I never understood this "I'll treat it to premium every once in a while" mentality espoused by your mechanic and many others.

"Premium" is a misnomer. There's nothing better or premium about higher octane gas. Octane is an indication of the fuel's ability to resist "knock" or premature detonation, and it has nothing to do with treating your engine well, etc. Adding Octane-enhancers to gas reduces the total energy in the gas (per unit volume), but allows it to be used in higher-compression engines without exploding before the spark fires. High Compression NA engines, and Turbo engines often require high octane gas to function well. Most such engines are able to back off the timing in such a way as to prevent knock even if you use low-octane gas, so the manuals hem and haw around the requirements, saying that you must use at least 87, but 93 is recommended, etc.

If your car runs fine on low-octane gas, maybe you're lucky, maybe you're at a different altitude, maybe the engineers were being conservative with the recommendation, etc, but for the most part, if the engine is spec'ed to use 91 octane gas, it's silly not to spring for the $.10.
It's sillier to buy premium for a car that doesn't need it - that's bad for the engine, since those octane-enhancers don't combust fully, (even long-term use of premium likely wouldn't cause any problems, but it's still a waste of money).

Anyway, that's my rant. I hope maybe it was informative to somebody out there :-)

posted by 66.92.168...

• Anyone use >87 octane? Proof why 1 should?Just curious, Bryan , Thu, 20 Mar 2003 14:55:34
  • But isn't the idea of the APC or ECU to, Noel, Fri, 21 Mar 2003 17:52:37
  • Always .....youve brought up a sore subject, 91Aero.jr, Thu, 20 Mar 2003 19:07:53
  • I do, Jon in Chicago, Thu, 20 Mar 2003 15:55:31
    • Re: I do, Patrick in DC, Thu, 20 Mar 2003 21:16:58 <-- Viewing This Message
    • Re: me too, Leon, Thu, 20 Mar 2003 17:03:53
      • My '96 is spec'd at 87 Oct. but I use 89 + n/m, Bryan , Fri, 21 Mar 2003 08:28:35

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