I have a 97 Acura 2.5TL with 117k miles. I faithfully put 93 octane in the tank during the life of the car and by mistake last week filled up with 87. Now my check engine light has come on. Will the light go off once I burn off the 87 octane and replace with 93 or is this a sign of a bigger problem?

 

After few trips, it will go away. don't worry about...

 

Thanks..but do you mean a few more trips after I change back to 93?

 

Mine has been on for a while now (more than a year) - dealer sez I need an engine cleaning ($$$), so you're probably on the way to the same deal. It's really only affected my gas mileage. I haven't got it fixed because I spent too much money on a house :P. Apparently there's a fuel-line cleaner that might help if you put it in at 1/4 tank...

Also - do yourself a favour, keep with the high octane. Car runs like shiz without it .

Craig

 

If it came on because of the gas issue, few more trip should cure it.

 

Why not pull the codes by shorting the Service Check Connector and know what caused the CEL? I run regular in my 2.5TL all the time and it runs smooth as ever w/o any CEL. It coudl be something that needs attention.

I looked through the codes list and there does not appear to be any code that would correlate w/ use of regular fuel. Engine controller adapts by retarding timing slightly when pinging is detected, which will reduce fuel mileage for highway driving by some amount. I've never detected any pinging so I don't know if my timing is retarded or not. I get about 25-27 mpg highway and about 22 mpg around town.

I seriously doubt if regular gas is cause of your CEL.

good luck

 

Agreed, regular gas wont cause problems.. you most likely have another issue, such as an oxygen sensor thats out.

 

I always had that problem. Everytime I put regular gas, CEL came on. What ended up happening was a damaged OX sensor.