Anyone interested in saving a few bucks at the gas station... After reading car and driver's test of fuels, I tried for the first time give my car regular gas. It has gotten the same if not better milege, no noticeable drop in performance with the same hard SS driving i normally do.

 

I don't think one tank makes much of a difference. Let us know how you are doing in a few months. I'd be interested.

The way I look at it is the following: The manual recommends premium fuel. If it costs me $3 a fill-up more at 1 fill-up a week. That's $150 extra a year. Don't forgot you are driving a $30,000 car. For $150 a year extra in gas why fool around?

 

Agree, for such a small saving why mess around. I plan on keeping my TL-S for a few years so I want to be sure to take care of it the best I can.

 

will the car be in better condition if i use premium? why would regular "hurt" the car? just trying to get educated.

 

you guys should see the latest issue of Car & Driver. They put 5 or 6 cars to this test.. regular ones as well as ones that require premium.. the regular cars (they did a V6 accord.. how nice for me) .. had pretty much EXACTLY the same acceleration on regular and premium... the horsepower was actually a little more on regular which they couldn't explain except for "test to test variability" .. the cars that required premium (2002 M3, Saab 9-5 turbo), suffered the most w/ regualr with as much as 10% power loss... its a good article - worth a read.. i know i'll be buying regular from now on

 

I use premium, at least 91 octane thats what the manual says.
Theres no 91 here so its usually 93 octane. when i go to Sunoco i use Ultra 94(which is, you guessed it, 94 octane).

 

Sorry but only premium for my baby!

 

No quality gasoline will "hurt" your car. Many years ago, only premium gasolines had detergents in them, but as a result of a lawsuit (I believe BMW vehicles were involved), all grades of gasoline are required to have detergents in them to keep your injectors and valves clean.

Cars that require premium do so because they run at a higher compression rate and as a result, are at increased risk of encountering "knocking" under hard acceleration.

Knocking can be eliminated by using a fuel with a higher octane rating. To protect the engine against knocking, our cars are equipped with "sensors", that detect the spark knock. When knocking occurs, the engine management system retards the timing to try and reduce the occurance. By retarding the timing, you experience diminished performance.

So with all this said, here are some facts:

1. High Octane Racing fuel will not make your car go faster. The fuel is simply designed for engines designed with a higher than average compression ratio

2. If your car was designed to run on 87 octane, that's all you need. Higher octane fuel will not increase your performance (see fact #1).

3. Cars that require a higher octane fuel (like ours) will run fine with a lower octane, but if the engine management system detects potential knock, it will "retard" the timing, and you may experience a performance loss. Admittedly, most people wouldn't even notice this unless their car was on a Dyno.

4. Any savings gained by using a lower octane fuel on a car that requires 91 octane, will most likely be offset by the fact that the engine is not running at peak efficiency (due to the timing retardation).

I'm not sure of the price difference between premium and a midgrade (89 octane) gasoline, but let's assume it's $0.10.

Let's do some math.

Since our cars have a 17 gallon tank, it would end up costing you an extra $1.70 a fill up. Assuming you fill 52 times a year (depending on your driving of course) the savings is $88.40 a year. If you fill up twice a week, it's $176.80

Using the same math as above, if the difference in price between premium and regular is $0.20, then it's costing you an extra $3.40 per tank and depending on whether you fill up once or twice a week, it'll either cost you $176.8 or $353.6 respectively over the course of the year.

Not much money when you look at what people on this board spend on mods. These numbers may be also offset by the fact that your mileage may decrease due to any timing adjustments that are made by the engine management system.

Bottom line (my opinion): You've spent 30K+ on a car that is designed to perform at it's best while running on premium. Why would you compromise the performance by saving a few bucks?

In my situation, I always go with a name brand gas station (i.e. Amoco, Mobil, etc.) versus "Bubba's Gas and Snacks". My wife's Pathfinder get's regular since that is what the manual recommends, my TL gets premium, although it's 93 octane since 91 octane can't be found around here.

Sorry for the rambling.....

 

Very well put goaub and I couldn't agree more. Just look at my previous post, only premium for my baby.

 

I feel like im at the top of the fuel chain when I use premium gas...They wouldnt tell you use premium if it wasnt designed for the life of the car...Acura's stay around a lot longer than other cars on the market too...Spend tha extra 3$ bucks player, buy tha premium...Shyne

 

I always use Premium in my gas tank also. This was a factor when deciding on the purchase of my TL. I could afford the cost of premium fuel to run it. I don't run here & there with my TL so the cost of using premium is a non factor. I fill the car up once a week or at least above a half. I always keep it above half in the winter time. I just filled up from almost empty about 15 gals on SUNDAY. The cost per gal was $1.40 I paid $20.85. If I had got gas here in the city EXXON,that would have been $1.65 per gal at the station I go to in town. I just wonder if repeated use of lower octane can result in damage to the engines knock sensors, manegment system ect.

 

Ultra 94 for me ALWAYS

 

My friend owns an Amoco...he said if i put Amoco Ultimate in the car from the get go and i ever need the injectors, he'll pay for it. According to him Amoco has the best fuel. Hes showed me samples of other fuels and amoco looks as clear as water compared to others

 

Amoco is the best fuel around...Shyne

 

I used regular gasoline today. My low fuel light was on and I decided to fill a 1/4 tank to see if I would notice any difference. It appears to me that the "snap" acceleration I got with the premium is missing with the regular gasoline. This is purely subjective. I don't have the fuel consumption numbers yet but I expect it to be the same. So to sum it up the slight loss of power under load is perhaps a result of the engine not firing at TDC as the computer is advancing the timing to prevent pre-ignition. That's my two cents.

 

ok, people who just tell that they get premium don't help. i usually get it too. It's like telling Columbus that you think the earth is flat. no use. stop it please.

i went through a full tank of regular with NO NOTICEABLE DROP in power and driveability. I used SS the whole time on this first tank of 91 premium. RESULT: 23.2 mpg. I used auto on the previous full tank of 91 premium. RESULT: 20.3 mpg. This tank was regular 87 using full SS. RESULT: 23.4.

CAN somone tell me if im hurting my engine if i keep doing this? at the end of the year if someone gave you the saved $170 in cash, wouldn't you want it? or am i being cheap?

 

As I said in my previous post. No your not hurting your engine, your knock sensors are preventing that.

As far as being cheap, well I dunno, maybe. If the performance wasn't that much of an issue to you, maybe you should have bought an Accord that is designed to run on regular.

Just giving you sh!t.

 

If you really need to save $200 over a year, brown bag it to work instead of going out for lunch everyday. That will pay for your gas.

I can't believe people in this forum are concerned with this. You obviously have a good source of income since you own a TL. If this were "My 1971 POS forum" I would understand.

 

What amuses me are the people who pump mid-grade (89 octane) or premium gasoline into vehicles that don't normally require such, under the idea that their cars will run much better/efficiently with higher octane fuel. If for some reason your car does seem to run better with the more expensive stuff--all it means is that there your car probably has some engine-related problems.

A decently-tuned engine that is meant to--and will run--fine on regular 87 octane unleaded should in theory not run any better than that on 89 or higher octane gas. Many of you guys may not believe it, or perhaps refuse to believe it, but 89 octane gas was created strictly as a marketing ploy for oil companies to increase their profits, and 91+ octane gas would have been the same way if it weren't for the fact that car manufacturers are trying to squeeze more power out of relatively smaller engines, all in the name of fuel economy.

Of course, all of the above is IMHO...

Tony

P.S.: don't be misled when you see certain gas brands that advertise that their gasoline contain cleaning additives (e.g., Chevron w/ Techron); it's just another marketing ploy, as I believe (and I may be mistaken; feel free to correct me) here in California, all major-branded (if not all, period) gasoline by law must contain some kind of cleaning agent due to strict CA environmental clean-air standards. IOW--don't think that the gas that you get from company A is better than that from company B because A has cleaning additives while B doesn't; this is a farce...

 

Right on. If your car is intended to run on 87 octane and it's knocking, using 89 or 91 octane may correct the problem but you most likely need some engine work.

I partially agree. Techron is an after market fuel injector cleaner that you can buy at your local Pep boys or Trak Auto. These additives are added to clean your fuel injectors, not for clean air. Reformulated gasoline is for the environment and the EPA dictates where that gasoline should be sold based on air tests. This gets pretty complicated since there are different formulas by region and allegedly has caused shortages in places like Chicago where gas went up to close to $3.00 a gallon (for premium) last spring when the switch-over occurred.

If you read the fine print at those Amoco pumps that advertise the benefits of Amoco Ultimate, there is a little disclaimer that says "for cars that benefit from premium gasoline".

I guess what I'm trying to say is that by law, all grades gasoline are required to have additives to clean your fuel system regardless of brand.

Reformulated gasoline applies to all grades of gasoline, also regardless of brand. This is for the environment.

Some brands may claim that they put additional fuel cleaning additives in their premium fuels, but the effectiveness is debatable and most likely is intended to increase profits.

 

You got it right on all counts; and yeah, Techron is a fuel-injector additive not meant specifically to aid in preventing dirty air--I knew that; just used the wrong specific example. Anyways, you got what I was trying to get at--that oil companies try to razzle-dazzle customers by pointing out stuff that makes their gasoline stand out from others when for the most part their gas isn't a whole lot different from your mom-and-pop gas mart.

Tony

 

I make sure my family only puts premium in our TL. I occasionally put premium on my accord, but that's to help clean the engine since it burns hotter and slower. Once I get the Unichip for Direct Ignition, then I'll advance timing so that I can benefit from premium.