If your owner’s manual says that premium fuel is required, then you should do it, but your car won’t blow up if you occasionally opt for regular. If your owner’s manual says that premium fuel is recommended, then you can use regular gas all the time with no worries.
Contents
- 1 What happens if I use regular gas instead of premium?
- 2 Do I really have to put premium gas in my car?
- 3 What happens if you put 87 gas in a 91 car?
- 4 Is it bad to put premium gas in a car that doesn’t require it?
- 5 Is it bad to mix premium and regular gas?
- 6 Will premium gas clean my engine?
- 7 Why do luxury cars need premium gas?
- 8 Why do some cars need premium gas?
- 9 Does premium fuel make a difference?
- 10 Is premium gas better?
- 11 Does premium gas burn slower?
- 12 Which vehicles require premium gas?
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.
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.
What happens if you put 87 gas in a 91 car?
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 may feel a difference in the way the vehicle runs and may notice an improvement in gas mileage, but that’s about all that will happen.
Premium gas 90-93 is completely okay to put in a standard vehicle. Car experts say there is no risk of damage to a standard car using premium fuel.
Can I mix premium and unleaded gas? 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.
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.
The level of octane in the gas impacts how the engine burns the gas when it runs. The higher level of octane in premium does not ignite the explosions in the car’s cylinders as quickly as regular gas. Luxury Cars require premium gas as a result of higher performance engines that need higher levels of octane.
Simply put, high-octane gasoline can be compressed and heated to a greater degree without self-igniting. That’s why high-performance engines use premium fuel. Since the engine doesn’t make quite as much power with low-octane fuels, this translates into slower acceleration in cars for which premium fuel is recommended.
With today’s modern fuel-injection systems however, that shouldn ‘t make much difference. Because premium gas has a higher octane rating than midgrade or regular gas, it produces a little more power when burnt. In the real world, it barely affects performance, or fuel economy.
The main difference with premium is its octane rating — 91 or higher compared with 87 for regular octane. The higher octane gives premium gas greater resistance to early fuel ignition, which can result in potential damage, sometimes accompanied by audible engine knocking or pinging. Premium gas is not “stronger” gas.
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.
15 ‘Regular’ Cars That Take Premium Fuel
- Buick Envision (with 2.0L turbo)
- Buick Regal (all models)
- Buick Regal TourX (all models)
- Chevrolet Equinox (with 2.0-L turbo)
- Chevrolet Malibu (with 2.0-L turbo)
- Fiat 500L (all models)
- GMC Terrain (with 2.0-L turbo)
- Honda Civic (with 1.5-L turbo)
