down to differences in measurement. There may be some slight differences due to emissions (as an example, the 545 and 550 had an additional charcol filter in the airbox that wasn't present on EU models), but by and large it's because the US uses a slightly different HP scale to Europe (there are different HP scales too, SAE gross, SAE net, DIN, PS for example - all measure the same thing, but they will produce slightly different results).

bigbadbull

This seems to be one of the causes of the dreaded HPFP failure in 535I's.... only problem is that BMW does not seem to understand that the EPA has mandated in most Ozone action areas ( read in normal speak : A City in the USA) that RFG or Reformulated Gas due to Pollution...

RFG has a ton of Ethanol in it , and normal non RFG is now up to 10% ( that is a claim but most places are in the 15 -20 % ethanol in my area). It's not like it is a New thing here, you'd think that with the number of failures that they would figure that out.