RON95 and My X-Trail

For my X-Trail, I've used both RON92 and RON97. They both work fine without any issues. Since the new RON95 sits in between there is definitely no problem. The sad part is I'd have to say goodbye to the cheaper RON92 fuel. It was nice knowing you. Alas.. au revoir!

RON92 works fine with X-Trail, my only beef with it is that I get slightly lower mileage. My numbers shows that over time there was no significant dollars and cents saved using RON92 compared to using RON97. Then again my data could be wrong.

Don't know why so many folks were afraid to use RON92. It says very well in our user manual the X will only require a minimum of RON91. Chip's RON List in Motortrader also recently got updated with RON data from Nissan. I was shocked ETCM said the X was not compatible to RON92.

Earlier on, one of the reasons I heard for this was that ETCM did had always played the safe side of things. Less issues with warranty.

Take away notes from this post for those still having doubts on RON95 :-

X-Trail works with RON95 !!!!!

Now go worry about something else :)

Shell RON95 - Available @Alisha Station along Federal Highway Batu 3 (Klang bound).

KUALA LUMPUR, TUES:

SHELL Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd announced today that its Shell Unleaded 95 fuel is now available at the Alisha Station along Federal Highway Batu 3 (Klang bound).

In a statement, Shell said the fuel will be available at all of its stations nationwide by September this year in compliance with government's directive to introduce the RON95 fuel to the market.

"We are pleased to offer our customers the opportunity to try our Shell Unleaded 95 fuel with fuel economy formula at this site," said the company's managing director Datuk Mohzani Abdul Wahab.

"Our customers can be assured that this new fuel continues to deliver on Shell's fuel quality promise and complements our aspiration of helping our customers get the most out of every drop," he said.

Shell also said that to address the need for fuel efficiency, tips are available at the http://everydrop.shell.com.my website to help motorists save up to 10 percent in fuel consumption.
"Shell will continue to work to educate drivers on ways to optimize their fuel consumption, and very soon we will be addressing RON95 public awareness as well," Mohzani said. - Bernama

Latio vs Wira

A friend's Nissan Latio got got a head on collision on its side with a Proton Wira. This unfortunate incident happened while making a turn at a traffic light. The Latio engine was still running after the incident but the Wira totally stalled. The Wira suffered damages to the bonnet, bumper and the front part of the chassis. I didn't manage to get any shots of the damaged Wira. We shall see if i get to visit the workshop. :)

The Latio suffered door damages only. Not sure if the pillars have issue that will need further inspection. According to the Latio's driver, he felt nothing more than a thud during the impact and only realised the severity of the damage when he came out to inspect it. Thankfully there were no one in the passenger seats. I can't imagine what would have happened.

Looking at the car, these thoughts come to mind

• What is the limit of these side impact bars?
• There were no skid marks from the wira showing signs or it braking. How fast was it going? Did the driver panic or was he looking else where
• Does this prove Nissan's claim for the Latio's 6-Star JNCAP rating?

I'm just glad no one got hurt.

Ignition Timing

A couple of weeks back, the X was experiencing really bad vibrations in traffic jams. I stopped by the Sungai Pinang SC and they diagnosed it to a dirty throttle body. How? The foreman said he couldn't get the a reading and can't update the computer diagnostic tool.

I had it cleaned and that cost me RM80. He also reset my ignition timing back to 16 BTDC.

Now this is the interesting part. So far I've done about 3-4 tanks with the new ignition timing.

On highways, with 16BTDC I'm getting back the high 11.x km/liters in fuel economy.

However the funny part was, mileage driving in town (Penang) has dropped back to below 7km/liters. What is going on?

Before this with 18BTDC highway mileage is between 10-11km/liters and town driving hovers 7-9km/liters.

I don't have conclusive data yet since this is only the 2nd tank of fuel driving in town.

From my reading, N16 users did say advancing the ignition timing did save fuel.

At the moment, I have the following conclusion for tweaking the ignition timing.

Increasing the ignition timing saves fuel when you do more stop-go type of driving involving 0-2500rpm. The increase in ignition timing brings forward the power curve and torque curve. I still can't explain why it uses more fuel cruising at 2800-3000rpm. Maybe more power = more fuel could be use here.

I'll be heading back to reset the ignition timing back to 18BTDC after a few more tanks of fuel.

Rebates for direct insurance

The Star ran an article saying come July 1st, car owners that buy motor insurance directly from the insurance companies would qualify for a 5% rebate. They will get a 10% rebate when they renew it for the second year.

Full news here

Sounds good if you ask me. More discounts on top of the existing one. However as with this country, don't keep your hopes up until you really see it being implemented. Keep your fingers crossed.