Putting poor people gasoline into a rich people car

arnie_grape

arnie_grape

Active member
I bought a bmw in the spring and ive just been informed that I need to fuel it with high octane gasoline

if I fill it with poor people 85 gas is it really gonna matter. my manual says minimum 89, recommend 91. what will happen to my automobile if i continue to fill it with poor mans gas???
 
Octane delays ignition. Higher the octane, the more the fuel has a delay in ignition.

The reason for this is high rpm engines on luxury cars. At high rpm, the delay in ignition is enough to get poor performance from the engine. By tuning the fuel, you can supply high rpm engines.
 
I've started putting 89 in my car instead of 93 because I am not expensing it for work. No difference.

I'm actually about to spend a shit load having some amazing Jewish mechanic make my car mint. The magic he worked on my Tahoe back in the day was sublime. My Navigator will hit 160 any day and I bought it at 79 so its time for that no costs spared servicing. If he says 93 I will go back to that. I could try and find 91 which is all it needs but not many stations have it.

You do get a little bit better efficiency with the higher octane. If your car isn't that big I would use it.
 
Lol everyone has it wrong. Ignition delay doesn't directly help for high rpms. Luxury cars tend to have higher combustion pressures, which is why you delay ignition. Your cylinder's higher pressure will ignite the lower octane gas before the proper time (pre-ignition, this is sometimes the cause of knocking) and this both hurts your efficiency, and more importantly, can accelerate wear on your valves and piston rings by a lot.

It's not a huge deal if your car calls for higher octane fuel and you use lower octane if it's naturally aspirated. You'll probably get marginally worse economy and maybe a little bit of premature wear, but it won't be bad. Other things are bound to happen on a German car before fuel's the cause of issues. If you have a turbo or supercharger, you definitely want to stick to your recommended fuel or you'll have a bad day sooner rather than later.

**This post was edited on Nov 12th 2023 at 8:55:57pm
 
Idk. Felt like 85 ran like shit in cars I put it in. In the states that have 85 I still use 87. Could be wrong but my gas mileage dropped significantly and enough reason to just stay with 87 for me.
 
You'll get better fuel economy if you run the right gas for the engine.

Your car has an octane sensor that adjusts the timing based on the fuel that's in it. It'll detect the lower octane gas and adjust the timing to a less efficient, but safer cycle. In my experience, the cost to b run it is about break-even, but you'll have less power on the cheap stuff.
 
What kind of engine is it? If it has a turbo, you're an idiot, but if it's an I6 or V8 you can put regular gas and probably won't notice any difference especially in winter months.

**This post was edited on Nov 13th 2023 at 1:21:58pm
 
14564233:theabortionator said:
Idk. Felt like 85 ran like shit in cars I put it in. In the states that have 85 I still use 87. Could be wrong but my gas mileage dropped significantly and enough reason to just stay with 87 for me.
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Octane rating changes based on altitude, so 85 which is really only available in mountain states is equivalent to 87 at sea level.
 
14564332:RIP_leos_shack said:
What kind of engine is it? If it has a turbo, you're an idiot, but if it's an I6 or V8 you can put regular gas and probably won't notice any difference especially in winter months.

**This post was edited on Nov 13th 2023 at 1:21:58pm
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Number of cylinders literally has nothing to do with anything regarding fuel type
 
I've been running 89 in my volvo for the past 4 years, think I'm supposed to run 91, but the times I've done 91 or above I saw no mileage increase.
 
14564219:ReturnToMonkey said:
Lol everyone has it wrong. Ignition delay doesn't directly help for high rpms. Luxury cars tend to have higher combustion pressures, which is why you delay ignition. Your cylinder's higher pressure will ignite the lower octane gas before the proper time (pre-ignition, this is sometimes the cause of knocking) and this both hurts your efficiency, and more importantly, can accelerate wear on your valves and piston rings by a lot.

It's not a huge deal if your car calls for higher octane fuel and you use lower octane if it's naturally aspirated. You'll probably get marginally worse economy and maybe a little bit of premature wear, but it won't be bad. Other things are bound to happen on a German car before fuel's the cause of issues. If you have a turbo or supercharger, you definitely want to stick to your recommended fuel or you'll have a bad day sooner rather than later.

**This post was edited on Nov 12th 2023 at 8:55:57pm
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This is correct.
 
Arnie... just put the 91 in it. Why would you ask a bunch of hippie potheads what kind of gas to use in a BMW when you know they all piss in their Lesburu gas tanks because they think natural is the way to go
 
Life hack: remove and sell the turn signals to fund the premium gas. They are useless on a bmw and extra weight
 
I had this same dilemma with a Passat a couple years ago. I ran 87 and 91 in it and did a little test finding that I got better mileage with the 91 so it worked out to be about the same price either way. I ran lots of 87 too I dont think its an issue but if you plan to keep the car for a long time I'd do 91.

Also people talk about this for days on car forums I'd go there for a better answer.

topic:arnie_grape said:
I bought a bmw in the spring and ive just been informed that I need to fuel it with high octane gasoline

if I fill it with poor people 85 gas is it really gonna matter. my manual says minimum 89, recommend 91. what will happen to my automobile if i continue to fill it with poor mans gas???
Click to expand...
 
Poorer performance, maybe increased wear like monkey said. But fuel and car tech has come a lonnnggggg way in last few decades. You’ll be fine using lower octane.
 
Idk how it is in the states but in Canada 91 (or 94 in some stations) doesn’t have any ethanol.
 
Your car has a knock sensor so it will probably just throttle back the power since you put in 85 but it really should not affect much aside from that.
 
14564195:jompcock said:
don't drive it if you can't afford it.
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first of all who are you to judge jompcock

also i drive it like 4 hours a monthe cause im worried something will fail but a 7yr old bmw with 100000km on it for $20k just seemed like a better deal than a 20yr old anything for $10k with 400000km on it

it's okay if you guys are jealous of my cool bmw but you dont have to be rude about it
 
also i had a 2.5L volvo for 10 years before i totaled it last winter and nobody ever bugged me about fuel grade not a single person
 
14566129:arnie_grape said:
first of all who are you to judge jompcock

also i drive it like 4 hours a monthe cause im worried something will fail but a 7yr old bmw with 100000km on it for $20k just seemed like a better deal than a 20yr old anything for $10k with 400000km on it

it's okay if you guys are jealous of my cool bmw but you dont have to be rude about it
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I have German car. I put 93 in it. I also have japanese truck with 300k miles. I put 87 in it. One time I filled the tank with 2 ear old gas cause I was in a pinch. Ran some seafoam through it, it's fine.
 
14566152:jompcock said:
I have German car. I put 93 in it. I also have japanese truck with 300k miles. I put 87 in it. One time I filled the tank with 2 ear old gas cause I was in a pinch. Ran some seafoam through it, it's fine.
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Jesus what's it like to be royalty
 
14566156:arnie_grape said:
Jesus what's it like to be royalty
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Got rust flakes on my eye today trying to keep the exhaust from falling off the truck. Gonna ball out on some fiberglass and spray paint so it passes inspection. Otherwise pretty good.
 
14564439:TOAST. said:
I've been running 89 in my volvo for the past 4 years, think I'm supposed to run 91, but the times I've done 91 or above I saw no mileage increase.
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is it the T6 or 3.2 cause those are ran on regular by most mechanics ik and even volvo says they don’t need to be ran on premium, along with the real T5. the T5 that’s a super and turbo charged 4cyl needs to be ran on premium from what i’ve been told.
 
14566168:WoFlowz said:
is it the T6 or 3.2 cause those are ran on regular by most mechanics ik and even volvo says they don’t need to be ran on premium, along with the real T5. the T5 that’s a super and turbo charged 4cyl needs to be ran on premium from what i’ve been told.
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2.5t
 
14566160:jompcock said:
Got rust flakes on my eye today trying to keep the exhaust from falling off the truck. Gonna ball out on some fiberglass and spray paint so it passes inspection. Otherwise pretty good.
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Been there done that. Well trying to try up my exhaust after it did fall down. Just got rid of my rusty car. Also finslly registered my car out wrst in the last of no inspections. Fuck I dont miss that. Miss my old car though.
 
14566290:GrapeHunter said:
Arnie, did you buy an F30 3 series? Possibly a 320i or 328i? Lets see a photo
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gilbert i bough an x1 it's got no legroom and it's 50% engine momma wouldn't even fit in the trunk

1080780.jpeg
 
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