Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 09:39:11 -0400 From: Fred W <Malt_Houndnospamm-me-not*yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Regular gas in a 9.5?
Michael Hudson wrote: > I recently purchased a '02 9.5 Linear with 80K on it. I'm friends with > the previous owner and know for a fact that she's never put anything > but regular (87 octane) gas in it and experienced no performance > problems save one time when it surged momentarily in 5th gear (it's a > standard). In the two weeks that I've had the car, the surging, or > hiccupping, or whatever you might call it has come on strong. It's > always had regular maintenance, oil changes every 3K, and I just > changed the oil myself last week. I know - now that I looked at the > damned thing! - that the book says to use at least 90 octane gas, > which I will if I absolutely have to, but does the condition described > above sound like it was caused, all of a sudden, by improper gas usage? > I just put my first tank of 89 octane gas - hoping for the best - > in this morning and see no changes. Yet. > > Opine, please. > > Michael > To resolve your problem, which is definitely not related to the grade of gasoline you are using, try swapping in some new spark plugs. Don't use anything except the proper NGK plain jane plugs called for in the owners manual. From there on out, you should probably use 89 octane in a linear. There is no such thing as "90" octane in the US. It is 87 (regular), 89 (mid-grade) and 91 to 93 (super/premium) depending on location. The small difference between the gas certified to be 89 (or better) and 90 is pretty insignificant. If you wanted to be anal about it you could squirt in a few gallons of premium fuel every tankful of mid-grade, but since the mid grade is at least 89 (most likely somewhat more) it is not a very big deal. OTOH, running the lowest grade as the PO did is not so great as it will cause the ECU to run with a retarded ignition timing pretty much all the time. You won't get the best mileage or best performance that way. -- -Fred W
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