RON95 or RON 97???

Well, 31 August 2009 was the 52 Merdeka for Malaysia, and while all nations were busy celebrating for Merdeka, government announced the price hike for RON 97 fuel price to RM2.05 and newly introduced RON 95 to RM1.80, as compared before Merdeka the price was RM1.80 and RM1.75 respectively. I think mostly Malaysian will go for the cheaper one after the price hike but does this RON 95 fuel is really suitable for our engine combustion??

RON stands for Research Octane Number, and it is the most common type of Octane Rating. Octane Rating is a measure of the resistance of gasoline and other fuels to detonation (engine knocking) in spark-ignition internal combustion engines. Meaning that high performance engines typically have higher compression ratios and are therefore more prone to detonation, thus they require higher octane fuel. Knocking occurs when the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder explodes instead of burning in a controlled way. This shockwave moves within the combustion chamber, and creates a metallic "pinging".

For Perodua users, RON 95 is safe to use as the manufacturer already stated that on their website. Kindy click on the link below to read through:

Read more : http://www.perodua.com.my/index.php?section=news&year=2009&page=details&id=94

However, there are some issues on older Proton car as they acknowledge some of the old carburetor cars may experience knocking depending on the condition of the engine and needs to go into the Proton service center to adjust the engine’s ignition timing. However, Proton’s Campro engines and most of the 16 valve Mitsubishi engines installed in Protons (4G92 in Wira 1.6 and 4G93 in Satria GTi) run on a minimum of RON95.

Read more: http://paultan.org/2008/04/07/government-proposes-subsidised-ron95-and-unsubsidised-ron99/#ixzz0PqnEOQXF

Read more: http://paultan.org/2009/05/14/can-proton-cars-run-ron95-grade-fuel/#ixzz0PqmvUzVn

Honda Malaysia also announced that all models distributed by the company except Civic Type R, of which they recommend RON97 because of its high performance engine, are compatible with petrol RON95. However, for models distributed before 2001 or distributed by non-authorised Honda dealers, owners are advised to cross check the vehicle's minimum RON requirement by reffering to the owner's manual.

Read more: http://www.zerotohundred.com/2009/auto-news/all-models-from-honda-malaysia-are-ron-95-compatible-except-for-the-type-r/

It is advisible to check with your workshop or manual or the Manufacturer to find out what octane your engine really need before switching to RON 95 as information above are the source from internet!!!

Alright, now come back to the point why government wants to introduce the RON95 pertol. Previously the government thinks that this could effectively takes some burden off the low to middle-class income earners. But that's the case when RON95 was priced at RM1.75. However, effectively from 1st Sept the price for RON95 is RM1.80, which is same as the price for RON 97 before price hike!!! So what's the point to introduce this newly RON95??? Well, let the users to justify it and one thing for sure is, the price for petrol will be higher and higher in future!!!