Low Octane= Bad Fuel Mileage and Damage to Engine: "Not Necessarily"

[A4TuNeD]

I was reading the New York Times from either today or yesterday, I dont remember which. There was an article that addressed the common misconceptions about higher octane gas (premium, ect.) It was a long article but basically it says that modern engine management systems are so good that there is virtually no risk of engine damage due to using 87 octane (or lower octane then what is "required for cars")and any knocking is balanced by the engine management system, With today's fuel prices, AAA compiled figures and information about the benefit of the more expensive premium gas for cars. A spokesman from Porsche and BMW both state that there is generally no harm done from using a lower octane fuel. They did, however, say that there is an obvious and noticeable difference in "performance" between premium and regular. As far as fuel mileage, fuel engineers from the EPA stated that there is "No meaningful difference between regular and premium gasoline."

I firmly believe that it is necessary to use premium for my car despite my dad not paying for premium. But this article has made me question whether or not to pay the considerable difference between premium and regular.

[johntesi]

93 Octane Shell V-Power = victory.

[AudiWxGuy]

It wont hurt your engine, but your car will run with less power. We've discussed this many times.

[S1LVERBULLET119]

A very noticeable difference. What is premium like 15 cents more than 87, caaa mon. more gas mileage, more performance.

[AudiWxGuy]

it works out to be like 3 bucks if there is a twenty cent difference.

[INTEGRATION]

Wow, another one of these.

Light Sweet Crude futures just fell by almost $4 today (not to mention the oil bubble popped already) and you guys are considering buying 87 lol.

[johntesi]

Thanks for the brilliant translation, Integration! I just filled with premium today, and there was a 3 in front of the price!!

[AudiWxGuy]

I saw regular today on my drive from PBI to MCN at 3.67!

[INTEGRATION]

^ You guys are lucky, in SoCal (seriously has to be the most inflated state in the country in terms of CPI as well as egos) I haven't seen it drop below $4 yet, I actually had to pay $5/gal once during the peak of the oil bubble.

[johntesi]

SoCal is definitely ugly. My worst was about two and a half weeks ago- $4.38 I believe.

[eMacPaul]

The percent increase in price from regular to premium is less now than it's ever been... don't switch now!

[davis449]

First, The New York Times isn't the paper I would take car advice from and second, most of those articles I've read include a clause that says "for cars that don't specifically say 'Premium Unleaded Only'".

[ThirdStrike]

anyone that believes u dont need 91 go ahead and save the 4 bucks and use 87. then u should drive wot in the summertime and "rely" on your knock sensors to do their job.
lol
then post up when you burn something.

[Skyler@Achtuning]

cheapest here today is $4.13 for premium, and we only get 92 octane, oh well at least it's going back down!

[[email protected]]

It's $5.94 per gallon for 94 octane up here.

[A4_Joe]

using lower octane gas won't hurt your engine at all but it will retard the timing & if your using lower octane your just hurting the performance of the car which will eat up more gas....

[Quattro]

i dont think the few cents is worth it...

[cgmiller63]

I noticed a HUGE difference in performance when I used regular gas. I only did it one time but I'll never do it again!

[a4dc89]

what you lose in fuel efficiency is made up in price. the same reason why the oil companies charge more for diesel, because it is more efficient. Also the reason why ethanol is cheaper than other fuels is because it is less efficient.

[fromGMCtoAUDI]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/au...o_interstitial

I still won't sacrifice performance for a few bucks.

[pakratt99]

Also, because of the lower performance your attaining in your car it has to use more throttle to attain a certain speed and thus more gas. In most engines designed for 93 Octane (2.0T) you will notice enough loss in mileage running 87 to negate the cost savings. Just think about it, most people pay about $.20 more a gallon for Premium than Regular, that's about 5% of the total cost of a gallon in most areas. That means that if you average 30mpg (On the high side to show a bigger difference) then a 1.5mpg loss would totally negate your cost savings and I can almost assure you that you would see this by switching.

[Sly Raskal]

I think the more important question, at least for us enthusiasts, what are the long term effects of using lower octane in a car where premium is recommended?

I would imagine there would be more carbon buildup due to the use of the lower octane and that in itself is enough for me to never want to use a lower octane even if my car can prevent knocking. Unless I absolutely, friggin' HAVE to put something lower than premium, then I would, but I don't see that happening because I'm not stupid enough to run out of gas.

[eMacPaul]

I wonder if the original article is even considering turbocharged, or just looking at NA? Seems that especially if you're chipped, regular gasoline would eliminate all advantages of the chip from higher compression.

[bob12312357]

Even turbocharged, stock ur not gonna be running enough boost to do engine damage. If you think your car can't run on regulaur ur outta ur minds, and ignoring basic info in the owners manual to the contrary.

[INTEGRATION]

No one's really doubting you that 87 octane could be used lol. But honestly why would you get a 30k+ car just to put crap into it? Unless you really hated your car, but if you're on this forum then you should be liking your car...

[RedS-line]

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?...tentId=7023402
plenty of graphs showing how premium outperforms regular. also on that site they conlcuded that using premium was similar to increase an engine's size from 3.0L to 3.4L
those articles in the paper are never thorough.