I just recently purchased my TL and I made a mistake last night and put a half a tank of 87 in the car because I am so used to putting in 87 in my previous car. My question is do I need to wait until I use up the 87 in the car before I put 93 in the car?

 

No, you don't have to wait. Put in the higher octane gas as soon as you can. Over time, it'll all mix together.

 

Yeah, I wouldnt v-tec it at all untill the tank is empty. Even tho the ecu retards timing for you. Just drive like a grandma untill the tank is gone.

 

thanks for the reply i am going to fill up with 93 now

 

it should be fine. it might run a bit different. the dealer gives you 87 when you first buy the car anyways. just fill it up with 91+ when its almost empty

 

Out of all the mistakes you could have made thats not to bad. It could have been worse... can you say diesel???

 

its fine, the other half should be premium making it about 90 octane, fill it up with some more 93 octane and it'll fix itself out. Just don't rev too high and you'll be fine.

 

i did that too,. my friend filled up my gas tank cuz he owed me money and he put regular unleaded gas instead of premium. i didnt get mad cuz it was an honest mistake since he drives a honda civic.

 

where do you guys come up with this crap.....

 

I know the Unocal where I used to live sells 103 octane race gas

 

Thier is not problem running 87 may cause detonation. Most of this time this is not true though. Your engine will not die b/c u poisned it with 87. I have put 89 since the first day, and the car runs perfect.

 

you are straight dude.

 

You may not have a problem now, but down the road when you have excessive wear on motor components is the day you'll pay for the gas savings. Also running anything less than 91 results in MPG loss. A member here computed the savings and it turns out putting in 89 will equal out to the same thing plus reduced power and excessive wear, then 87 will leave you paying extra due to the MPG loss, power loss and the excessive wear on parts.

The reason for this is the TL has a high-compression motor. 87 or 89 will causing knocking, the motor will retard the timing, but there still will be some knocking.

 

it will cost you more to use 89 octane vrs 91 or higher due to the loss in mpg.....

 

Funny you mention that. Before I bought my TL I had a jetta turbo diesel. I pull into a gas station in Jersey, where they have to pump your gas for you. I pull up to the diesel pump and I ask the attendant to fill it up with diesel. He fills it up and I head back to my house in PA. All of a sudden my turbo stops responding. I go to my buddys garage and ask him to look at it. Turns out the asshole at the gas station put kerosene in my car. The engine burned so hot that it killed my turbo. Took me about 6 months to get it back to normal because I had to go through my insurance company.

 

thats crazy so on top of all the money you pay for the car you are getting cheaper gas, goddamn stealerships lol

 

forreal. when i got the car. the salesman brought me to a gas station and was gonna pump in 87 and i was like aint it pose to take 91? and all he said was the dealership only allows to pump in 87...

 

I guess it depends on the dealership. The one I go to uses 93 octane in all the cars sold.

 

I got my TL from a BMW stealership, and I got them to show me the gas receipt . But yeah, the first time i filled up the first time I told them "Fill up regular please" (since I had a corolla before the TL). halfway through the fill up I told the guy to stop the pump and continue the rest with 92Octane

 

^^ +1 Seriously...

It'll be fine. The car will jsut get less MPG, but it'll run just the same. VTEC it all you want.

 

I ran 89 for 4 months straight, IMO the MPG was exactly the same (based off the trip computer). The only reason I think you would use more fuel is if you drive harder to make up for the lost power.

 

dudes I was bellow empty and the closest gas station was 1/8 mile away... so I pull up... no 93 no 91 no 89... FAAAAKKKK... I put 87 in fearing that I wouldn't make it to the next gas station which was 3 to 4 miles away.. and I had already had the gas light on for 2+ days... so I put in 1 gallon of 87...

drove to the next gas station to get 93... faaakkk they out tooo

put in 3 gallons of 87... went home and said sigh.... on the way there... car started shaking WHILE IDLE .... DON'T DO IT DON'T DO IT....

 

I'd be careful VTEC'ing with 87 octane. VTEC changes the cam duration, which essentially undoes the timing change, which then leads to knock, etc.

 

ive had those gas problems before i let my friend drive my car and told him dont forget to fill it up and he put regular in by mistake, the whole tank..... my check engine light came on and stayed on for about a week.... but as soon as it came on i called him up and asked him what kind of gas he put in & low n behold he had put regular gas....

make sure u put some gas treatment and stick to premium, and youll have a whole lot less problems...i know from experience

 

I guess you can throw in some octane booster if you're that worried. I can't imagine that would hurt.

 

I think the dealer puts the lowest octane in. I just ran out of my first tank (the one the dealer gives you) and I wasn't sure what gas to put in. I read the manual and discovered it is 91. So now I have a fresh tank of 93. It feels like it is running about the same, maybe a bit better. I think it's due for a fuel system cleaning anyway. I doubt that this was a service given to the car.


...oh, the point of my post: During the first tank, there was a semi-strong vibration felt through the steering wheel at idle. I'll see tomorrow morning if this is gone with the new tank of 93. Hopefully it is. I would hate to always have that vibration. A few friends have already criticized the car for it.

 

at least you didn't put in...diesel lol

 

and this is bad in the long run for cars that are designed to run 87.....

 

when i first got my car i used 89 all the time...i was getting right around 300 miles for a fill up, which was around 14 gallons....after i started using 93 i get 340 miles to a fill up....

simple math....

300/14 gallons = 21.4 mpg
340/14 gallons = 24.2 mpg

 

Dude, you will be fine. Late summer of '08 during the "gas crises" in the south, every station I went to was out of premium. I had to 87 just to get where I was going. I did this for at least 3 tanks and I didn't sweat it at all since I had no choice. Soon as I got back home, I switched back to 93 and all is well.

 

man that sucks!

 

is that a question or statement? Either way, running higher octane gas on a car designed for low octane will really do nothing to harm it, it might slightly add power since the car will detect less knock and bump up the timing.

 

I dono, I seemed to get the same mileage based on the trip computer, but really it is too hard to tell, there are too many different variables to determine the exact gain when moving from 89 to 93 but 13% seems high to me.