Wintertime premium gas?

AFIK, every Prius owners manual states use 87 Octane only.
To do otherwise is wasting money!
Maybe it's just me!

BTW we are waiting on the "Summer Blend", gas here in L.A.
I drove by my Shell station, today 87 Regular was $4.199!
I am at 3 pips now and will have the recall work done on steering and ECU pump done Friday.
I may give it to them with 1 pip
Shell is 2 blocks away!

 

Ethanol is considered safe additive, the only downside being slight loss in MPG (which of course Prius drivers hate that, but there is no harm to the car). All octane grades of gasoline can be made with or without ethanol, but many of us are forced to use 10% ethanol which is mandated by EPA in most urban and suburban areas. I have never had a problem with accidental fills of Premium in the Prius, but some references say Premium could cause problems starting engine. Midgrade should be fine. Regular is recommended. Most of us feel Regular is best and if 0% ethanol is available it's OK, but if you are paying more than about 10 cents a gallon extra for the 0% ethanol, you are not saving money. There is a webpage that gives 0% ethanol availability. Most of us would not use Premium even if it had 0% ethanol, as the extra $$ would not be worth it.

 

In Canada, in my area anyway, Chevron has stickers on all their pumps saying "may contain up to 10% ethanol". Except their highest grade, which says "does not contain ethanol". I'm likely paraphrasing a bit, but that's gist of it.

I'd love to try some ethanol free, but just seems a bit much to have to purchase uselessly high octane gas to get it. Maybe I will some time just to see if it does anything for mileage, performance, whatever.

 

We can get "regular" petrol (gas) here with or without 10% ethanol (though E10 is the most commonly available).

I get better fuel economy with the non ethanol variety, but the difference is only marginal. It varies a bit from time to time and where I fill up, but generally only about 2 to 4 percent difference. So yeah, if you've got to pay more than about 4 or 5 percent extra for the non ethanol gas then it may not be worthwhile.

 

I've been using mid-grade for the past 5-6 fill ups because I noticed the engine pinging under heavy load. No problems with it. Runs super quiet now. Anyone else experience the pinging?

 

During the summer, I have noticed some pinging on my 06 w/regular CA gas and usually end up running midgrade or premium, which definitely helps.

In the winter, I definitely have no probs w/pinging on regular, likely due to the colder weather.

 

Ethanol has less energy per unit than gasoline so it gets you slightly less fuel economy. If price were the same, obviously, go for non ethanol. Ethanol also has detrimental effects on some engine components at high enough concentrations. The EPA says 10% E10 is safe for use in all cars.

Prius is designed to run on 87 octane gas. If you put premium in, you don't get any benefits except better fuel economy vs regular E10 gas. Is the extra fuel economy worth the 20 cent price per gallon premium? Theoretically, no. You can always do a test trial, though.

 

Thanks! Next tank I'll try going back. It was warmer when I switched to 89.

 

I've heard engines with higher miles can be more ping-prone because of carbon build-up in the cylinder head. This carbon does a couple of things: increases compression ratio (the carbon occupies part of the former air volume) and provides hot spots that might pre-ignite portions of the gas-air mix.

 

Ethanol is one of those things that get worse over time sitting in your gas tank unused. It will separate and attract and hold moisture. However, with the tank bladder, this should be a non-issue. Mpg do take a slight hit, but I find in the Prius it is not that substantial. Other vehicles with a conventional fuel tank run a higher probability of moisture related issues w/ ethanol. Condensation in the tank from teamperature changes (warm to cold), humidity in the air can add to the moisture build up. Fuel conditioner is recommended.

Just my .02 cents,

DBCassidy

 

So I got the recalls done, going back Monday because steering wheel is no longer straight, I even pointed this out,.Grrrr
When I did fill up gas had gone up a dime to $4.299, big GRRRRR!

 

A word of caution when using additives. Prius manual says not to use methanal, and some additives have methanol.
Some if not most also use ethanol to absorb moisture, but this would presumably put you above the 10% mix. For more information go here: Review of Gas Treatment & Fuel Additive Products - Alcohol Content

Toodles

 

Premium isn't the best gas for any vehicle unless the engine was designed to run on it, performance and mileage will suffer.

 

While I totally agree that Premium (Super) Unleaded Fuel isn't the best gas for the Prius, is there any truth that running a tankful won't harm the engine (apart from reduced MPG and performance), but will definitely clean out the injectors? I'm talking about trying a tankful of Shell Nitro+ V-Power. I ran this fuel and it's previous incarnations in my old Mazda MX-3 1.6i DOHC for the 8.5 years that I owned it - largely because that car didn't like regular gas - and it ran silky smooth on Premium. It also had excellent cleaning additives that kept my engine clean. I don't want to run my Prius T Spirit on expensive premium gas anyway, but would one tank of high octane fuel cause it harm in anyway?

 

There lies the problem with ethanol it is a water magnet. Given a little time that water/ethanol/ gaso mix turns into a corrosive mix witch can raise havoc in injectors, fuel pumps and carbs.

Seen and repaired/ replaced many of the above due to this corrosion.

DBCassidy

 

According to one Prius maintenance book I have, it says Premium could cause hard staring problems. But mostly I expect you can run premium with no issues. We don't have too many folks here using premium for clean out because our regular has additives too. Not sure about London.

 

Thank you WJTracy, in that case I won't. Our regular fuels over here in London / UK also have cleaning additives - of Shell's Regular, of that I am pretty certain. I'll just stick with regular petrol over here

 

YES, but the best is still to cut-off the head of a 5 month virgin chicken and spread the blood on the back seat, not only it will clean the injectors, but it will clean water pump !

 

Here in N.J. I haven't seen prices below $3.00 for a long long time. Prices had been falling and suddenly about a week or so ago they started going back up in a big way. I found a station selling for $2.97 and filled up! That same station is now selling for $3.15.