Recommended fuel type.

[emjoa]

Maybe this is just a me problem (i.e. lack of experience) but I can't understand why the owner's manual for my 2023 C400GT lists both high and low compression fuel types as the "recommended fuel type" for the engine. I've owned two bikes and three different cars by now and as far as I can recall I've never seen this in an owner's manual before. The attached pics shows the relevant pages of the manual I received with my bike here in Canada, but I've also downloaded the "US English" version of the same manual from BMW's web site and it only lists 87AKI, not 87 and 91. I've asked my dealership, and after taking almost a week to get back to me the answer was "that's a European manual, just use high octane", which sounds like a "we don't actually know" answer to me, especially considering the "US English" version of the manual specifically says to just use low octane fuel. I also called BMW Motorrad Canada who gave me an email address and told me to ask there. After a week the answer was essentially "we don't know, ask your local dealership as they will know the correct fuel type to use in your region". Again, maybe it's just my lack of knowledge and experience, but I didn't think fuel type was geography specific?

Has anyone else here noticed this in their owner's manual? I'm curious what other people are seeing and using in their regions, as I just bought this bike and would like to be using the optimal fuel for power and longevity of the engine. I obviously want to get the answer from the horses mouth, but going to my dealer and BMW themselves just left me more confused. I'd appreciate hearing any opinions or experience other's might have to share.

 

[byee]

I’ve been filling my C400GT with Chevron 94 octane since it doesn’t contain ethanol.

I have also run lower octane fuels through my bike. I can’t feel any performance difference between the fuels.

I just don’t want the water from its hygroscopic properties to foul up the jets. I also add in a bit of Redline FI cleaner monthly

I hope this info helps

 

[emjoa]

I’ve been filling my C400GT with Chevron 94 octane since it doesn’t contain ethanol.

I have also run lower octane fuels through my bike. I can’t feel any performance difference between the fuels.

I just don’t want the water from its hygroscopic properties to foul up the jets. I also add in a bit of Redline FI cleaner monthly

I hope this info helps

Thanks for the response byee

 

[jokerface]

Hi.
Here in Slovakia and Hungary, but I think elsewhere in Europe, E5 gasoline is 100 octane, and E10 is 95 octane. I use E5 gasoline because of the less ethanol and the higher octane.

 

[TCC400GT]

I've been burning Regular gas (87 US AKI/Octane) in my C400GT and it runs fine (including two up). Also have over 10,000 miles on my BMW F750GS which also burns 87 Octane and all is fine! Performance on both is great, no "hiccups" when accelerating, plenty of power. Why spend more on Premium if you don't need it?

 

[emjoa]

I've been burning Regular gas (87 US AKI/Octane) in my C400GT and it runs fine (including two up). Also have over 10,000 miles on my BMW F750GS which also burns 87 Octane and all is fine! Performance on both is great, no "hiccups" when accelerating, plenty of power. Why spend more on Premium if you don't need it?

Thanks TCC400GT, this is what I'm thinking at this point as well, and I agree, why spend more on high octane fuel if it's just being wasted. But that's also why I'm trying to get a definitive answer for this as well, because if the engine doesn't actually require high octane, I don't want to wast money on it.

I started poking around in all the various owner's manuals BMW has on their site for this bike and found that older manuals actually denote why there are two recommended fuel types in North America. This is the back cover page from an older manual than the one that came with my bike, but it actually lists "Canada export national market version", which I'm assuming is what I have, and that it should take 87 AKI.


I also noticed that all the "US English" language versions of the manual on their site only show 87AKI for the fuel type as well, so at this point I'm assuming that's what they recommend for all of North America. I'm guessing there's no actual difference in the engine, but that they just have the ECU set differently for NA as compared to Europe, but then I'm still kinda baffled as to why they would do that. Different emission laws or something?

Anyway, after even more non-answers from both my dealer and BMW Canada themselves, I'm just going to put 87 in it. Most of the gas around where I live is below 10% ethanol and as the manual says a max of 15% I'm just not going to worry about it any more than that!

Thanks all for the responses, much appreciated.

 

[jokerface]

In the USA, the fuel standards are different.
I use premium fuel because it's not much more expensive. I pay 1-2€ more per fill-up. I've never actually counted it.

 

[Ceesie76]

FWIW my Honda SH 300i scooter runs more efficiently on the mid-grade. I was always putting in premium as in 'can't hurt' but after reading the relevant forum comments decided to try it out and, for sure, it got better MPG than with the premium fuel.

 

[emjoa]

FWIW my Honda SH 300i scooter runs more efficiently on the mid-grade. I was always putting in premium as in 'can't hurt' but after reading the relevant forum comments decided to try it out and, for sure, it got better MPG than with the premium fuel.

Thanks Ceesie, I hadn't even thought of testing mileage results with different fuel types! I'm going to do that over a few tankfuls and see if I notice a difference with my C400GT.

(I was actually trying to find a Honda SH 300i a few years back but they just don't seem to import them to my neck of the woods. Scooter options are slim in general around here, which is why I was happy to find my C400!)