RadTheImpaler

I am not quite yet a TL owner. I brought home a 1997 Acura TL 2.5 140K miles for $5500 from a local used car dealer. I have read enough on these forums to believe that this is a good car for the money. I am wondering if everyone uses Premium gas or do some get by fine with just regular unleaded. Thank you all in advance for any assistance you may provide.

KrayzieDxC

premium gas only! any other below 92 will just runied your emisson and lose acceleration

HighMileage2.5

Yeah i have used regular unleaded for a while and it works fine with less acceleration, but it gets the job done. I hasn't caused any significant damages after switching between regular and premium through the years, (80,000 miles to 210,000 miles). Now I play it safe and use premium only though.

desired_speeds

Fixed.

KrayzieDxC

fixed?

monkeybutt

87 octane works in my 2.5. Just passed smog check in Cali and got 22 mpg on last tank.

Go90go

Look at your quote carefully. 92 was replaced with 91. We only have 91 at the pump here in CA with the relatively rare exception of 100 at some pumps.

~Cheers~

P.S. It was me on Ken's account. I forgot to log him out.

KrayzieDxC

thas suxs... stop being on his account lol, you guys like share things together huh.

Go90go

^ Haha, I was at his house and decided to check up on the forum. I was over at his house to help supervise the installation of a rear sway bar in a Civic, and help figure out what bolts were needed. That and to change my oil. I supervised so much, I got tired.

~Cheers~

phazein

Use premium only. I had a 97 3.2 and it would make a knocking noise and get less miles per gallon with regular. Also I don't know what are you are in but I got my 3.2 last year with 151,xxx miles for $3,000. The hood and fender needed a paint job but I never got around to doing it. Check craigslist I see them in the San Francisco area all day.

TexasHonda

I would suggest trying several tanks of regular and premium to see if you can tell the difference. There seems to be a wide variation of opinion and few facts.

I've tried both regular and premium in my 2.5TL and settled on regular because I couldn't detect any change in performance or mileage. There should be a difference, but it's not much. Vehicle has adaptive ignition control from the ECU that will retard the timing to prevent pre-ignition, and this should reduce performance and decrease MPG.

I also have a 97 2.5TL w/ about same mileage. I hope the timing belt has been done, as this service should have been performed about 105K miles. It's a $500-$700 service.

good luck

rlarge98tl

I tried regular a few months after I brought my car in 01 and i could tell the difference quick. premium is the only way to go

Go90go

Seriously, though I still have slight detonation with 91...

~Cheers~

DAiNiUS

Most of the gas stations up here in Montreal have 91 octane as the supreme gas, however some have 94. I usually use 91, sometimes I put some 94 and I think that I feel a difference. But I was thinking that it might be a placebo effect(I dunno if you can apply that to this situation but what the heck) Since you know that it's a 94 you think that it does perform better, you feel that it accelerates faster and is somehow smoother. However if someone you know would drive the car and later on put some 94(instead of the usual 91) before returning the car, I'm sure that you wouldn't feel the difference, I know I wouldn't.

GregW

I change my oil and my car feels smoother. I wash it and it feels like it runs better too. I added an aftermarket headunit and the car was sleeker and felt better again.

It could very well be a mental thing. I would like to see statistics with and without.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

for all you know, the previous owner used regular unleaded for the whole 140k miles....i would try regular first, then if i hear any knocking or pinging, i would move up to mid, then premium....

96acura2.5tl

ive been using regular since i bought my car idk what the previous owner put in. its been 5,000 miles on regular. if i switched to premium will it do it automatically and will it take it?

l-train

same here i use regular, i want to change to 93 but its too expensive.. can i just change or i need to change oil then switch

96acura2.5tl

i let the tank go all the way to empty then just put in the premium, nothing happend so i guess you dont have to change the oil first

miller25758

'96 2.5TL with 217k....second owner, have only used regular 87 octane for the time I have owned it ...now 11 years and 200k...no problems whatsover.

slowfn808

The g25 a has a "not so normal" ignition system. The compression ratio is 10+,which will usually require atleast 91 octane to run efficiently. The use of lower octane will put the ecu in low octane mode which takes away certain features. When using 91/92/93+ octane in a properly maintained 2.5 tl you should be getting 25-28 mpg. Any lower and you will be getting 20-25mpg why?

with low octane the g25 it will
1 retard ignition timing and put you in 170hp 150lbs mode. Instead of 180hp 175lbs
2 the g25 auto is designed to retard timing under shift points for a smoother transaction then re-advance timing under load. With low octane this is disabled
3 I can feel the immediate loss of torque using low octane in a tl (if you don't know what your looking for you won't notice unless you know 100% how your vehicle should run.
4 low octane won't damage your engine because there is a knock sensor,this is what tells the computer if your combustion chamber is pre-igniting or detonating,this is also how your car finds out your not using 91+. There is no sensor that reads the type of fuel octane,so when your car starts pinging it retards the timing (loss of power/mpg) so you don't blow your engine,pre-ignition/detonating is a common way to ruin your engine (completely) your engine is mechanically designed to use high octane. Just because it runs doesn't mean it works. You are loosing mpg-vs-$ because of the power loss

slowfn808

Which is also why some people say it runs smoother with the proper fuelxits because of the earlier torque curve

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

i can't blame you for not searching... holy thread revival...

slowfn808

Lol mybad. Just incase someone needs to look this up. I just find it sad that people put 87 in a med/high compression engine and to make matters worse its a straight 5 not a v6 which means,one head - more sensitive to gas/temps/pre-ignition

DT0450

Can you run 87oct and just add oct booster?