Hi,

My 05 RRP 5AT NoNavi has been in my care for nine days.

My dealer asserts that regular gas will do fine in the TL, they said that
premium gas in this area actually burns "too hot" ( Central KY).

Any comments?

The only "blemish" so far has been (I hope ) the tires, the TL wants to
drift left and on acceleration it will pull left.

On the first trip back to the dealer they swapped the left and right tires.
That helped a tiny bit on the left drifting but worsened the pull on even
moderate acceleration.

Tommorrow it goes back and they are going to check the alignment and
if that is OK I guess the only thing left is the tires...

Jerry

 

ask for different tires. but otherwise it sounds like you are experiencing our famous torque steer. Hard to get away from since we are FWD with this much power

 

Do not use regular gas. Here is a good thread which discusses this at length.

Since you have already posted about your steering issue in the Tires & Wheels subforum, any replies should be addressed there.

 

My dealer said the exact same thing about the gas. Somehow, I don't think that using 93 or 89 would reallly affect all that much over the life of the car so long as you take car of it regardless... A little Techron cleaner every 5k-10k and I'm sure either is fine... Stay away from the cheap gas though, and get gas from "bigger" and "newer" gas stations... That being said, my first few tanks were 89 and now that I use store coupons and prices have gone down, I use only 93. (Partly based on "everyone on here does it.")

As for your steering issue, be sure to search here for threads on the TL's tendency for quite a bit of torque steer under power. It might answer your inquiry.

Welcome to the forum. Search is your best friend here... You'll be reading for days!

 

If you are dropping the hammer all the time on your car I can understand the so-called drift that you experience.


As for the premium fuel burning too hot comment from the dealer the dealer is insane. They say not to put premium in a lower compression car for that reason. But it is just a waste of cash.

In old non computer controlled cars you could set the timing so you could use different grades, but it could impact performance. In the new computer controlled cars, the timing is controlled by the computer. As for premium fuel burning too hot... lol It is able to be compressed more before ignition. The higher the compression the more heat is generated which would make lower octane fuel pre ignite before the spark. So the higher octane fuel can be compressed more before it ignites..

If the engine is designed for higher compression and octane fuels, then it cannot be too hot... I would not use anything less that 89 in the car.

 

You may not damage the car but you'll lose performance as the engine compensates for lower octane.

 

Higher octane gas burns hotter, but it also burns faster. The end result is that your engine should run a tiny bit cooler with the higher octane gas. Your owner's manual recommends Premium gas, and personally, I'd trust the engineers at Acura a lot more than I'd trust my local dealer's mechanic...

Lance

 

~ B.Good

 

Not only that, but mileage as well. I know of several people on other forums that kept very accurate records before and after switching to regular gas and found it really didn't save much in the long run. The cheaper price was offset by lower mileage since the ECU had to detune the engine to prevent detonation. Certainly not worth it in my book.

 

Car dealers will say all manner of fookin stupid things. They are in business to move the metal, not give good advice. One of the purposes of forums like this is to learn what's really true. Not only will you lose about 8% peak horsepower(which you may not care about) but you will decrease your overall mpg by at least 10%.

If you can't afford the correct fuel Honda would have been happy to sell you a Civic or an Accord. Both great cars.

 

The Gospel according to Acura; Use the gas the manual says to use.

 

What a bunch of dribble! Premium burns hotter. Ask any 'drag racer' and he'll tell you that regular gas has a faster flame front and thus will produce slightly more power than premium. The problem being that if the engine is high compression, the heat generated from the compression of the fuel charge will ignite it before the plug fires causing damaging 'detonation' or spark knock. In a modern high compression vehicle like the TL, the ECM will "hear" detonation and will adjust timing to compensate for regular fuel. Like Acura says - regular can be used but with reduced performance.

 

Don't use reguler gas like your dealer said, That's not think wisely at all. Make sure to use the best fuel possible, it will keep your car running long and strong. G'luck!

 

Do not use regular gas...!!!

I will say this, I had a 99 tl and they also said to use 91 octane with 9.8 -1 compression. The 2g S model had 10.5 compression and they said to use 91 and same with the 3g which is 11-1.

Now I know that when the create these manuals they often do a cut and paste and change what is necessary... but I did run 89 in my 99 tl and had no problems. I would have never run 87 in it at all.

If you want to run regular fuel a camry 4 cyclinder is the way to go

 

The point of increased octane is to lower the volatility, not increase it. As another post states, higher compression can cause pre-detonation, or "ping", if the fuel has too low an octane. The TL will retard the engine timing if the knock sensors "hear" this happening and that results in lower engine output.

If the dealer is saying the premium in the area is "too hot" that indicates to me that fuel being sold is sub-standard and isn't really the advertised octane on the pump - but being priced as such. Using 87 will only make things worse.
Or the person at the dealer saying this is a complete idiot...

 

There is actually very little torque steer in our TL's. It's a non-issue as far as I am concerned. Drive a Maxima if you want to really experience torque steer.

 

WHOA... If a Maxima is more than our TL on torque steer (which is alot... maybe you got the low torque steer model!) HOLY COW... I can't imagine...

 

I suspect the dealer told you regular was fine, thinking you may not buy the car otherwise. The computer can only compensate so far on high compression mechanicals. If the fuel is below 87 octane or the engine has carbon build-up as it gets older, regular may cause damage. Not only is performance reduced with regular (don't let your spouse fill up the car!), but I noticed a 10% mileage reduction (about the price difference to premium).