Does using different fuel make a difference?
If your car doesn’t require premium, fill up with regular. In a consumer notice, the Federal Trade Commission, notes: “In most cases, using a higher-octane gasoline than your owner’s manual recommends offers absolutely no benefit. It won’t make your car perform better, go faster, get better mileage or run cleaner.”
Does the type of gas affect your car?
Most vehicles will run just fine on regular gasoline. Higher octane levels may not necessarily increase your vehicle’s performance and could damage your engine. However, if your car requires a higher octane gas, it could run poorly if a mid-grade or premium gas is not used.
Is it bad to switch gas types?
No, you won’t damage it. The “recommended” means the engine has a knock sensor, and the timing will be adjusted to compensate for the lower octane gas, at some decrease in performance and efficiency.
What happens if you put regular gas in a premium car once?
Using regular gas in an engine that requires premium could void your warranty. That is most likely to happen if using regular causes severe engine knock or pinging (premature ignition of the fuel, also known as detonation) that damages the pistons or other engine parts.
Does premium fuel make a difference?
The main difference with premium is its octane rating — 91 or higher compared with 87 for regular octane. The higher octane of premium gas won’t make your car faster; in fact, the opposite is possible because higher-octane fuel technically has less energy than lower-octane fuel.
Do I really need premium gasoline?
Premium gasoline is necessary only for those vehicles whose vehicles say “Premium Fuel Required” behind the fuel door. If your gas brand has higher levels of detergents or cold-weather additives in its premium fuel over regular, it may keep your engine cleaner, but it won’t necessarily run better.
Does premium gas burn slower?
Fuel with an 87 octane rating burns more quickly while higher-octane fuels burn more slowly. In engines designed for standard unleaded fuel, efficiency and performance is optimized for 87 octane and could actually perform worse with higher-octane fuel since the burn rate is slower.
Can I mix different octane fuel grades?
Yes, drivers can mix the two types of fuel. The combined gas types will result in an octane level somewhere in the middle — something the vehicle “will survive,” according to The Drive.
Is it bad to mix gas from different stations?
No problem whatsoever as long as the gasoline is of the same octane rating. Gasoline in any given area is nearly all the same at every station. You will never know what companies refinery produced the gasoline.
What happens if you put 93 instead of 87?
If you usually fill your tank up with 87-octane gasoline and you accidentally put in a higher octane blend (say, 91, 92, or 93), don’t worry. You’re actually filling your car or truck with a different blend of gas, which means it will burn differently in your engine.
Does premium fuel clean your engine?
Nope. Regular, plus, and premium gas all come with detergents to mitigate against carbon deposits in your engine. Plus and premium don’t come with special powers for cleaning out the engine. If you’re interested in cleaning out your engine, you’re better off taking it in for service.