Ariel.Club Forum

Hi guys,

Ive only owned my AA3 SC for a couple of months now. I read in the manual that the Atom is designed to run on 98 ron fuel. I plan to run on Shell Optimax or Tesco Premium when i can but i my closest petrol stations only have 97 ron, is this ok to use? Do any of you use 97 ron regularly?

Thanks

I use super unleaded exclusively, ideally Optimax. But in reality any "super" unleaded or high octane is fine.

If you cannot get super then limit the use of the car until you can top up on the good stuff and don't drive it hard. But you will be fine in emergencies on lower octane (just don't thrash the car).

You probably won't damage the engine on lower octane but the ECU will have to adjust and you will lose performance.

Try to get the good stuff!

Thanks Peter

I personally wouldn't worry about using 97 RON fuel as the ECU will automatically adjust to whatever fuel is used (within reason) and set the timing accordingly.

98 has a slightly better Knock rating than 97 but you can safely run a Honda engine even on 95 RON as the anti-knock sensor will prevent any damage by instructing the ECU to retard the timing to compensate.

I would agree that by using a lower RON you'll lose a bit of performance but not enough to notice on public roads!

I think that a good rule of thumb is to use the highest RON rated fuel conveniently available in your area but, when necessary, any reasonable quality fuel (95 RON or above) will work fine until you can find better!

That said I am lucky in that 100 RON fuel is freely available in Cyprus so I generally use that but sometimes, if caught short off the beaten track, I will happily fill up with lower rated fuel if it's all that's available!

However if your car is pre 2018 and you are using E10 petrol keep an eye on your rubber fuel hoses as E10 'eats' rubber - most post 2018 fuel hoses are generally E10 resistant!

Thanks. I didn't know about E10 eating rubber

Lucky enough to get 102 Ron fuel locally here with 0% ethanol - you can definitely feel & smell the difference when running 97 or lower!