JYS

With gas prices not being at it's best, wondering if anyone's had any issues with their TL if using regular unleaded as to the "required" premium unleaded?
I heard somewhere that it really doesn't make a difference... What say you???

Rpappi

try searching
also if you look in your manual it will tell you to USE PREMIUM. also on the inside of your gas door. it says.
but ya searching will yeild you alot of answers so you can decide for yourself.
to tell you the truth you really arnt save alot of money by going to regular. because your gas milage will go down just alittle. as will performance.

no is it going to hurt your car no not really its designed to adjust to the fuel. but why take chances and to not really save any money.

videojock

I have heard different stories but I stick to premium. I just think of it as if I were my car I would want nothing but the best in me. Besides the price of oil has dropped quite a bit therefore the prices at the pump have also.

terminex

If you put a supercharger in you car you MUST use premium thereafter. otherwise regular unleaded is fine.

I spent a lot of time working on finding the breakeve point for the improved gas mileage for premium vs. the increased cost. ($.20/gal)

The breakeven point I found is about $4.00/gal. if gas gets near that or above I will switch to premium.

In the mean time I have used regular unleaded since day 1 with no problems.

FYI - cars will specifically tell you if it is "Required" like my last car did. (because my last car had a supercharger) If it just says "recommended" that is because the car was optimized to run "best" on premium, but at the same time it will have no problems running on regular, it will just mean a SLIGHT drop in gas mileage.

In the end it is mearely a presonal choice. Do what makes you happy, because for this choice, neither answer will harm your car.

Rpappi

recomended required same thing to me.

drdug27

i put super in my $10,000 contour, im definatly putting it in my TL

Bob289

I say premium all the way. The car was design to work on premium and you get the posted gas milage with premium gas. Anything with a lesser grade will degrade the preformance of the TL thus getting the lesser milage. If you want to use lower otc its your personal choice. At first I wanted to use 87 otc being this is my first car that recommends the premium. After reading several threads on the subject I've decided to go with the premium. Short answer is NO the lesser otc will not damage your car but will not run as smooth and you wont get the preformance if you were using the premium gas.

lembowski

iTrader: (1)

I don't know how often you fill your tank, but I fill mine once a week. It costs roughly $2.60 extra to put premium in her. $2.60 x 52 weeks = $135 extra in gas a year. Thats not alot over that span of time to run the recommended gas. Just do what they recommend.

rbf351

you also have a greater chance of knocking and pinging

also if for some freak reason your engine were to die, they could void the warranty since you didn't use what they recommend

belljam

Premium all the way for me. I live in Toronto and have had my TL for 4 years. I started out with Esso premium (91) and occassionaly dropped to the mid-grade (89)....BIG difference. ping & knock. Last year I switched to Shell's premium (91) and I must say it beats the heck out of Esso. I occasionaly use Sunoco (94) but 90% of the time it's Shell. Car has been running better ever since. Whichever station you fill up at....USE PREMIUM....OUR TL'S NEED IT!!! PERIOD.

leedogg

Forget what the rest of these guys are saying. I say try using vegetable oil.

Andrew McCarthy

ACTUAL MANUAL TEXT:

Your vehicle is designed to operate
on premium unleaded gasoline with a
pump octane of 91 or higher. Use of
a lower octane gasoline can cause
occasional metallic knocking noises
in the engine and will result in
decreased engine performance. Use
of a gasoline with a pump octane less
than 87 can lead to engine damage.

Rocket Man

not another one of these premium vs. regular unleaded threads

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

jcondon

If a few hundred dollars a year in savings really means that much to you maybe sell the TL and get a cheaper car with smaller payments.

I just dont get how people can spend 35K on a car and worry about the price difference between 87-93.

I am not rich by any stretch but, to save $2 or $3 every fillup just doesn't seem all that important to me. Expecially if it MIGHT void my warrenty or cause damage to my engine. If and when I am that strapped for cash I would probably trade it in on a much cheaper car that runs on 87 and gets better milage.

A few hundred dollars a year (at best) doesn't seem like much of a buy back or savings.

Maybe continue to use premium and make one less trip to the mall or something if $2 - $3
week will help that much. Or skip one Starbucks coffee a week.

MichaelBenz

iTrader: (2)

Just dont do it. Not a good idea at all. Not worth the minimal savings and the long run cost.

GTACURA

ITs best you use premium. THis is an luxury car and that is part of owning a luxury car you have to put in the the best

Desert_TL

If you can't afford the extra 20 cents a gallon for premiu, then you cannot afford a $35k luxury car. That's all there is to it.

If your engine dies and they find out you've been putting 87 in there, they can void your warranty.

Treat your TL with the respect it deserves and just fill it with 91.

rt4563

I say go to Mickey D's and get their used fryer oil. Big $$ savings.

6MTUA5

iTrader: (2)

Yea, there are so many threads on this already. What you save at the pump, you lose in gas mileage and power. In the long term, you also risk damaging your engine, like it says in the manual. Just do what it says. Do it. Do it!

Rocket Man

more so because the TL has a very high compression engine (11:1) so it needs the higher octane

dwest1023

Case closed. Use what the car is designed for, use lower octance at your own risk.

Bob289

lol! I too put values on things with Starbucks. like "12 dollars!? thats like 3 white Chocolate venti mocas!"

johnny--2k

for the $.20 difference in price, a savings of a whopping $3.00 per tank of gas, just put in premium and dont get a cup of starbucks the day you fill up.

Assuming you fill up twice a week, thats all of $24 every month....not a lot in the grand scheme of things.

If you are worried about an extra $288 every year, please go buy another car.....you should not be driving a TL.

Johnny Canuck

Just to show you how Canadians were screwed when Prime Minister Trudeau decreed that Canada would switch to the metric system a few decades ago, the spread between regular and premium is about 20 cents per litre. A U.S. gallon is 3.78 litres and that works out to around 75 cents per U.S. gallon in Canadian funds and around 63 cents in American funds at today's exchange rate. SIXTY-THREE CENTS PER U.S. GALLON!!!! But I will continue to use Shell 91 octane. Remember the commercial for Fram filters?: You can pay me now or pay me later. So like many posters above stated, if you can't afford the difference then sell the TL and buy a motorcycle. JC

SouthernBoy

While the difference between litres and gallons can be "normalized" and all other things being at or near equal, one would think that the cost of a gallon of fuel in Canada would be close to that which we pay in the U.S. So this begs a question.

Is the rather wide cost difference due to higher taxes levied on fuel?

SouthernBoy

Really.

SouthernBoy

I can't tell you how many times I've seen members answer this question with something along the lines of, "if you're so concerned about the cost of fuel, maybe you shouldn't have bought a TL".

I used to think this was a little crass, but not anymore. Too many people have posed this question time after time and while they may have real concerns in their quest for an answer, you have to wonder if they did their homework (as in research) before making this purchase.

My second boat was a 27 foot SeaRay Sundancer (268) with a 454 Chevy big block pushing a Bravo 1 Mercruiser outdrive. I asked this question at a boat show a few months before I bought the boat and was told flatly, "if you have to ask about the cost of fuel for a boat, you probably should not be buying that boat". He was right. And by the way, that SeaRay burned 12-14 gallons an hour at cruise, depending upon load and seas. At WOT, it burned 29 gallons per hour.

So while not trying to be sarcastic or elitist (God knows, I do not like those kinds of people.. it's the Southern in my - really), it really is best to do your homework up front so you'll know what you're getting into once you've taken the plunge.

bluenoise

Boat - (noun) 1. A hole in the water into which one pours money.





Someone mentioned before that they ran the numbers and found a break-even point on fuel cost. When I ran my own tests, I found the price-per-mile of 87 was higher than 91 due to the loss in fuel economy. As has been said many times before, you're not really talking about much difference in cost between regular and premium so why mess with it?

leedogg

Well, theres actually some bearing of mileage on boats. Its pretty important to know what your range is. So the right question is not, how much can I save, it's how far can I go?

GmoAcTL

Not for nothing but if you have a TL then you should be able to afford the gas.....if not, then why did you get it? Then again thats just me....I LOVE MY TL!

kenny5

Some people are just penny (or cent) wise, but pound (or dollar) foolish!

Rocket Man

where the hell do you live? hehe...in Ottawa, I pay 10 cents more per litre for premium....

toowetTL

using regular unleaded in the TL will not hurt it, but you can definately tell the performance difference. On my TL, the fuel milage drops when I don't use premium. On a long trip I did an experiment. One full tank of Premium and the next of regular. On normal, mostly flat highway the car was getting 34 MPG. When I switched to the regular it dropped to 32. I calculated the difference in fuel cost and the loss of mileage and figured it cost about the same.......So I just run premium....runs better and gets better mileage.

Johnny Canuck

Further to my comment above regarding price of corn going up etc., this quote is from January 28, 2007 LA Times web site: "At the same time, the boom in demand has driven the spot price of corn, a primary raw material for ethanol, to about $4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Futures prices, which have surged nearly 90% in the last year, reached a 10-year high of $4.205 on Jan. 17.

Sugar prices also are up, partly because of inclement weather in Brazil, the world's No. 1 producer, but principally because more of the world's crop goes to feed ethanol factories.

Demand for ethanol is expected to continue to surge as Detroit automakers deliver on promises to manufacture more cars that can run on the fuel. By 2010, the companies say, they will be rolling out at least 4 million so-called flex-fuel vehicles a year capable of running on 85% ethanol. Only 1 million flex-fuel vehicles were produced last year. JC

TL1999

93 octane, the cheapest right now $2.13 in GA

ranger

Premium Gas

Since I generally drive our '06 TL with a relatively light foot, 89 octane works fine for me. I occasionally give it a shot of hi-test, but I haven't noticed any difference in performance or mileage. I estimate that I would have to see an extra 2 mpg to make HT worthwhile.

As a rule, I drive smoothly and stay within 10% of the speed limit. BTW, I get about 27-28 around town and 30-31 on trips. Before you all gag; someday, if you are lucky, you will put your hard-driving days behind you too.

JYS

YOU ALL ARE GREAT!

A few things:
• I really didn't think I would get such a response
• Cost really wasn't an issue (sorry if this got anyone's goat)
• This was mainly to test what I've heard to see if there where going to be any effects

My conclusion:
Since lease conception just after the Holidays on this 07' black beauty w/ camel interior, I've fed it regular gasoline for the past 5-6 fill ups. I have noticed a difference in performance. I am now going to switch back to premium fryer oil

Thank you very much for all your responses, it actually did make me see the way of the premium. Kudos to you my fellow AcuraZiners!

JAB00

Premium, enough said

SteveP66

I do what my TL tells me to do........premium