Does regular gas damage the engine?
#1
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Does regular gas damage the engine?
Before you scald my ears off, I'm not an idiot that fills up with regular to save 10 cents a litre (I'm Canadjian). I did happen to run very low on gas on a remote highway at night and the only place open didn't have 91 octane fuel. It was either go with a touch of regular to make it to the next city or get stranded. Will this do any long term damage to the engine?
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Originally Posted by JetJock
NO..but don't do it again...the engine is not designed to run regular...but it can adapt in situations like you described.
The only real detriment is the loss of power you may notice, but if yo are just running around town or highway cruising and don't need the high performance from your engine, the lower octane fuel will work.
#6
Originally Posted by William_B
You can fill up with regular all the time if you like, there is no detriment to the engine. One thing you may notice is engine knocking though, that will drive you crazy, so you will likely not want to put anything other than premium in your engine.
The only real detriment is the loss of power you may notice, but if yo are just running around town or highway cruising and don't need the high performance from your engine, the lower octane fuel will work.
The only real detriment is the loss of power you may notice, but if yo are just running around town or highway cruising and don't need the high performance from your engine, the lower octane fuel will work.
Engine knocking is a lot more than noise that will annoy you. Over time knocking or pinging can do damage.
#7
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No it does not hurt the engine. The computer will compensate for the lower octane and it will not knock. However, you will see diminished horsepower and milage.
Car and Driver did a study of this a year or so ago and found that cars designed to take higher octane get better milage with the higer octane and this generally ofsets the increased cost of the gas. So you save no money getting regular gas, but it will not hurt your car either.
Car and Driver did a study of this a year or so ago and found that cars designed to take higher octane get better milage with the higer octane and this generally ofsets the increased cost of the gas. So you save no money getting regular gas, but it will not hurt your car either.
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#8
The engine should not knock. If it does somethiong is wrong with the fuel system sensors. The fuel system computer will retard timing to avoid any knocking. As stated before a knock here or there will not harm an engine, constant knocking on the other hand will.
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#11
Originally Posted by longwood
Our tests confirm that for most cars there is no compelling reason to buy more expensive fuel than the factory recommends, as any performance gain realized will surely be far less than the percentage hike in price.
Cheapskates burning regular in cars designed to run on premium fuel can expect to trim performance by about the same percent they save at the pump. If the car is sufficiently new and sophisticated, it may not suffer any ill effects, but all such skinflints should be ready to switch back to premium at the first sign of knock or other drivability woes.
#12
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If you can audibly detect engine knock there is no doubt that engine damage is occuring at every single audible knock event.
I've detected detonation several times on my new '04 Tl using 93 octane on a hot and humid day WOT in the upper range of the rev band under load. The odds are that the knock sensor is disabled in the higher rev band as it is with many modern vehicle to avoid false positives from engine noise. The knock events that are detected by the sensor don't limit the revs 4k but will trim down the timing advance in that range of the rev band.
I've detected detonation several times on my new '04 Tl using 93 octane on a hot and humid day WOT in the upper range of the rev band under load. The odds are that the knock sensor is disabled in the higher rev band as it is with many modern vehicle to avoid false positives from engine noise. The knock events that are detected by the sensor don't limit the revs 4k but will trim down the timing advance in that range of the rev band.
#13
Originally Posted by lstepnio
The odds are that the knock sensor is disabled in the higher rev band as it is with many modern vehicle to avoid false positives from engine noise.
Knock sensors listen for very specific frequencies and I can't believe that if the knock sensor on my clickety-clackety roller cam Buick doesn't false, the knock sensor on a modern honda motor would.
Can you give an example of a car that you know has code that disables the knock sensor above some given rpm?
-Scott
#14
Originally Posted by lstepnio
The knock events that are detected by the sensor don't limit the revs 4k but will trim down the timing advance in that range of the rev band.
As soon as I got the tank low enough, I filled up with 91 octane, and then everything worked as it should.
#16
never stops!
Say you save $0.20/gal so every fill you'll save about $2-$3. Say you fill once a week that is 52 times a year and $104-$156 so for a life of car say 10 years if you own and 4-5 years if you lease, you'll save $750-$1500. Is it worth?
![No No](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/nono.gif)
#17
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Originally Posted by joganjani
Say you save $0.20/gal so every fill you'll save about $2-$3. Say you fill once a week that is 52 times a year and $104-$156 so for a life of car say 10 years if you own and 4-5 years if you lease, you'll save $750-$1500. Is it worth?
![No No](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/nono.gif)
![No No](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/nono.gif)
if u use 87 and its 52 tanks a year, then if u would use 91 it would be less b/c the engine will use less gas.
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