Hello all,

I have researched for hours, days, and cannot find SPECIFICALLY as to whether a 2005 Ford Focus 1.6ltr Ti-VCT engine is better on "super unleaded" 97-99 RON vs 95 Ron.

All I want answered is a simple Yes or No. 

Seen too many threads turned into a war between people who claim they work or its a con, but none talking about this engine specifically.

So THANKS for those IN THE KNOW about Fords 1.6 Ti-VCT engines and their experiences.

cheers.

You can use Super if you want but you don't need to; the engine is designed for a minimum of 95 RON.

If you did put Super in it you'll probably find it runs slightly better, gives a bit more torque lower down and you'll see a slight increase in MPG.

I have the Mk3 with the same engine as yours and I run it on Tesco Momentum 99 and I find it makes the car run better and my MPG improves from 39mpg to 42mpg; but it's purely up to you, the engine doesn't need it like others.

Thank you for taking the time to reply iFocus, I will give it a try. Havent been to my local Tescos for years since I work and therefore shop at a different supermarket for convenience purposes, but the store I work at doesn't sell any super unleaded and the rip off prices I see from my local BP and Shell have always put me off, they're about 20p a litre more than their standard stuff. I know BP's ultimate is £1.36 p/l vs standard at £1.16 p/l, Shell is same price standard as BP but £1.32 p/l for their V-Power. I'll have to see if my Local Tesco's sell "Momentum".

theres nothing specific about the ti-vct engine that requires it to use higher octane fuel

and "better" is a relative term , so while there maybe marginal benefits to using it , whether this is worth the extra 10% or so additional petrol costs is down to each individual to determine.

personally i'd say not worth it tbh from my own experiences

Thank you biff55 for your input, as I said in my previous post, if my local Tesco sells Momentum I might give it a try, and see what my experiences are. I'm not paying them Shell/BP prices.

Every premium fuel is normally about 10p more than normal. You must have some seriously profiteering stations near you!

My local Tesco is currently 1.12.9 for unleaded and 1.16.9 for Momentum.

My local station is 1.179 for Momentum vs standard at 1.139; but the extra cost is mitigated by the difference in MPG. 

Most premium fuels are about 10p per litre dearer for 97ron, momentum99 is usually 4-5p dearer so better value for sure.

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You won't notice a thing!

I didn't on mine, on a car this old, it doesn't feel eny different. I tried a couple of months each on Shell, BP and Tesco's premium fuels without any noticeable MPG different, or responsiveness.

I notice responsiveness more on a cool morning on the 10 miles to the station compared to the warmer drive home in the evening than I do with fuel.

Totally depends on if a car is tuned to utilise higher octane fuel.
In a standard 1.6 it would be a waste, in a ST, RS or a 5.0 Mustang then it makes sense.

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Any car with a turbo is likely to benefit from using super fuel, although all petrol cars sold here have to be capable of running on standard 95 octane which is the normal fuel in this country.  

When motor manufacturers do the mandatory fuel test I wonder if they use super fuels to boost their test results.  

I run BP ultimate in my focus 1.8 petrol and it does seem to run a lot smoother along with a little more poke.

Thanks everyone for all your replies, sorry wasnt back sooner, been on holiday.

Throughout my holiday, I solely ran the car on Tesco Momentum and my car HATES it. Did 3 fill ups on the stuff (Yes was driving all over the shop) Noticed that on a cold engine start, the car would hesitate and struggle/jerk when accelerating, but as soon as the engine warmed up it was fine. However noting that, I did get a lot of increased range out of the amount of fuel I put in (a full tank would read 420 miles as opposed to cheap fuel reading 380 miles) My MPG was 33.5.

However even with only just 2 fill ups with a local near enough Sainsburys that I found selling premium with what I believe is 97 octane instead of the 99 Tescos stuff, my car runs much better on cold starting, this stutter/jerk when trying to accelerate has stopped but mpg has dropped by as much as 0.1mpg  I have heard that this is really BP ultimate because its Sainsburys and that they had a deal with BP?? If so, thats good because as per my previous posts, my local BP charges almost £1.40 p/l for ultimate.

On a side note, what would cause this stutter/jerkyness? BUT this could be a skewed result because I've just had the car in for service where they changed the oi/, oil filter and the air filter.

Unless the air filter was really badly clogged up I can't see that having any effect. I don't see how oil and filter could affect it at all.

Sorry for bumping a really old thread of mine, but to reply to @mjt

For the 5yrs I owned the car (got a new one 3weeks ago) the average mpg i was getting was 23mpg. 

The final straw and what made me want to get a newer car was that the fact that that car had failed its MOT 3 times on the trot and that the infamous instrument cluster broke. (Plus the car had a broken aircon and always ran cold due to radiator thermostat being stuck open. I know the sensor worked as in stop start traffic the engine would warm up, but stayed at cold on the open road) 

Funny thing is, After fixing the instrument cluster I had the car a further 2 weeks. During that time there was no engine jerkiness and my mpg shot up to 37.9!!!

Now after seatbelt rust, broken coils, broken instrument cluster, 3 previously failed MOTs that needed costly repairs and 145k miles on the clock felt it was time for a newer-ish car anyway 

Found a 10yr old SCTI thats only failed once and that was on a lightbulb with 65k miles on the clock. 

Yet despite all that, I do miss that car, that engine has never failed/broken down on me in the 5yrs I had it. Lets just say Im sad to see that engine go, as it was a good engine. I ragged the beans off it for 40k miles and it never broke its head gasket despite its age. I am currently so scared of my current new car breaking down. (I did go over budget to obtain it) and im worried somethings gonna happen.