Noticed they're on their way up again, thanks to a $112/bbl oil close yesterday. I run 91 octane in my E36, but I'm curious to see if a middle-grade will work well. It's a stock engine. Anybody else running the cheaper fuel with/without problems? The fuel door says 89 oct. minimum.

Unfortunately, I have a chip that I run 94 with...add 15c a litre to the posted and that's what I am stuck with.

I, for one, would not run lower than 89 on a stock BMW.

Nah, 89's as low as I would go. But if it saves me some cash without hurting the car or performance, I'll fill it with the 89. I probably wouldn't have a problem when I move to Victoria (@ sealevel) but I might have an issue here.

Yeah, I wish I could help you out more. Run 91 and offset it by avoiding full throttle runs!! As hard as that is!

Mine is stock and I've used 87 Octane (Bronze) from Shell in my E36. In fact I just filled up today with 87 @ Shell.

Nothing but V power for my bimmers.

Nothing but V power for my bimmers.


Agreed, but at the new Husky by my house they have 94 now which I'll use for road trips

use whatever your car is factory tuned for, if you have a chip use what that chip was tuned for. otherwise you are wasting your money.

use whatever your car is factory tuned for, if you have a chip use what that chip was tuned for. otherwise you are wasting your money.

shutup and go back to the beach:cool....not everyone drives an ETA

Nothing but V power for my bimmers.

BMWs' favorite drink.

oh man. i ran shell's bronze in my 318ti. it sucks. my car is noticeably slower. ran fine, no knocking, etc, but less power.

shut up with the 318 jokes. haha.

For the OP, the short answer is that 89 is fine, and you probably won't notice a change in performance, though you may get marginally worse gas mileage.

A couple of points to consider:
1. BMW usually gives recommended and minimum octane. For most cars this is 91 and 89 respectively. Optimum performance and fuel economy is with 91, but the difference in price may not be offset by the difference in mileage. Each owner has to determine that himself (good use for the computer).
2. Engine tuning will likely change the minimum octane required (note the M-tech kits, 19" wheels and trunk-sized subwoofers do not change the octane requirements).
3. Newer (i.e. 1990s and newer) cars have knock sensors that will retard the timing if you put in octane below the recommendation. The performance reduction will be noticable, but no harm will come to the engine unless your sensor is shot.
4. Higher octane than recommended will not produce better performance without modifications to the engine or engine/fuel management systems. Running 94 in an E36 323i with no ECU or engine mods is wasting money (for example). Still, for some reason a large proportion of the BMW community seems to believe that they get better performance from the highest octane available. What can I say?
5. 94 in most places is E10 (10% ethanol). BMW does not recommend ethanol in ANY of their older (approx before 1990 - some exceptions) or high compression engines (i.e. ///M engines). I have the bulletin copied here somewhere, but can't find it now. You can probably find it with a search of press releases from the BMW NA or BMW Canada sites. If you have an ///M engine try to find unadulterated 93, which is an approximate equivalent to 98 RON - the minimum BMW requires for most ///M engines.

^ Thanks!