I know my owners manual and my fuel door say to put premium gas in my car but do you all think that premium is absolutely necessary? The major difference is that premium just runs cleaner, so do you think it would hurt to put regular in maybe every other fill up?

 

put it what is says or it will mess s**t up

 

Dammit, I was hoping you wouldn't say that. Premium is $2.04 around here and I drive at least 800 miles a week!<img border="0" src=smileys/smiley5.gif border="0"> FOr some reason I didn't even think about what gas it takes when I bought it just the mpg it gets.

 

If you use the cheap gas you may experience pinging. Lower octane combusts at a lower temperature. When you use the cheap gas the fuel in the engine may actually explode before the spark plugs fire. That would be bad. So love your audi and feed her the expensive gasoline.

 

800 miles a week!!!! holy s**t, man. you need a new job.

Turbos need high octane - if you have a 2.8L you can use mid-grade.

But when you think of it - you fill up what? twice a week say? A 15 gallon tank... 2.00 for premium and 1.90 for midgrade...

thats $30.00 for fill up premium vs $28.50 on midgrade... you save about $12 bucks a month after 8 fill ups...

worth the savings using less than premium??? hardly.

Don't put basic regular gas in your audi. Of course if you happen to by mistake some day its not the end of the world, just drive til you have room for some premium and mix it up. And don't drive hard until you get rid of it.


<edited><editID>brrman</editID><editDate>38083.7999189815</editDate></edited>

 

I have always used 89 octane in my 2001 A4 1.8T. They recomend 91. I have not had any pinging. I have 66K miles.

 

Maybe you think you haven't had pinging, but the engine probably has.

I'm with brrman and jestnomen on this. Low octane = BAD. High octane = GOOD. The long term benefits outweigh the savings in gas expense.

 

dude $2.04? try $2.41 buddy...

 

Check your owners manual for minimum octane. My engine has a knock sensor. The computer can retard spark and reduce pressure by opening the waist gate avoiding pinging.

 

By using 89 octane and resorting to the knock sensor, you are not experiencing the full potential of your engine. The retarded timing is a saftey feature, not something to save you money because you're too cheap to buy the recommended octane. You might think all is well, but your plugs are fouling quicker, and your 02 sensors and catalytic converter are definitely not thanking you.

Pinging WILL occur if you are chipped and do not use high octane. The retarded timing cannot compensate.