Hi,
I recently bought a 1988 Golf GTI 8V. The previous owner told me he only used unleaded petrol, although he only drove 5,000 miles in it.
The filler cap seems to indicate that the car was originally manufactured to use leaded fuel. I've looked in the owners manual but there are no clues there (its written for both leaded and unleaded cars and assumes you know which one you've got).
Will I do the car any harm if I continue to run it on unleaded when it should have leaded fuel?
How do I find out what fuel it should really have?
Thanks for any help,
Nigel
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Leaded or unleaded isnt an issue with this engine. Octane rating is. These engines were designed in the days of decent four star petrol, hence require 98RON fuel minimum on standard settings. I reccomend you use Shell Optimax- i did in my mk.2 16v Jetta untill i wrote it off.
Fancy buying some 16v spirngs or wheels?? Going cheap.
Ben
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Nigel,
To be doubly sure give us your engine code and I'll look up the trade advice. It should be something like PB, DX or EV. One type is OK for unleaded as is, the others need timing adjustments or an additive.
MM
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If its an 88 i think it is most likely to be a K-jet car. But of course, its not a case of needing lead. Even if it is a digifant car, its still best run on Optimax isnt it?
You can run k-jet cars on unleaded. No additive required. These engines do not suffer from valve seat recession. You can take the timing back if you want to run it on 95ron fuel, but you will loose fuel economy, it wont run as well. I would run it on standard setting and use proper fuel.
Ben
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Hi there,
I had a 88 VW Scirocco with the 1.8 8v engine (engine code DX). The DX engine needs retarding to work with unleaded (I THINK to 0deg advance). Note that although the Scirocco had a 8v engine it had the mechanical fuel injection, unlike the Bosch electronic system found on 8v Golf's. AFAIK the 16v Golf's had the mechanical system.
I did notice a performance drop (not surprising after the BIG timing adjustment)!!! when running on unleaded.
I think it was only the Polo 1.3 Formel E that had to have leaded fuel only (this from my VW mechanic brother).
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