Comments on: Many drivers unnecessarily using premium fuel

By: TritonVTEC

TritonVTEC — Wed, 10 May 2006 04:38:31 +0000

The XRS Matrix has the Celica GT-S motor, which is the high compression Yamaha-sourced VVTL-i engine.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 10 May 2006 01:50:05 +0000

I have a TSX, and yes, it recommends 91.

I think that people are unecessarily pumping premium because they think that they’ll get better mileage, and have to pay less for each mile they drive. Nope! Just drive on the gas that your car recommends. This knowledge is not as common as it should be.

By: gsh

gsh — Wed, 10 May 2006 00:46:31 +0000

are you serious? the xrs needs 91? i thought it uses the celica 1.8L engine…

By: Phil McCrackin

Phil McCrackin — Wed, 10 May 2006 00:05:06 +0000

BMan1113VR that definitely qualifies as a high-performance engine. Nice little gem right there.

By: BMan1113VR

BMan1113VR — Tue, 09 May 2006 23:04:41 +0000

“only high performance cars need it”

Hardly, my “hauler” is a toyota matrix xrs and it requires 91 oct. . .but then again it makes 100 bhp per L.

By: 6ix

6ix — Tue, 09 May 2006 21:28:20 +0000

ha ha, Alexander, nice catch. 30 miles per gallon!! If I turn the AC off and cruise around 72-75mph, it’s pretty easy to stay around 29-30mpg. Not bad.

I had a V6 Mazda6 S last year and I swear I never averaged over 20mpg. SUCKED!!! And I wasn’t driving it hard. Had something to do with a malfunctioning throttle body.

By: NW_Mike

NW_Mike — Tue, 09 May 2006 20:05:38 +0000

“When my car was new, I drove with 87 for 3 months and I was at 18 MPG. I’ve been using 91 for the past 4 months and I’m up to 21 MPG.”

As a car’s engine breaks-in gas milage does improve. My Acura get 4 mpg better now, then 10K miles ago. All using premium.

By: Phil McCrackin

Phil McCrackin — Tue, 09 May 2006 18:50:29 +0000

“THe article took an M3 on a Dyno tester and showed alomst 100hp reduction in hp with regular gas.”

That’s a good one..I think you have a typo there. Perhaps 10 hp. You won’t lose 1/3 of an engine’s rated power with regular versus premium.

By: 87 635CSI

87 635CSI — Tue, 09 May 2006 18:47:47 +0000

I can’t run anything less than plus or it’s ping city for me. ;-(

By: Anonymous #2

Anonymous #2 — Tue, 09 May 2006 18:27:50 +0000

Here’s one article (of many) that will actually educate someone on the differences in gasoline at different octane ratings.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/gasoline.htm

Marc and Junkie are right on. While the terminology might be a point of confusion, I would argue that a car with direct injection is high performance (The engine is high performance anyway… and performance does not mean horsepower).

High octane serves no benefit for engines that run perfectly fine on regular fuel. Higher compression engines and turbo-charged engines may require higher octane, and the owner’s manual will say so.

So, for those who are cleaning their engines with high octane fuel should go find a way to actually clean their engines.

I know I wouldn’t expect highly filtered water to clean my dishes any better than clean tap water, but I would use soap to clean them (and I’d sue that soap with tap water, because I’m not about to pay extra for highly-balanced, filtered water, or expect it to do the job of the soap!)

~Cheers.

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 09 May 2006 18:25:00 +0000

I do know what I am talking about. I said unless your car REQUIRES it, don’t buy it. I didn’t say cars that require it shouldn’t use it. You need to read better before you start calling names. If you drive a Honda Accord or a Corolla, it doesn’t really make a difference, none at all if you live in high altitudes. I think it was R&T July 2003 that did the article I read. If you drive a Acura, M3 or a Porsche, you can see big reduction in hp. THe article took an M3 on a Dyno tester and showed alomst 100hp reduction in hp with regular gas. The compact car they tested didn’t show much difference. They explained that high altitudes compensate for the increase in ignition that lower altitudes experince with lower octane gasoline. But you don’t have to take my word for it, just keep pumping that extra cash into your Civic.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Tue, 09 May 2006 18:23:27 +0000

When my car was new, I drove with 87 for 3 months and I was at 18 MPG. I’ve been using 91 for the past 4 months and I’m up to 21 MPG. It’s not scientific but it convinces me that 91 nets a higher MPG.

By: junkie

junkie — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:59:05 +0000

Check your owner’s manual or your fuel door/gas cap. Put in what it was designed to run. Really, people, it’s not that hard. The owner’s manual is there for a reason. How about cracking it open for once?

Octane ratings and octane boosters have no cleaning benefits. Octane is resistance to detonation/ping and nothing more. If you want to clean your injectors, but injector cleaner not octane booster. Octane cleans nothing. Do a search, don’t take my word for it.

High octane fuel has no more and no less energy than regular gasoline. Look it up. Plenty of online sources for this info. It will not give you more MPG. Anectdotally some people think it does, but no scientific study backs this up. Do a search, don’t take my word for it.

Euro octane is measured differently than here in the states. The pump values in Europe are quite high but if you measure using U.S. methods, they’d come back down to right about what U.S. octane ratings are. Europe uses the Reasearch Octane Number (RON). The U.S. takes Road Octane Number (RON) into account, RON + MON/2 (it’s an average). So US fuel is typically rated about 5 points lower than Europe even for identical fuels. Do a search, don’t take my word for it.

By: Alexander

Alexander — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:57:34 +0000

Re: 6ix

Your V6 Passat does 30 miles per hour on the highway? Sounds about right for a VW. Just make sure you get the h*ll out of my way when I come up behind you flying at the 60MPH speed limit.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:53:04 +0000

VW recommends high octane but most modern cars have knock sensors so they automatically retard the timing until the knocking stops.
The higher the octane level the more advance you can run on the ignition. So with most cars you can run them on 87 with no ill effects but with a little loss in performance. I ran my VR6 jetta on 87 for 4 years with no issues.
Turbo charged cars tend to be more sensitive to the octane levels. It’s usually best to always run them on high octane.

By: 6ix

6ix — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:39:28 +0000

My Passat still requires premium. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most cars that are primarily sold in Europe require premium because they have higher octanes over there. Acura TSX (euro Accord) is a perfect example of this.
My v-6 Passat gets nearly 30mph on the highway. No complaints. But it definately requires premium. No questions there.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:34:03 +0000

Marc has no idea what he is talking about. If you have a Direct Injection engine, you need premium or you are going to have major engine knocking issues. DI engines are now found even in VW Jetta’s.

Jon.

By: NW_Mike

NW_Mike — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:33:51 +0000

‘Unless you drive a high performance car, you don’t need it.’

Well, I would not consider my Acura TSX to be a ‘high performance car’ but if you do not use *at least* plus (mid level gas) it pings. So I would say I do *need* it.

No, this is not really news. It costs me $1-2 per week difference, whoop.

Mike

By: ryan

ryan — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:25:25 +0000

I wonder if they are calculating things correctly… Did they consider motorcyclists?

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:25:21 +0000

Unless you drive a high performance car, you don’t need it. If you need to clean your system out, buy a product that actualy does that. If you live at high altitudes, don’t even consider buying it unless your car requires it. The lack of oxygen in the air compensates. I read a very good article about this a few years ago.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:10:11 +0000

Mine needs it too. But, I knew what I was buying when I got my car. No complaints from me.

Jon.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 09 May 2006 16:55:32 +0000

my car requires 87, but once every two months I’ll top it off with 91 just to clean things out a little. Same as pumping in an octane booster…

Who cares who uses what in their vehicles… it is all about choice. 28mpg vs 29mpg in a 12 gallon tank doesn’t get you that much farther, but to each his/her own. Why is this news?

By: gsh

gsh — Tue, 09 May 2006 16:50:21 +0000

my car requires it =(