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I'm a sucker for pain at the pump.
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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It's required to prevent detonation (fuel igniting in the cylinder before its supposed to due to pressure) which will damage your engine.
Maybe some cars can adjust their tune based on the octane level, but for those that can't it's definitely worth it.
mine specifically says not to use anything but 87. and also to stay away from ethanol-free fuels. so, yes, they can and do tune the engines for a specific fuel mixture.
My turbo K4 specifically says to use nothing but 87. I thought, how odd. Nope, they tuned the Smartstream 1.6T to run very conservatively stock to use 87, any other fuel is wasted.
It doesn't have another map for a higher octane, unlike Mazda which has some sort of black magic to push timing until it micro-knocks and then pulls back timing. Kinda cool.
Shame on Hyundai / Kia. JB4 time soon!
A knock sensor, if equipped, can help adjust timing. My car says premium recommended while my wife's says required. What sucks for us is premium has gone up faster than regular. It used to be about $.60-.80/gallon more, but anymore, it's $1-1.20 extra, making it not very worth the few mpgs and HP gains I get. My wife's turbo car and tune requires it. '_(ツ)_/'