zeicht

......... what do u guys use? just recently filled up with 92 octane rating and the car feels less eager to pull and the engine rougher compared to when i picked up the car from the dealership....i doubt the dealership would put in an octane rating higher than 92 since it would be more costly...jus wondering what fuel octane rating u guys use

rets

I use 93 regularly, sometimes I will have 94, once a month. 93 is around $1.7-2.0 since the summer.

Heard from ppl in the north suggested lower octane might cause less vibration from the engine, I did try three full tanks of 87... no big difference for my case, and seemed to get less power...

So 93 again...

fsconsult

Same here. Used 89 octane, no difference in vibrations.

Nicki

There is no more 94 Octane in NYC as of October 31st. Sunoco was the last to phase it out. Tell me where do you get 94 now? Do you get it in Jersey?

rkilian

In my opinion, lower octane would result in higher vibration engine from preliminary detonation of the gasoline in the cylinders from the 11:1 compression ratio.
I know that turbo and supercharged cars actually reduce the compression boost when they begin detecting these predetonations. I don't know what the TL does? It may affect the VTECH timings.

rets

Maybe I'm wrong, but I did think the same thing and this was the reason I try 87 for three consecutive tanks... this characteristic stuff could be really distinguishing feature for TL.



TO Nicki, I did get 94 in NJ while on the way home...

vtechbrain

The car will run fine with regular, but it will affect your performance since the computer will retard ignition timing to avoid preignition of the fuel. The engine is tuned to run on 92. More is not better, less is less than optimal.

vothsc

The engine has a knock sensor so if you use the lower octane fuel, the computer will detect the knock and retard the timing to stop it - result - less HP. Higher octane than recomended will buy you nothing.

Lore

If that's the case, even those us in California that run premium are screwed! 91 is the best we can get here.

Papaman677

Sunoco in NJ is the only place that I know of that has 94, some sunoco's have 107 race fuel, once again I've only seen it there, $3.00+ a gal. too. 94 about $1.70ish a gal.

Nicki

Yes, you are correct Jersey still has Sunoco 94. Sunoco dropped 94 in NYC last October 31, 2003. I contacted Sunoco for the reason why and got an email back I posted it back then in this forum. Sunoco stated that they are going to drop 94 in Jersey too eventually but did not know when. The reason for this is that in order to produce high octane they need a chemical called MTBE, which is a carcinogen. California was the first state to drop MTBE. It will eventually affect the whole country and there will be no 94 octanes anymore for automobiles. Maybe for racing is another story, but for commuter cars, it will stop.

Lore

Wait a second... many gas stations here still use MTBE in their gasoline. Some (like Union 76) have switched to using ethanol (I think) but many are still on MTBE and have warning stickers on how it's a dangerous substance on their pumps.

Nicki

Its the level of MTBE not that it is completley not in there. 94 needs a higher level of MTBE so they stopped making 94. but with the small amount the govenrnemt allows "for now" they can still make 93. and lower