Sport/touring owners do you use premium fuel?

Slickone

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I like knowing that I'm giving my car the best I can at any given moment, and that I'm meeting recommended octane. That way if anything goes wrong down the road, Honda can't blame it on me using inferior gas. =D
But you don't know that, unless you've done tests. What is the recommended octane for your car?
And Honda won't blame anything on you if you're using at least the required octane, regardless of the recommended octane.

Myths about premium gasoline
https://www.cartalk.com/content/premium-vs-regular-0

Using an octane higher than your car can use can actually lower performance and gas mileage. I'm not saying this applies to the civic, but don't assume. Higher octane burns slower. And some premium (depends on blending) can have less energy per unit volume than regular. And your car is putting unburned hydrocarbons in the air, and probably increasing carbon build up in your engine.

Octane rating is only a way to measure resistance to combustion, nothing more. If cylinder pressure increases from using a higher compression ratio (or higher temperature, timing changes to ignite at higher compression, etc.), you want to offset with more a fuel more resistant to combustion to prevent knock. If you don't increase compression, but raise resistance to combustion, obviously you're losing power. Also they increase the octane rating by adding ethanol.

https://coverhound.com/insurance-learning-center/is-high-octane-gas-better-for-your-car
"The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said that high-octane fuel will not clean your engine better than its lesser counterparts, and a Car and Driver test found that at least one car designed to run on regular actually lost power when filled up with high-octane premium."

http://time.com/money/4349724/premium-gas-v-regular-gas/
These "premium recommended" cars got the same MPG on regular as premium (and the same seat of the pants power).

http://fortune.com/2016/09/07/premium-gas-sales/
"The final route to raising octane is to blend in a higher percentage of ethanol, which has a very high octane rating, but contains less energy than other blending components so achieves fewer miles per gallon."

I've seen more than one test that use a few vehicles where some even lost HP and MPG when upping from 87 to the recommended octane (and of course, some gained). And yes, I know some here have seen higher MPG with higher octane (calculate if it's enough to overcome the cost difference).

The thing is there's no way to know what the highest octane your car will take advantage of actually is, unless you do before/after tests. It could be the "Recommended octane", or that recommendation could just be Honda at least giving you the rated HP, not wanting to tell you you could get even more power at higher octane, which could also effect sales of their higher up models with more rated HP.

Summary: Don't assume using higher than the recommended octane is best.
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carcious

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Summary: Don't assume using higher than the recommended octane is best.[/QUOTE]
When talking about assuming, you probably shouldn't assume that others speaking haven't done their own research and checks.
I run a KTuner V2 in my civic and I've both seen and felt the difference in performance between 87 and 92. Also 92 is recommended...not 87. You know what's nice? Not seeing my knock control shoot to ridiculous numbers from .49 every time I need to give it some gas to move on the freeway. With 92 octane my knock control sits happily at .49 the entire time unless I decide to do something stupid like floor it in 6th gear from 2k. on 87 octane my knock control sits on average at .7-.8 . A measurable difference. Mileage is about the only thing that I noticed no difference outside of what I would consider understandable given it's near impossible to replicate the exact same driving experience in everyday driving. The gas here is pretty decent quality thankfully, and also pretty consistent. I was stating my personal opinion, so I don't understand why you had to come at me like you did but whatever floats your boat.

Professional tuners typically also state that higher octane gas needs to be used with their tunes to prevent detonation and increase performance. But I'm sure they don't know what they're talking about huh? /sarcasm
 
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cubsws2016

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Summary: Don't assume using higher than the recommended octane is best.
When talking about assuming, you probably shouldn't assume that others speaking haven't done their own research and checks.
I run a KTuner V2 in my civic and I've both seen and felt the difference in performance between 87 and 92. Also 92 is recommended...not 87. You know what's nice? Not seeing my knock control shoot to ridiculous numbers from .49 every time I need to give it some gas to move on the freeway. With 92 octane my knock control sits happily at .49 the entire time unless I decide to do something stupid like floor it in 6th gear from 2k. on 87 octane my knock control sits on average at .7-.8 . A measurable difference. Mileage is about the only thing that I noticed no difference outside of what I would consider understandable given it's near impossible to replicate the exact same driving experience in everyday driving. The gas here is pretty decent quality thankfully, and also pretty consistent. I was stating my personal opinion, so I don't understand why you had to come at me like you did but whatever floats your boat.

Professional tuners typically also state that higher octane gas needs to be used with their tunes to prevent detonation and increase performance. But I'm sure they don't know what they're talking about huh? /sarcasm[/QUOTE]
i agree with this. my current car is tuned for 93 octane fuel, use of any grade less will result in engine damage due to the advanced timing.
 

CivicXI

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So apparently premium fuel is a scam for cars like the civic.
It's not really a scam when Honda themselves say regular is fine and don't require premium. :)

But but hey whatever makes people feel better. I put my money where my mouth is and run both our Civic's to the computer specified OCI, no fancy oil, regular gas.
 


Gruber

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It's not really a scam when Honda themselves say regular is fine and don't require premium. :)

But but hey whatever makes people feel better. I put my money where my mouth is and run both our Civic's to the computer specified OCI, no fancy oil, regular gas.
I never bought anything else but regular 87 for my CR-V 2.4L, and so far nothing but 93 for my "premium recommended" Civic. If there was 91 available around here, that's what I would be using, because so it says in my manual. Surprisingly, even "car enthusiasts" are sometimes confused on this topic.
There is no chance an average nontechnical person would ever comprehend how engines can or can't utilize higher octane fuel - they just need to choose who to believe. Like with many other choices in life. Everyone born in a free market country should be used to advertising propaganda, so I don't feel sorry for the suckers. Coffee companies pay for coffee research proving that coffee is good for you, and oil companies are no different.
 

tacthecat

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Cute video that's way too long.
The take-a-way is that the ECU in the test vehicle can't adjust the timing upward to take advantage of increased octane and as a result the emissions are higher due to unburnt hydrocarbons.
As we've all been told, modern ECUs can drop timing to reduce/eliminate knock. Most ECUs however can't take advantage of higher/excessive octane by further advancing the timing until "just before knock".... (Like we do with a Model A/T or our non-ECU engines.)
 

bt8009

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I had a 2016 EX with the 2.0. Always paid the extra $ and ran non ethanol 87 in it. I like pure gas. I gave the EX to my daughter and got a 2018 Sport with the 1.5. My dilemma.... Do I run non-ethanol 87 or 91 that has ethanol?
 

CivicXI

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I had a 2016 EX with the 2.0. Always paid the extra $ and ran non ethanol 87 in it. I like pure gas. I gave the EX to my daughter and got a 2018 Sport with the 1.5. My dilemma.... Do I run non-ethanol 87 or 91 that has ethanol?
Your car was designed to run with either 87 or 91 up to 10% ethanol.

That's like asking do I drink Coke or Pepsi. Either one is good and in the long run, doesn't matter.
 

xcoreflyup

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91 only...the manual recommended it. So thats that.
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