Regular vs Premium Petrol

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cjdnzl, Jan 18, 8:23pm
My car is a '98 Nissan Primera Camino, and I am fairly sure it's supposed to run on Premium gas.When I tried using regular 91 it pinked under acceleration, so I went back to premium 95.Can it be retimed to use 91, and will there be a loss of power and mileage, or is it better to stay with 95 and damn the price!I'm on a limited income and trying to get the best bang for the buck here.

jasongroves, Jan 18, 8:29pm
95 minimum. Much better for the car to just use what is recommended.
You should get better economy and power running the recommended grade than you would off a lower octane fuel.

jasongroves, Jan 18, 8:30pm
Some supermarket discount vouchers should help soak up some of the difference in cost;)

wrong2, Jan 18, 8:37pm
the cheaper petrol is not worth the money your saving

a18a, Jan 18, 8:49pm
you would probably only save a couple dollars per full tank from using 91 instead of 95. which would end up costing you more in lack of economy/power/whatever

wrong2, Jan 18, 8:49pm
well , it would probablly run even crisper on 98 . . . . . .

pollymay, Jan 18, 8:58pm
Put some det cans on and drive around listening for normally inaudible detonation on 95. Or am I the only one that drives around every now and again with a mechanics stethoscope in my ears!

Eh at any rate my turbo I ONLY run on 98, I accept no less and haven't even put 95 in it ever. My daily however gets cheap gas,

richardmayes, Jan 19, 5:00am
My old man records all of his mileage and fuel purchases, and has tested 95 vs 98 octane in his car.

Goes further on a tank of 98 than a tank of 95, and the difference is pretty much exactly the same as the difference in price of the two fuels!

redslapper, Jan 19, 5:29am
is it the same with a 2002 commodore! 98 or 91

townie55, Jan 19, 6:00am
I stay away from 91 in my vehicles, even for the lawn mower and weedeater.I've always been of the mindset that a motor works a little easier on a higher octane.

ngubb, Jan 19, 6:02am
Rubbish. Only a higher compression engine needs 98. If anything you could end up harming the engine due to the lower sparking point.

rovercitroen, Jan 19, 8:58am
Engines sometimes require higher octane to prevent pinking as they get older. A new car that ran fine on 91 may need 95 as the kilometres rack up due to carbon buildup in the engine.

johnf_456, Jan 19, 9:18am
If you cannot afford the car perhaps consider walking or biking, or getting something cheaper. If you can't afford to fill it, it is just accident waiting to happen as you probably skimp on maintenance also. Cars cost money to run, if you can't afford the up keep, especially when things like tyres and brakes wear out!

Simple you ditch the car or you run what the car is recommended to run on.

johnf_456, Jan 19, 9:21am
Oh dear sparking points, face palms

jsbike, Jan 19, 9:25am

rovercitroen, Jan 19, 9:53am
http://www.fuelsaverinc.com/sae1991.pdf

This paper is one of several discussing ORI, Octane Requirement Increase.

rovercitroen, Jan 19, 9:54am
You may be correct. It may not be as big a problem as it used to be due to newer cleaner burning fuels.

fox.vanilla, Jan 19, 9:57am
What about a 1999 1.3L Nissan Cube (lol I know)! I've always used 91. Should I switch!

1grasshopper, Jan 19, 10:01am
In our car (94 Mitsi turbo libero) my friend filled it up with 91 once and we only got 400km from the tank of gas, with 95 we get 450-500km from a tank so the small savings in filling it up ends up actually costing you more

vtecintegra, Jan 19, 10:03am
Depends on the engine.Direct injection designs all seem to suffer eventually, and it can be a problem as they're usually meant to run on high octane fuel from new.

jasongroves, Jan 19, 10:53am
Should have same engine as the Micra, which oddly enough requires 95:)

kwkbrk, Jan 19, 11:00am
Probably a pretty decent clue regards this discussion is the fact that you can`t buy 91 in Japan. Therefore ANY vehicle sourced / assembled there has been designed and should be run on a minimum of 95.
And the sooner that the masses realize this, the sooner 91 will get uneconomic for the oil companies to stock and supply . and the sooner we can once and for all get this poison useless crap out of the country .

fordguy17, Jan 19, 6:17pm
Does your engine also Red or Blue under acceleration! It shouldn't turn any colour at all. However it could PING. NZ fuel is crap, even though it says it's 91/95 octane, it's still shit fuel. In the US they are running octanes in the 80's however it is very good quality compared to ours.

sw20, Jan 19, 6:21pm
Damn you must be hard up to worry about saving less than $4 every 50 litres of fuel.

cybertao, Jan 19, 6:44pm
The wikipedia article on octane ratings covers things very well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

There are two ratings, RON and MON.RON octane is determined by putting the fuel in a test engine under different compressions and compare the results with other fuels.MON is the same, but under more load and heat.
One of the entries on the nice table of comparative octane ratings:
"regular" gasoline in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US RON91??