bembol

Not including High End but how many companies use the word, Required these days? Even my '08 Nissan Altima Coupe 3.5SE says Recommended.

Why stress over the Premium price?

I never understood why people spend $30K+ and worry about spending a few more Dollars to maintain it.

born2blaze

only.

Cylanth

Since I started this thread, I feel I need to clarify my original point, since it seems to be lost in this conversation. Its never been about saving pennies, as some of you assume.

My original question was: Does the 4 cylinder TSX actually takes full advantage of Premium fuel? Not the 6 cylinder, just the 4 cylinder in this discussion. From my experience, it does not. If it was true, then I would've experienced 1. better performance and 2. better mileage. I did NOT experience better performance (judging by acceleration) and I did NOT get better gas mileage, in fact, I got worse mileage with premium.

Therefore, my conclusion is: The 4 cylinder is not optimized for premium fuel, thereby, paying for premium fuel is plain stupid.

Now, if any of you can provide evidence contrary to my conclusion, I would like to see it. Don't just point to the little blurb in the manufacturer manual, I want real world imperical data. I am especially pointing to those who swear by premium in this thread.

For the 6 cylinder, I can understand the need for premium, but a little dinky 4 cylinder with no Turbo? Premium is not needed, in fact, its pointless.

09TSXTech

^To the OP, our 4 cylinder motor has a pretty high compression ratio of 11:1, using Premium gas makes a lot of sense.

Higher compression ratios, higher heat loads and higher vehicle loads all create an environment in the engine where the fuel tends to self ignite before the spark plug can properly fire the mixture. When this occurs too much, severe engine vibrations occur internally that can break piston rings, pistons and even damage bearings. We sometimes hear this as a rattling sound from the engine compartment when the vehicle is accelerated hard.

If your driving style is not overly aggressive and you don't normally carry a heavy load and most importantly no pinging issue, then by all means use Regular gas.

CoquiTSX

Amen. +1

nj2pa2nc

I agree-that is why I use regular gas-without any problems-My car is stock and I have all the maintenance done at acura/honda dealers.

Cylanth

OK, I have the results of my experiment. Bottom line: I was wrong about the 4 cylinder engine. Here are my real world results:

With regular gas, according to the dashboard meter, I got an of average: 29.5mpg, with a low of 27 and a high of 31. My commute is 70% highway, 30% city. Top speed: 65-70.

With premium gas, according to the dashboard meter, I got an average: 32mpg, with a low of 31 and a high of 35.My commute is 70% highway, 30% city. Top speed: 65-70.

I tried to keep my commute, driving style, and other factors pretty much exactly the same for the last 4 weeks. Drove 2 weeks with regular, and 2 weeks with premium.

When I first bought my car, I was getting about 27mpg with Premium (I now have 2700 miles). So, I dont know why it went from 27 when I first owned the car to 32mpg now with premium, but the numbers are the numbers, I cant deny them.

I wanted to see the numbers, and with that, I cant deny that Premium makes much more sense.

tsx_ridah10

I can't comment for others - but I will be putting in 91 nothing more nothing less.

Now - if we want to talk gas stations in Canada - then I'd say Petro/Sunoco (Same Company) vs. Esso vs. Shell? I've heard Petro/Sunoco is the way to go??

ESHBG

Your MPG went up because the engine is breaking in...brand new engines tend to get lower MPG until break-in.

I did an all highway trip last week and got just shy of 34 MPG; I run nothing less than 91 always.

MiguelHerrera209

Personally, I believe they recommend premium just to make sure the car reaches the claimed hp numbers.

raviola4

New to this site. Buying a 2011 TSX soon. Anyway, regarding reg. vs premium. We had a 2003 TL. only ran regular gas. Never a problem. Great acceleration and 23 city 32 highway. Not bad i'd say. additionally a 2007 Lexus ES350. Lexus recommends premium. Dealership only used reg. in their cars. ran regular. not problem identical mpg to the 03 TL. And this car was quicker than the TL. Going a bit smaller now with the TSX. Plan on using only regular. Say what you want about why skimp on gas when you pay this kind of money for a car, but i'll be darn if i'm putting any more money into the oil co. hands then is necessary.

elsapo

buy 100 shares of XOM or CVX and you would get a dividend, and everytime the cost of gas goes up your dividends and stock price goes up

TSX engine is a high compression engine I would only put in the premium 91+ octane. Otherwise the computer will detect a difference in the firing/combustion and be forced to compensate.

DJMcGee

I will refrain from comment in regards to Regular vs. Premium as it seems to be such a personal choice. However, you testing is not legitimate in any way. The on-board mileage computer is not accurate nor repeatable. For testing such as this you MUST use paper and pen method of calculating. The engine computer uses a speed/engine vacuum algorithm to calculate fuel consumption and is not accurate.

If you know how many miles over how many gallons, please publish those results; these are worthless. Also, you need to have at least 3 tanks of each fuel to help average out some of the other variables (wind, temperature, speed, driving style, ....)

ParaSurfer1979

If you cant afford 93, do like I do. Use mid grade when u are trying to save a buck. In city I use 89 but on road trips I use 93 here in NC.

Cylanth

Hey, someone replied to my thread I started about 8 months ago. Since I conducted my little "experiment" back in the Spring, I have always been using Premium, and get about 29-30mpg consistently. I completely forgot about this thread, but curious if anybody else did their own experiements regarding regular vs premium.

nj2pa2nc

I average 32-35MPG with mostly highway driving using regular gas. (Also using the old fashion way of calcutating. When I drive around town it is 27-30MPG. Used premium gas for almost 3 months when I first owned the car-same results with gas mileage.

Tannis

I got 513 miles on a sinle tank of 93 driving from northest Ohio to Virginia Beach. This was a solid non-stop trip. No bathroom breaks. Driving time was 9 hours and 34 minutes and included Washington DC rush hour traffic and mountain driving. Not to mention I rarely drove under 70mph and punched it to 100 on many occassions. When i filled up it took 15.9 gallons which is still 32.26mpg. Again, 100% highway. I've put only Shell 93 in it since bought in January of this year.

itr_1211

Holy, how do you hold it in for 9 hrs?

ParaSurfer1979

I average 32-35 on my TL with premium going 70-75mph. It helps being on the flat Coastal Plain. In the city i get 18-20 mpg. I just love feeling/hearing it when im spraying VTEC...LOL. It's something my frinds and I would say back in college when everyone was in the ZEX NOS craze. We'd just say we were "spraying VTEC"....

HondaOnWORKS

Premium gas is just better for your car in general. There also has been loads of articles online that did research on does "Premium gas" provide better performance, and the answer to that is, yes. Google it, its there.

TSXKid2010

Haha, I'm actually going to do my Independent Research Project for school on this topic...I wonder if this thread would count as a source for information! LOL.

lightjak_tsx

Tannis

Practice! lol! Trust me when I say I'm walking funny for a bit after I get out.

win2k8

I been using Exxon Plus and Mobil Special Unleaded — Octane 89 for the longest time, for a few weeks I tried regular as well, and I could definitely notice a hit in performance, for example taking longer time to get the car really accelerating. Therefore, I went back to 89 Octane, and it goes just fine now, I mean it has a 4-cylinder engine with like 201 HP I believe so their really is no expectation to blow by people or anything in this car, but still its peppy enough to when i need to pass I can.

nj2pa2nc

just wondering: It took you 9 hours 34 minutes to go 513 miles without stopping. What roads did you use. The reason I ask is I drive from NC (wilmington) to NJ (toms river) every few weeks. When I drive north I stop at the Va welcome stop for a bathroom break and then at the wawa in Fredricksburg, Va to get the car filled. I then head to NJ. On my southern trip I only make the Fredricksburg stop. I try to avoid the DC rush hour but manage to get the construction traffic in Maryland. It takes me 9-10 hours with stops to go 635 miles. v I drive no more than 5 miles over the speed limit especially in Maryland, They have speed cameras set up.

Tannis

lol! yeah i know it doesnt sound right but i lost a lot of time in DC. Roughly two hours. The point was, even after driving like an absolute @ss the entire time, i still managed to pull that mileage. I dont know of many cars that can maintain that mileage even after spending a lot of time nailin the vtec. That drive normally takes me 8.5 hours at roughly 6-7 over the limit.

305TSXGT

id stick to premium, just to preserve the engine from possible knocking/pinging issues.

johnclancy01

I personally only use jet fuel. But thats just what I recommend.

HondaOnWORKS

Use premium...

Premium gas is better for your engine, and can potentially increase performance. There was a study done on this a few years back, and you might have to google the article if you want to read it.

I personally use premium for both my cars... Regular just... no. Don't use regular.

But no one can focus you to use a type of gas. So by all means, if you don't use premium, use at least plus. Don't go regular!

nj2pa2nc

thanks-I googled the benefits of using premium gas- I read a few different articles and decided to continue using what I have for the past 118,000+ miles.

aleks

I suspect that using 91 vs 89 makes very little difference just like using 93 vs 91 won't make much difference in these engines, it just makes you feel like it does.

It's a fact that higher you go the less octane you need so for the guys living at altitude 89 and 87 is just fine due to lack of oxygen in typical naturally aspirated engines.

pinatubo

I always filled with 93 from Mobil stations ONLY and I got 25.0 average.
Note: MM displays the average is 28.8 which I don't think it's true.
The 25.0 derives from the total mileage drive divide by the amount of gas filled (when it clicks, stoppp)

FLAWLES.S.SOLITA

@frescagod

i'm pretty sure that Evian is healthier than the lead-infused, Prozac-laden tap water that we have in DC. if you disagree, come taste my water and get it analyzed. i'm sure you'll find high levels of lead, chlorine, and other chemicals that are left over even after the purification process.

im a B.E. for the USAF and actually tap is healthier its FDA regulated jsut because it TASTE better doesnt mean it is bottled water is not regulated by the FDA, and taste doesnt mean a thing for how clean or healthier the water is btw and the more chlorine residual the less likely there is a chance for bacteria

as for the gas i would probably fo with 93 but i dont think youre cheap for going with 87 like everyone else is sying plus if u save 250 a yr by the time something goes wrong with ur engine you would have enough money to buy a new one ..theyre honestly not that expensive to replace as it seems ino alot of ppl that have done that

frescagod

i could be wrong, but i believe that the FDA regulates bottled water and the EPA regulates our tap water...even if the FDA regulated tap water (which i'm pretty sure it doesn't), it doesn't mean much at all these days. there's widespread ammonia use in virtually all ground beef in our food supply, and have you ever heard of the drug Vioxx? yeah, that was FDA approved, so just because a government agency rubber stamps an approval on a product, it doesn't mean it's necessarily safe, in the end.

the quality and characteristics of tap water vary greatly, depending on where you live and the state of the infrastructure that delivers the water to your tap. it's not like you can just conclude that because the purification process at a treatment plant kills bacteria, the water being sent to your house is uncontaminated.

at any rate, you're making a sweeping generalization that just because tap water has loads of chlorine that it's better for you. chlorine may kill bacteria but it won't get rid of things like: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/09...tap_water.html

as for buying a replacement engine, you can get a 2006-2008 TSX engine with 70-80K miles on it for MAYBE $1,500, so you'd have to drive your car on 87 octane for at least 6 years with a yearly savings of $250 in order to purchase a used engine with a lot of miles on it. that also assumes that you would take that $250 in gas savings and sock it away every year, which i'm pretty sure no one would ever do.

the funny thing is that i doubt you'd really have much problem running 87 octane all the time, and i doubt there would be any damage at all to the engine, ever. the principle of my original argument was that the high compression engine was clearly designed with higher 91-93 octane fuel in mind, so why not feed it what the manufacturer recommends, at the cost of $15-20 more per month (if you're spending $400-500 on a car note to begin with, you probably have the means to spend the cost of a cheap dinner).

pinatubo

Do whatever BEST for you. Period.

nj2pa2nc

[QUOTE=pinatubo;12998561]Do whatever BEST for you. Period.[/QUOTE



I agree 100%.
no car payment
average 27,000+ miles a year driving

redpoint

Most people that have contributed to this thread don't know what octane is. I would cite this source only if you care nothing for your grade or credibility.

smithcb2

I ran mine on 5 year old 87 octane gas destined for a lawnmower that I was trying to get rid of. No noticeable loss in performance - still got over 30 mpg on the hwy.

My mercedes wouldn't even idle on the stuff.

These cars seem pretty forgiving.

kazelement

ive only put mid-grade and premium in my car, the few times i did put mid-grade i felt a drop off in power easily, also ive noticed differenses between different brands premium. Shell V-power = best, but i dont always get it since its not convient or cheapest. so usually mobil 93 octane, Bp's is decent. Speedway premium = terrible

thetaylor310

Last night was my first gas fill-up after that free tank from the dealer and i noticed a change

On the first tank (probably was 87 octane), i averaged about 25 mpg whilst the total miles to empty was at 441 miles. Since the fill up with 91 gas, my total miles to empty is rated at around 570 miles and my current estimated MPG is at 30. The engine is still in break-in mode, so i'm driving very conservatively both city and highway (35/65 mph respectively)

Car also felt smoother, drive-wise

i'm keeping a record to see how i average the next few fill-ups