Hello folks, I know our cats are supposed to be running on premium fuel but what will happen if you run on regular unleaded fuel? Am asking bcos am sure by now most you know that am the proud owner of an xtype in my country Ghana and also on this forum where premium fuel is not always available. Sometimes am tempted to run on regular XP which to be honest I don't know what that means. Yesterday I coudnt find shell v-power nor total premium effimax and I want to know from our discerning members what will happen apart from the rattling sound one hears once in a while. Will running on regular affect the 02 sensors or the catalytic convertors? I currently don't have any lights on the dash and I don't want to drive the car with check engine light on the dash. What do u suggest or recommend I do to prevent this? Thank you all

 

baffourg, from an O2 sensor or catalytic converter point of view, running either high octane (premium) or low octane (regular) is not going to affect these components. Running either type of gas is going to be just fine. But, the real question is whether the timing for the engine can handle it. Some members have been using regular in their cars for years with no issues, others have tried it and switched right back. Going to a lower grade gas in our X-Types should be fine provided you drive accordingly. what you will probably experience is a slight loss in power from the engine (timing has to be retarded to prevent pinging which will cause less power to be extracted from the gas). There is a sensor (knock sensor) that adjusts the timing accordingly to minimize the knocking. So, if you are not accelerating hard, the motor will be able to adjust to the lower grade (octane) gas. Unfortunately, you may experience some knocking when doing hard accelerations.

Here in the US, we tend to have 3 grades of gasoline; Regular (87 octane), Plus (91), and Premium (93). You may want to try say the Plus (if available) and see how the car runs with that. It is a step down and the differences should be minimal. But, it may give you an idea of what you can look forward to if you step down to regular. I would also say to run the car down fairly low wen you have the tank filled with premium, then put in say half a tank of regular. See how the car drives. If it really doesn't like it, then you can fill the tank up with premium to get an overall higher octane level inside the car.

All I can say is to give it a try and to listen to your car. It will tell you if you can or cannot run regular.

 

Thanks thermo, I have noticed a drop in the power when I added regular to the almost empty tank containing v-power. I don't do hard acceleration but sometimes one need to do a quick overtaking and this is where the cat will not respond. Is it ok to put the sport button on in this case or it will make it worse. Infact I hardly get regular XP which I think is the PLUS you are talking about. This is my nightmare but I will try your suggestion and see how it takes it.

 

How about the fuel consumption? Will it go down? Currently I do mainly city driving and almost always I stay in traffic for long and average 17MPG. I don't rely on the computer so I do my manual calculation based on how many gallons I put in and the distance am able to cover.

 

I kept track for a while, running 92 octane, then 89, then regular with 87. No difference, no knock sensor no nothing. I run mid grade now because I did notice a minor decrease in power and it tended to hesitate a bit on 87.

 

Howdy,
Thats a strange set of numbers for RON ?
Here in OZ we have; 93, 95 and 98 respectively.

 

For the couple of $$ more per tank I'll go with what the manufacter recommends. Jack