Do I Really Need Premium Gasoline?

If you have a car that requires premium gas, use it if you are worried about voiding your warranty. It will give you the maximum efficiency for your engine and gas mileage. However, gas is expensive and many cars designed for premium can run problem free on regular or mid-grade gas. If you want to know if your car is okay to run on regular, put regular gas in it. If you hear a knocking or pinging noise (probably when you are lightly accelerating) your car needs premium or mid-grade gas. If you hear this noise and you continue to use regular gas, you could damage your engine. If you hear a knocking or pinging, you may be able to get away with using mid-grade. Put mid-grade in your car and if you hear that knocking or pinging, you need to use premium gas. If you do not hear the knocking or pinging, use what you have in your engine (regular or mid-grade) and save some money!

If you have an engine that requires regular gasoline, it’s pointless to use premium. Your engine isn’t built for it. Some people think that if they put premium gasoline in an engine built for regular gasoline, the higher detergent levels will help keep their engine cleaner. While premium does have higher detergent levels, it isn’t going to make that big of a difference. These days all gasoline contains more than enough detergents to keep your engine clean. If your worried about keeping your engine clean, you would be much better off buying a can of fuel injection cleaner and putting that in your engine. You can have this done when you get your oil changed, but they are going to charge you $20 – $40. You can purchase a can for $4 to $5 at your local auto parts store or even a department store like K-mart or Walmart, and easily put it in yourself. Adding the fuel injector cleaner when you get your oil changed, or around that time, should be good.