Guest woll Posted April 4, 2006 Hi, I've had my 1.6 GTi for a few days now. When I brought her home I filled up with normal unleaded but also put injector cleaner and another additive in (can't remember which!!). Anyways, the cars been running beautifully with no probs....until this evening!! I had to fill up again so went to Sainsburys and filled up with regular unleaded again but this time with no additives. I ran it for a few miles, stopped at a mates house, then got in to drive home and she started sounding a bit ruff and the power delivery wasn't as it should. It's as if either the mixtures too rich, or its not firing on all cylinders... Now I'm no mechanic but the things I'm gonna look at 2mor are the plugs, leads and dizzy. Anyway, can anyone tell me whether this could all be down to the type of fuel (didn't realise that super unleaded was what the GTi is meant to run on) I put in or is a mechanical fault? Thanks very much Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackherer 543 Posted April 5, 2006 if the additive you cant remember was an octane booster then it will have effectively made the normal unleaded into super. If using just the normal unleaded is the cause of your problem (and it sounds like it is) then the symptom you have is known as pinking/pinging/detonation/knocking and the only way to solve it is to put super unleaded in (or retard the ignition timing by adjusting the distributor but this will lose you power). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest woll Posted April 5, 2006 Thanks for your reply jack, it could well have been an octane booster. Has anyone else on here had this sort of problem (see above) when running regular unleaded? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest woll Posted April 5, 2006 Right, don't think the fuel has been making it run bad. I think its coz I cleaned the engine bay and water must have got down to the lead as when I took one of the plugs out there was water on the actual plug!! I'm gonna dry it all out 2mor. If water has got into the engine, how do I dry that out?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackherer 543 Posted April 6, 2006 soak up any pools of water with something absorbant and then use wd40 or similar on the electrical connectors. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ashley peddle 3 Posted April 6, 2006 i never use super unleaded and mine runs fine... water down the plugs would have an interesting effect on it im sure though Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony 1,000 Posted April 6, 2006 i never use super unleaded and mine runs fine... It might subjectively run fine on unleaded, but it definately pinks under load... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tom_m 0 Posted April 6, 2006 mine hates running on regular, and i hate running it on regular! its way rougher and noticably down on power above 3krpm. It really pisses me off when petrol stations run out of optimax/ultimate and don't have the decency to have an octane booster in as a stop gap. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ashley peddle 3 Posted April 6, 2006 (edited) It might subjectively run fine on unleaded, but it definately pinks under load... well iv never noticed that the only rattle i get is from the slightly cracked exhaust manifold... Edited April 6, 2006 by ashley peddle Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest woll Posted April 6, 2006 OK, think i'll stick to using super from now on!! Gotta be worth the extra 4p a litre or whatever it is. Now just gotta sort the plugs and leads out. Whats the general concensus on silicon leads? Does it make much of a difference on a normal unmodded 1.6 GTi? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony 1,000 Posted April 6, 2006 Whats the general concensus on silicon leads? Does it make much of a difference on a normal unmodded 1.6 GTi? Just get standard leads - the ones GSF sell are more than upto the job. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
