gasoline grade
- Thread starter twigs057
- Start date
If you think buying the expensive stuff keeps carbon from building deposits on your valves, then I have a bridge in NY I would like to sell you!
Stop reading all the claims from the commercials and do a little research. Most if not all high detergent gasolines (another words premium) are only premium from the mix before being distributed, and I hate to say it, but more times than most the mix isn't all that perfect. If you could get by using a lower octane without causing knock, I would go for it. Once a month I would throw in a good fuel cleaner like STP (the black bottle), or do what I'm doing by adding some Fuel Power to my tank evertime I gas up. It costs only pennies a tank full and it really works. Don't take my word for it, visit http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi and check additives, fuel, oil and cleaners. There's great info to be had all over this site. Good luck and enjoy your ride! [bmwkick]
Stop reading all the claims from the commercials and do a little research. Most if not all high detergent gasolines (another words premium) are only premium from the mix before being distributed, and I hate to say it, but more times than most the mix isn't all that perfect. If you could get by using a lower octane without causing knock, I would go for it. Once a month I would throw in a good fuel cleaner like STP (the black bottle), or do what I'm doing by adding some Fuel Power to my tank evertime I gas up. It costs only pennies a tank full and it really works. Don't take my word for it, visit http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi and check additives, fuel, oil and cleaners. There's great info to be had all over this site. Good luck and enjoy your ride! [bmwkick]
once again i reiterate: modern cars don't knock!! thanks to knock sensors, which retard engine performance, if it senses premature burning due to high temp engine w/ lower octane level in fuel. (yes it's general description, and i dont' know the technical side of it, but that was the way it was explained to me.)
so on that merit, you lose engine perf by putting in lower grade gas than recommended. my take is this: you paid good money for your car, wouldn't you want it to perform at the highest level possible? what's the sense in saving couplea bucks (if that..) per fill up to get reduced performance? and i'm still of the thought that i do get a lil better milage by going w/ higher octane, but it's purely speculative, and no scientific basis, except for what i experienced. (which in the end evens out since i pay a lil more to get lil more miles out of the full tank..)
so on that merit, you lose engine perf by putting in lower grade gas than recommended. my take is this: you paid good money for your car, wouldn't you want it to perform at the highest level possible? what's the sense in saving couplea bucks (if that..) per fill up to get reduced performance? and i'm still of the thought that i do get a lil better milage by going w/ higher octane, but it's purely speculative, and no scientific basis, except for what i experienced. (which in the end evens out since i pay a lil more to get lil more miles out of the full tank..)
My dealer said to use the best gas available 93 - 94 octane, which I have always done. What I can't believe is that you guys spend 30-40-50+k on a car and won't spend another .10 cents a gallon to (in theory) make it run better. Say the average person puts 12,000 miles a year on a car that averages 20 miles per gallon. That means that you buy around 600 gallons of gas a year at an extra cost of $60.00.
When I go to the store to buy milk, I buy the brand that is on sale. When I go to the store to buy coffee, I buy what is on sale (my wife blends it with the flavored crap... thats for another forum...). When I put gas in my $40,000 car that costs me $650/month to buy, I put super unleaded in it. When I put gas in my tahoe, which is leased, it gets the cheapest available.
When I go to the store to buy milk, I buy the brand that is on sale. When I go to the store to buy coffee, I buy what is on sale (my wife blends it with the flavored crap... thats for another forum...). When I put gas in my $40,000 car that costs me $650/month to buy, I put super unleaded in it. When I put gas in my tahoe, which is leased, it gets the cheapest available.
I document every fill up, gas type, octane, amount, cost, mileage. Over the last 12 months I can say using 87, 91 or 93 octane makes no difference in miles per gallon. I feel (IMHO) that I get better performance with the highest octane to a point, 93, I've tried 93.5 and I couldn't tell any diff. I do notice trends in mileage from different gas stations. Exon and BP have consistantly given better MPG over Shell, Chevron, Phillips 66 and Entec. I couldn't say if it's the car liking those blends or those blends are consistantly better but I keep records and charts to show there is a difference. Since I started using FP and LC I'm getting almost a 1% increase in MPG regardless of the gas type. My car is only 1 year old and if it makes a difference in my new bimmer, think of what it could do for a 5 or 10 years older vehicle. I know it sounds like a sale pitch but I'm just expressing my experience using this stuff and want to pass the knowledge to other BMW owners.
Average Jae, not everyone has a modern car! The knock sensors are not a cure all for knock they can only do so much, long term use retarding detonation is being noted as a bad thing for the owners down the road.
Average Jae, not everyone has a modern car! The knock sensors are not a cure all for knock they can only do so much, long term use retarding detonation is being noted as a bad thing for the owners down the road.
I am sorry, but you are sadly mistaken. using a lower octane gas actually creates a ping, not a knock. the pinging is a hole slowly being burned in a piston, or, detonation. 95% of all engines that require premium will be damaged if you use a lower octane gas. a computer will only retard the timing so far, usually no further than 3 or 4 degrees past TDC. so saying that it is just for performance reasons would be just the tip of the iceberg