S4 B9 Avant - Recommended Fuel Octane?

[Steve Feldo]

Hello - newbie here and this may be a newbie question!

I have recently purchased an S4 Avant B9 (2017 354ps) and have had conflicting views on the best fuel to run - ordinary 95 Octane or 97/99 Octane Premium. I am likely to install a stage 1 ECU remap and the specialist tuning firm have recommended the higher octane offering as the tune is tailored accordingly (I’m told).

Any feedback would be welcomed thanks.

[Stevey Y]

28 minutes ago, Steve Feldo said:

Hello - newbie here and this may be a newbie question!

I have recently purchased an S4 Avant B9 (2017 354ps) and have had conflicting views on the best fuel to run - ordinary 95 Octane or 97/99 Octane Premium. I am likely to install a stage 1 ECU remap and the specialist tuning firm have recommended the higher octane offering as the tune is tailored accordingly (I’m told).

Any feedback would be welcomed thanks.

Hi if you have the remap you will definitely have to use the 97/99 premium or use a proprietary quality octane booster as an additive to 95 otherwise you start burning valves etc, but the thing that baffles me is why, with all that power as standard or do we have a track day planned, cars with a standard state of tune like that have come from the factory in a high state of tune and the bonus with that is there is also a high reliability factor built in, mapping eats into the reliability factor but aim sure the mapping boys will say not, the manufacturer makes sure the clutch and gearbox will live with this power as standard if you start throwing different torque curves and more BHP invairiably major components will fail faster, I cite the case of the VW Golf GTI owner who at 36k had his car remapped, happy days 60bhp more and another 40nm of torque until the clutch retired 4k later and another two grand bill for an uprated clutch, not so happy.

Steve.

[Magnet]

Hello Hampshire Steve, 

Apologies, but my view rests in a similar camp to Steve Y, but I’m old! We read that the 20 mph limit is going to be introduced on a wide scale by late next year, so unless we live on a motorway junction, we are all going to be doing more fast walking pace than go-faster pace! This is going to sound harsh Steve, but you’ve got an estate car - built for carrying loads, so why the quest for more power? - unless you intend to carry heavy loads at a faster pace. 
We are all different, and for some, it’s great to be able to talk ‘torque’ down the pub with like minded folks, so I guess unfair of me to stand in the way of ‘mine’s faster than yours’. 

Anyway one person’s take on this, which might just help to raise a few contra opinions on here.

Tongue in cheek, that’s what it’s aimed at.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do Steve. 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Steve Feldo]

Thanks @Magnet & @Stevey Y Good points and noted - makes sense to me. 

It’s fair to say that where I live and drive (and maybe a byproduct of age and experience) I don’t/can’t loon around like I might have done once. 

I suppose playing devils advocate, why bother with RS4’s, RS6’s etc as there’s only one place to exploit their potential and that’s a track. I don’t have car-bore mates either, so there will be no torque-top-trumps either 😉

I’ll keep you posted.

Steve