Fuel Shortage and E10 fuel what does it mean?

If you're living in the UK right now, you will be widely aware of the current fuel shortages and a change-up in the standard 95ron fuel to current E10 petrol. It's not already like we haven’t had enough grief with COVID and Brexit ruining car shows and delaying our car mods.

You are probably thinking, 'I've got a remapped car that is tuned to Shell V-Power or Tesco momentum 99ron fuel and with the current shortages, I'm unable to get the correct petrol, couple this with not knowing the effects of using E10 petrol'.

So if you want the short answer, go ahead and fuel your tuned car with E10 fuel or whatever fuel you can get as life must go on. Now, if you have opted for one of the premium brand tuners like VUDU Performance etc... you’re in luck as your knock control is almost certainly very close to OEM therefore, if you load the car with 95ron fuel of a poor grade, providing you keep the car off high-load and boost, you will be absolutely fine without causing long term damage.

** WARNING HERE**
You must NOT drive the car hard with the incorrect grade of fuel. Heat, load, and boost pressure will not end well with the incorrect fuel. Especially if you are highly tuned and a stage 3 hybrid turbo owner.
Please do not see this as a long term opportunity to run the wrong E10 fuel and save pence per litre long term, it is not suitable for even a stock performance car.

Unfortunately, we are unable to advise owners who have opted for a cheaper, second-rate remap software. We always advise people to spend the extra money on a properly developed remap from a trusted brand, as they ensure reliability and power, with no sacrifices. Although we cannot give an official comment, we feel there is a chance you will be fine, but there is also a chance you will not.
You can read more about remapping stages in our Remap Blog if you wish to understand better.

What is E10 Fuel?

E10 Petrol is an ethanol mix with standard 95ron unleaded. The mix ratio of E10 fuel is 10% ethanol-based, which is up from the usual 5% in regular unleaded petrol.

There are arguments for positives and negatives of E10 petrol, but ultimately long term it will not matter to us, or our customers with VUDU tuned cars, as we only recommend V power petrol or Tesco 99ron.
We will be conducting further tests on the new ESSO 99ron fuel in-house to see how it reacts with our current range of remaps.

If you have any further questions about remapping please get in touch via our Contact Us Page.