By accident on my last fill up I put in Prenium gas, I was down to about a quater tank so when I filled I pretty much got an entire tank of Prenium, 92 octane. it was only like $.20 more a gallon and cost me about $24 to fill up, so I just said "whatever" and drove like that... after a couple of days I noticed a few things, I had more throttle response, the engine revved a little more freely. But the thing that really caught my eye was Gas mileage, I know it is an urban legend that running prenium in a car that doesnt need it can increase gas mileage, but mine has significantly increased, on regular with a full tank on lead foot miles I get about 23 MPG all city driving. I get about 100 miles to a quarter tank, I looked down and observed, and my first quarter tank had given me 125 miles, and the mileage is continueing to impress me. I have never gone this long on a full tank of gas... Does anybody have similar experiances to share with gas? Ill post a more solid figure the next time I fill up, but I can tell that the milage is signnificantly higher then it has been, and im trying to determine if running prenium will be done from now on after this point... Thanks guys.
Premium burns hotter, and isn't a bad idea to run a tank very occasionally to burn up some crap in the engine. If you had some stuff in there, it may have gotten rid of some of it. I still dobut premium could make a signiifcant difference in gas mileage though. The difference could have been from your driving style, temperature, etc.
won't hurt to use it from time to time, it will clean things out. but I wouldn't use it all the time unless you get a chip for the computer
why would you need a chip to run cleaner fuel??
i run premium in my car all the time, it runs alot better.
Yep premium for me too. Oh wait I do have an svt, but you don't need a chip to run premium.You zetec guys can run it all the time with out a problem and I would run it if I had the zetec.Premium gas also means increase in throttle response and perfomance.
Umm yeah.
I said 26mpg giving it hell. Everyone else was talking about city driving/lead foot driving as well, not highway cruising. I'm sure on the highway it does above 34mpg.
And everyone knows that zetecs get there best gas mileage at 80-~90.
The Zetec is tuned from the factory for 87 octane. The rather average compression # of 9.something is also well suited to run at 87 octane.
So running anything higher will net nothing. Simple physics of engines. No exceptions!
There is no HP that will be gained. There is no throttle response that will be gained.
If you want to run a higher ocatne 89 is fine, but anything more and you will no longer be burning all of the fuel in the combustion chamber (therefore losing power and gas mileage).
Of course if you have engine knock because soemthing is wrong with your engine, then a higher octane gas will help to prevent the knock. But that's like putting a band-aid on a cut that needs stitches.
Aside from that, any improvement you feel from a higher octane gas is like "I washed my car & now it feels faster".
not sure what I get city but the last time I checked I got 33mpg highway (not all highway, some was stop and go) speed limits ranged from 35 to 65.
the only improvement I see when I run premium is my car doesn't ping going up hills when under a heavy load (2nd 5-6k) if I run premium I don't have the pinging. I don't have increased throttle responce or any more power, just the pinging goes away.
i can drive 70 all the time on the highway and get almost 36 mpg with regular 87...
it jumped from 29 when i bought the car, but i also changed the front o2 sensor, the oil, the air filter, the fuel filter, the pcv valve, and the exhaust.
Thanks Sleeper, you are damn right. One of these threads pops up all the time. The increased throttle response, etc, is meerly an illusion.
know i want to why im only getting about 24 mpg. city or highway. it doesnt seem to matter i get about the same either way.
Dirty MAF, clogged fuel injectors, dying O2 sensor. All could hurt MPG.
You should also check your plugs, air filter, and fuel filter.
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