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Please forgive me, I'm a little clueless about cars - I know about types of cars, but nothing about how they work. So here's the big mystery I've always wondered... does it really matter which kind of gas you use? I used to always fill with Premium, since that's what my gas cap said to use, but now I have a cheaper car & less money (not to mention Premium is $4/gallon here ). So I usually get Regular or Plus instead, and wonder if that makes a difference to my car? I mean mostly in terms of it's daily performance, but also for the long-term effects. I drive a 2005 Honda Accord LX, 4-cylinder, manual transmission... any suggestions or "dummy explanations" you can give me?
My step-mom's Honda Pilot requires premium. If I drive it, I fill it with that because thats what it asks.
Some people will argue certain stations give better gas. okay, they can argue that. Proper, routine maintenance will make a far larger impact on your car's continued performance than the grade of gas you use.
If your car says regular, put regular in and forget about it.
Read the owners manual. It states the proper octane to use in the engine.
Most likely your car can get by with 87. If so use it.
Running high octane fuel in a car that doesn't need it will yield you zero results.
High octane fuel is more resistant to detonation, and detonation is commonly found in engines in high performance vehicles, where higher compression ratios or forced induction are used.
If you've got a high performance engine, its a good idea to use premium grade. Anything else will be fine using regular. Don't waste your time on the middle plus or middle grade.
You actually loose power if you use a higher octane than recommended by the manual.
Some mechanics may recommend a higher octane every so often for the addional cleaners that the company puts in, wouldn't hurt. Gas industry certainly recommends it, for obvious reasons of greed.
One other note - most modern cars that require 92 octance, you can get away with using a lower octane now and then and the computer compensates, but their you loose a bit of power.
I was under the impression that higher (91, 93) octane gasoline burns at a higher temperature, and can remove buildup that 87 octane can't.
It actually burns cooler, higher compression engines have a hotter combustion, the higher octane burns slower. the slower burn allows higher comp. engine to run with out pre-detonation, Pinging.
If a car runs fine with no pinging on 87 octane you will not benifit from a higher octane.
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Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So here's the big mystery I've always wondered... does it really matter which kind of gas you use? I used to always fill with Premium, since that's what my gas cap said to use, but now I have a cheaper car & less money (not to mention Premium is $4/gallon here 
). So I usually get Regular or Plus instead, and wonder if that makes a difference to my car? I mean mostly in terms of it's daily performance, but also for the long-term effects. I drive a 2005 Honda Accord LX, 4-cylinder, manual transmission... any suggestions or "dummy explanations" you can give me?
