dac350

I know of the octane requirements, but are there specific brands of gas that are preferred for the S3? I'm also curious if anyone has had good results with another brand of oil other than Castrol Edge Professional.

DennisMitchell

Folks will tell you that Shell is best. I go for the most economical 93 octane Top Tier gas. For me that means Exxon. In terms of oil, in case you don't know, you must get the 502.00 spec oil. I have no preference on the oil, but it seems the Audi dealers use Castrol AFAIK.

See: Audi Maintenance & Fuel Requirements | Audi USA

Storm982

Like Dennis said, I like Shell. I've never had issues with them. As long as you stick to Top Tier stations you should be good. I also got Shells rewards card that you can link to you other credit cards and get essentially fuel reward perks for other things you generally purchase so that makes getting v-power a little more economical as well.

mroberte

For those that do not know, all gas comes from the same refinery and same process to actually make it. The only difference is when it's actually shipped to the gas station. So Shell/Chevron as examples put in their additives/detergents in the trucks, then add gas... the mixture is then mixed during transit, however the only difference is that additive.

So moral of the story, all gas is gas regardless, just certain companies did a better job at marketing their additives to make you think its better than XYZ competitor.

The additives are also available (and cheaper overall) at your local parts store. I use to certify the trucks for CARB and I buy whatever is the cheapest. The only thing you really should be doing is always putting in the recommended octane rating and above from the manufacturer. So save your money and buy whatever is the cheapest and maintain the car and you'll be 100% fine.

Tsyndr

This should be a TIL post on reddit! Thanks. Now I feel better about my Costco gas. Any particular additive you think is actually worth using? I don't know if Costco puts an additive.

mroberte

Very welcome, and techron additive is actually good for something that is a detergent... any of the other octane boosters are fine, however most only raise octane minimally. Detergents do not need to always be added with every fill up. WOT runs really should be done if you do alot of town driving... driving the car hard has its advantages to help clean out any debris/buildup if its actually easy to come off and not baked on.

One of my old cars had 405K miles on the original engine, I beat the crap out of that engine, autocrossing frequently and redlining it all the time (and even overrevving by shifting into the wrong gears a few times) and when I took the head off, internal were incredibly clean. And always running cheap gas.

Main thing is really maintenance of the car. 3500 mile oil changes, compression checks, gas additives once in a blue moon and lots of WOT runs.

snagitseven

I use Shell premium because I get discount points from my supermarket chain. Typically about $.40 per gallon off the pump price each time I fill up.