can using cheap gas hurt my car?

Discussion in 'General' started by weedzilla420, Apr 11, 2006.

  1. sup bladez,

    i have a mitsubishi eclipse gt and it's says on the gas tank to use premium unleaded but i never buy the premium gas, i always get the 87.

    do i really need to use the expensive gas or does it even matter?
     
  2. No it should be fine my car is a 93 Nissan 240sx and it says to use 91 octane but I buy 87 octane and it works perfectly.
     
  3. Is yours turbo?
     
  4. No, it should not be a problem. If you do start to hear detonation, pinging sounds from the engine cylinders, than you have a problem. If you want to be completely safe, unplug the ecu fuse for 30 seconds and plug it back in, go fill up with 87 octane. Your ecu will close the fuel loop and tune in the new octane level. You can also join a mitsu owners forum which I highly recommend. I drive a Lexus es300 and joined a lexus forum, I now do all my own maintnence
     
  5. Techinally you are hurting your car, basically you are not getting the maximum preformance from your car. You most likely will never notice and will eventually sell this car and it will never matter.
     
  6. There isn't really any issue with doing it.

    However, your car is designed to use premium and therefor runs the best on it. Technically, you should get better milage for your money from premium than regular even though you spend more.
     
  7. another thing i've noticed,

    when i'm excellerating rapidly, i've noticed that along w/the growl of the engine, it also makes this high pitched sound (sort of like that of a commercial plane that is taking off).

    what could this be?
     
  8. i'm not sure what the high pitched sound is, but i think it would be wise to fill up a tank of premium gas every so often, and to floor it occasionally too. My friend said that if ya don't occasionally floor the motor, carbon will build up in the pistons... which is cool b/c it justifies me opening up every where i go :D
     
  9. just reset your ECU so it re adjusts the timing or else your going to have misfireing and it can fuck your car up
     
  10. what is the ecu and how do you reset it?
     
  11. um im not really sure but you could unplug the battery for a couple minutes, though you will lose your programed radio stations
     
  12. How can you give advice if you dont even know what your talkin about?:confused_2:
     
  13. Weedzilla, dude, everyting you need to do is in my post above. It will not hurt your car if you reset your ecu, that opens and closes the fuel loop and will re-tune itself. Also, you don't have to floor your car every once in a while. Excessive carbon buildup from idling is primarily a problem with boat engines, as they are under constant power load.

    Now, onto the noise. Did it start after you started using diff. gas, or has it always done it.? And, if possible, can you determine where the noise is coming from? Right or left side. Let me know

    Trust me, I've been working on cars since I was 12.
     
  14. About the flooring.. Whenever I hear people talking about it, seems to me more like.. for instance, if you dont use your e-brake that often, or ever, it sometimes has problems later on not working etc, just like most parts if you dont use 'em right it's not gonna work. If some grandma bought a Twin-Turbo, and never went over 35 mph, i'm sure somethin would start to.. diminish. I dont know what im talking about actually.
     
  15. Well the thing is with car engines is that even if your moving at 10 mph, every moving, rotating, pumping, computing part of your car is moving as far as it would at 190mph.

    In other words, speed doesn't change how much something moves or is used, it changes how fast it moves. Take a piston for example, you start the car and the piston goes to TDC(top dead center) to BDC(bottom dead center) somewhere in the range of 400-600 rpms. By accelerating rapidly, or flooring it, there is no part of the piston that isn't being used at lower rpms.

    As for carbon buildup, it's gonna happen no matter what you do, thats why it is important to flush your engine every few years. Although the only part that you need to change on a constant basis are spark plugs, where carbon buildup is the most prevalent.
     
  16. If you have a turbo, the whining sound when you accelerate it probably the turbo. Then again, I know jack shit about cars, but my roommate has a turbo Beetle and when I asked why his car was whining he said it was the turbo.
     
  17. Makes perfect sense. I also recall them saying it happened to rotary engines, any idea about that? I bring it up because my brothers got an RX-7 and he's always telling me shit.
     
  18. come again?

    i'm not doubting your knowledge of cars or anything but i think you may be a bit off here.

    the law of rotational mass

    its the reason cars have a red line



    sorry for the off topic...

    good advice has been given already. retard your timing a few degrees and you should be good. Its easy on most cars. Spend a couple minutes on a mitsubishi forum and get the instructions to put her in "timing mode" and drop a few bucks for a timing light at track auto or other car place.
     
  19. How do you "flush" an engine?
     
  20. I dont think he meant the parts move at the same speed no matter what speed your going but correcting me by saying ALL parts in the car are moving no matter the speed.
     

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