purchased used recently. It call for Premium gas, is this required? Will I do damage by using 87 octane?
If the owner’s manual says it’s reccomended, then both power and mileage will suffer if you use regular.
If it the owner’s manual says it’s required, you will destroy the engine by using regular.
-Matt
If it the owner’s manual says it’s required, you will destroy the engine by using regular.
Well at least may cause damage. In either case it would be very foolish to run regular in a car that the owner’s manual says to use premium.
You will lose some performance but I don’t think you will damage the engine. In the good ol’ days the timing was fixed and the engine would ping. Nowadays the ECU will make adjustments in the timing to compensate for the lower octane fuel and protect the engine. This will make the engine less efficient so you get slightly less MPG. So is it really worth putting in the less expensive gas? The answer to this could keep the number crunchers busy for a long time.