Does any one fill with 92 octane? Will this be bad for the engine? Or will it be good? Thanks.

From personal experience, BAD. Gas mileage suffers, and you can foul the O2 sensors.

From personal experience, BAD. Gas mileage suffers, and you can foul the O2 sensors.


I have to ask. Do you have facts to back up the statement that 92 octane can foul the O2 sensors? If this was the case would Honda not have a warning not to use it? My owners manual only states to use a minimum of 87 octane.

Does any one fill with 92 octane? Will this be bad for the engine? Or will it be good? Thanks.
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There isn't a need to run a higher octane in the E. There won't be any performance benefits.

Good for the oil companies, bad for your wallet.
se

Good for the oil companies, bad for your wallet.
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Agreed. You are wasting your $$$. Only use in cars where the engines specifically call for high octane. Unless you have a old car with a lot of miles on it and you hear some "pinging".

Don't give any more money to the oil companies than you have to.

I agree. No gourmet gas for the E's - it wastes $$.

I even run 85 in mine - but I live at high altitude...

higher octane has less energy per unit.
http://www.squidoo.com/regular_or_premium

Thank you, Rick92040. The "higher octane = more power" fallacy just won't die.

High-compression engines need higher octane to prevent preignition (pinging). That's all. If the carmaker says it's OK to use 87 or higher, use 87 or higher, realizing that for our purposes, higher octane = more $ but no gain.

Your vehicle engine and electronic controls are designed around the use of 87. So use 87.

Actually, with 92, if you could carefully calculate mileage, I would expect it to DEcrease. High octane fuels are formulated to be less volatile, so as not to detonate, and thus have slightly less BTU content. You always want to use the lowest octane rating fuel that doesn't detonate in your vehicle. I would use mountain state 85 or 86 if it didn't detonate....for better fuel economy.

What most people think about gasoline is about 100% opposite from fact.

What most people think about gasoline is about 100% opposite from fact.

Of course. It's called "PREMIUM" so it must be better.:roll:

Back in the day, I had done some Octane/grade testing in the E on some long trips (constant speeds being the best way to judge tank to tank) and I concur with what RJG says. Here is a summary of what i found

--87-Best bang for the buck
--89-Slightly better MPGs but so slight that it wouldnt make up for the 10cent difference between 87-89.
-->89- Worse mileage than 87.
--10% Ethanol Addative- Worse gas mileage, i want to say an average of 3mpg less than without. Depending on where you are in the country however, Fuel with ethanol may be cheaper than fuel without, thus you may recieve a better bang for the buck with it.

Basically in a nutshell, whatever is cheapest at the pump is what I pump. Differences in mileage are so slight that at an average of ~10cents difference between all the grades, your best bet is to get the cheapest and roll with it. Unless of course, it is E85... DO NOT use E85 as our engines are not designed to run it. In Fact, I've heard that Even the "Flex Fuel" engines are having a hard time with parts breakdown using E85 and they were designed to run on it! The parts i hear about breaking down faster are gaskets, seals, and various other plastic/rubber (petroleum based) parts.

Note: i know most people understand not to use E85, but i do not Assume, because we all know what happens when you assume...

Does our element need 89s or 93s or is it ok to settle for 87?

Does our element need 89s or 93s or is it ok to settle for 87?


No, see links below. Search the web there is a lot more that will say the same thing.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/autos/aut12.shtm

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63369 (http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?p=884447)

hik hik hik, told ya...;-)

[QUOTE=mickey52;884447]No, see links below. Search the web there is a lot more that will say the same thing.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/autos/aut12.shtm

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63369 (http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?p=884447)

copy that. thanks...big help!

hik hik hik, told ya...;-)

hehe newbie eh...

Out here in Utah, our "regular" is 85, so I always have to spring for Mid-grade, being 87/88.

Don't waste money on Premium, or anything higher than 87/88 for that matter.

According to Wikipedia: in the Rocky Mountain (high altitude) states, 85 AKI is the minimum octane, and 91 AKI is the maximum octane available in fuel[citation needed]. The reason for this is that in higher-altitude areas, a typical naturally-aspirated engine draws in less air mass per cycle due to the reduced density of the atmosphere. This directly translates to less fuel and reduced absolute compression in the cylinder, therefore deterring knock. It is safe to fill up a carbureted car that normally takes 87 AKI fuel at sea level with 85 AKI fuel in the mountains, but at sea level the fuel may cause damage to the engine.
So if you live in Salt Lake city you can use 85 without any problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

Out here in Utah, our "regular" is 85, so I always have to spring for Mid-grade, being 87/88.

Don't waste money on Premium, or anything higher than 87/88 for that matter.

aight! tnx man...

I dident read the links you guys posted but this has been beat to death in the past. Once upon a time I lived in a high elevation area and bought regular gas all the time and never thought twice about it. Then I moved to a sea level elevation and my car dident run as good, it was fine but Im sensitive to that sort of thing. I then started useing premium and it ran as it always had in the past. So judge for yourself but as for me I use premium. Useing premium will in no way hurt your car and anyone who tells you so dosent know what they are talking about.

I dident read the links you guys posted but this has been beat to death in the past. Once upon a time I lived in a high elevation area and bought regular gas all the time and never thought twice about it. Then I moved to a sea level elevation and my car dident run as good, it was fine but Im sensitive to that sort of thing. I then started useing premium and it ran as it always had in the past. So judge for yourself but as for me I use premium. Useing premium will in no way hurt your car and anyone who tells you so dosent know what they are talking about.
I'd suggest reading the links, and maybe it wouldn't be beat to death...

And for what it's worth, the ones telling you NOT to use premium fuel in your Element are the engineers who designed it in the first place...so I would think they, more than anyone would know exactly what they are talking about...

Tim seriously my god!!! dident we talk about this like two years ago! Read your book man! I dont have mine infront of me right now but it says something like 86 or higher! I will point out again that 91 and 92 is higher than 86 so its ok to use! Read about what octane means!

Tim seriously my god!!! dident we talk about this like two years ago! Read your book man! I dont have mine infront of me right now but it says something like 86 or higher! I will point out again that 91 and 92 is higher than 86 so its ok to use! Read about what octaine means!
I don't need to read my book again...I've talked to the design engineers...who have said that the engine is designed to operate optimally at the lower octane levels (they too won't specify a definitive level, but I suspect that's mainly due to the fact that they don't engineer fuel... ;)
And if you'd read the previous posts, you'd know that it's your dollars you are wasting, so you can do whatever makes you happy. :razz:

They wont say because they dont know what altitude, air temp, humidity, and engine load you'll have. I may be wasting my money sometimes but it dosent hurt your engine to have "too high" octane. What does hurt it is to have too low. I think I'd rather error on the side of caution, plus it just bugs me to have my car run funny. Your talking about .10 cents more per gallon so about $1.40 per each fillup, I think my wallet can take it.

IIRC if conditions render the minimum octane (86 for 2003–05, 87 for 2006–10) too low, the computer will compensate. But yes, using fuel with an octane rating higher than necessary will do no harm.