There are 3 gasoline octane rating available , 87 / 89 & 91.
i know 91 would be the best, but are there any potential problems with using 89 or even 87.

 

Yes, your engine will develop knock with a lower octane.
use what is recommended in the manual provided with your car.

 

91 - always with these high compression ratio Acura. Don't skimp on a few bucks at the pump. It's not worth it. Plus with the higher MPG you'll get with premium it ends up being a wash.

 

Stick with 91.

 

I'm a real cheapskate but, never skimp on gas. I even go 92 or 93 octane.

Only a fool knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

 

You paid about 40K for your car. Imho its like 20 cents more a gallon for premium. Thats $1 more for every 5 gallons. So you pay 3 bucks more for 15 gallons of premium over 15 gallons of cheapium. Sacrificing a few cheeseburgers for prolonged life on your car is worth it to me

 

In my area it's 92 or 93 Octane. Even with my 2001 3.2 CL I went with 91 or better, during the gas crunch about a year ago I used 87 octane because that was all you could get when they finally got gas. Silvia knocked big time and her take off was sluggish.

 

Listen to the guys.......go with Premium Fuel only!

 

Thanks for the input. I'll go with 91

 

Seriously... not to be a jerk, but this has to be the MOST OFTEN ASKED QUESTION about Acura. YES you MUST use premium-grade fuel. That's why it says on the gas cap that you have to use premium fuel. Your car is made... for premium fuel! If in your area that's 91 octane, use 91. If it's 92, use 92. If it's 93, use 93! Use the best gas available is the point.

If you don't want to cough up the extra three or four bucks for each tank of gas, DON'T BUY A PREMIUM/LUXURY CAR. You bought an Acura, not a Kia. If you can't or don't want to afford premium gas in this economy, take a step back and get into a Honda which requires only regular grade fuel.

Sorry... this question just BURNS me every time it gets asked.

Yes. Yes. Yes. And for the last time, YES, you have to use premium grade fuel!

 

I agree, use premium fuel. I just bought this 2007 TL and I am getting much better gas mileage than I anticipated. My wife drives a 2001 Lexus IS 300 and sometimes she cheaps and gets the midgrade and it knocks.. in the whole scheme of the cost of the car, the difference in TOTAL gas cost is minimal at worst

 

As this topic is beaten to death already....I suggest you look up some of I_hate_cars post about this topic.
He really knows his stuff.

You actually lose MPG when you cheap out and buy less than premium gas. so you're not really saving money....

 

Fuel cost is NOT an issue. I only wanted some information from people who have had some experience with Acura, and i thank all who responded.

 

Petticoat Junction over in Beech Island, SC use to have a gas station pumping out 97 octane....used it once, not in this ride though.

 

In reality the risks of problems are not really an issue. For the most part Octane ratings rate how likely the fuel is to detonate under pressure, the lower the number the more likely it is to occur. Since these cars aren't diesels, we only want the fuel to ignite when the spark plugs fires The fear is pre ignition meaning that the fuel combusts before the piston is in the correct position and the spark plug fires, this is what causes engine knock.

The car has a direct ignition with a knock sensor to deal with lower than premium fuel. It listens to the engine and makes adjustments to ignition timing to prevent issues. In some areas of the country (Montana for example) 91 octane fuel is difficult to find, regular being 84, mid at 87 and premium at a measly 89. So in reality your risks with a TL are relatively low. That said I still wouldn't want to rely on this back up system for the lifetime I owned the car, I would think of it as a, "the world won't end if I have to fill up with less than premium".

This all changes in the case of the RDX and a turbo which need premium. Turbos always run a higher risk of detonation which is different than pre ignition. Detonation occurs when the end gas (the remnants after the normal ignition occurs) fires off a second ignition based on pressure, heat, and the low octane of the end gas. As the name implies, detonation is bad, very bad.
The reason everyone brings up cost is that mile per mile it will cost more to run 87 octane than 91. With an average of 20 cents per gallon difference between 87 and 91, octane if your tank was nearly empty and you put 16 gallons in it you would save $3.20. The problem is that you are going to lose about 50 miles of driving range. If you average 25 miles per gallon that's 2 gallons of fuel which likely cost more than $2.50. If 50 miles= 2 gallons=$5.00, then the $3.20 you saved doesn't make it worth it.

 

Lot's of experts here on gas. I have a 2006 Acura TL that I have owned since 2009. I have never put anything but 87 octane it. I do not have knocking or a reduction in power or fuel economy. I have a K&N air filter in it and can get as high as 31 mpg on the highway which is 3 more mpg than the car is rated for. Please don't post your opinions as fact when you probably have not even tried to run 87 octane in it. My advice is go ahead and try to run it on 87 octane and determine if there is a difference. I personally don't like wasting the money with no noticeable difference. I think 10 years is a pretty good case study for my J series engine. They use a form of the same engine in the MDX and RDX as well. Give a try and see what your numbers turn out to be. Hope this helps.

 

Well there you have it folks, the Lord God has spoken and we're all idiots.

Yo Troy, your fuel economy sucks; I also have a 2006, I run 93 and routinely get 33-35 mpg on long highway runs with moderate traffic at speeds up in the mid to high 70s; get that crappy K&N off there and run 93 and things may improve.

Long story short, coming on here, reviving an eight year old thread, and then attempting to sound like an authority when you are clearly not, is not a good way to make friends and learn valuable lessons.

 

All i said was for people to give it a try and compare. It is also the biggest myth in the gasoline game that higher octane = better fuel economy. This has been debunked a million times. It is just an anti knocking agent that assists with reducing the risk of pre ignition in high performance engines. If you have an engine that is not a turbo or high performance then there is almost no benefit to putting higher octane in a non turbo engine. You may be getting better fuel economy than I am but it has nothing to do with octane. Look it up.

 

Ummm, no, high octane fuel has virtually nothing to do with pre-ignition in any way, shape, or form. Clearly you *think* you know a lot, and just at clearly you're a legend in your own mind.

 

Man you should just stop. Obviously your feelings are hurt snowflake. If you would take 5 secs and google octane you might learn something. Here is an except from the Federal Trade Commission on octane.
Please read below. So in the summation: Higher Octane gas does not give you better fuel economy, does not burn cleaner in your engine. It only prevents "a rattling or pinging sound that results from premature ignition of the compressed fuel-air mixture".
So, my only point in all this is if your car does not knock using 87 octane then you should consider using 87 octane. As I stated before, I have been using 87 Octane in my Acura TL for 10 years with no problems. Can we just leave it at that.

I have included a link in case you want to educate yourself on Octane.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/article...ctane-gasoline

About Octane Ratings

Octane ratings measure a gasoline's ability to resist engine knock — a rattling or pinging sound that results from premature ignition of the compressed fuel-air mixture in one or more cylinders. Most gas stations offer three octane grades: regular (usually 87 octane), mid-grade (usually 89 octane), and premium (usually 92 or 93). The ratings are posted on bright yellow stickers on each gas pump.

 

Sorry dude, if you did a little research you'd learn pinging has nothing to do with pre-ignition; pinging, or more technically, detonation, is a condition where small pockets of end gas detonate before the flame front reaches them due to the rising dynamic pressure and heat inside a combustion chamber, after the spark event. To contrast that with pre-ignition, this phenomena happens before the spark event (hence the name), and if not immediately controlled, will lead to engine failure in a matter of a few rotations; there will be no pinging sound; just the sound of failing metal.

Here are a few resources for you to study:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_knocking
• Detonation and Pre-Ignition
• Pre-ignition, Detonation & Knock