Does putting reg. unleaded or unleaded plus make a difference?

Question

Does plus last longer?

Answer 1

Unless your car has a high compression engine, it won't make a difference.

You don't state the make and model of your vehicle, so it's hard to give you an appropriate answer.

The difference between plus and regular is the octane number. The octane number is a number that describes the resistance to what is known as pre-ignition and has nothing to do with gasoline lasting longer.

Answer 2

Some cars will work better on plus grade. I had one car that regularly stalled out - sometimes two or three times a day - because I bought the cheap (87 octane) gas. Brand didn't matter, it always stalled on 87. Someone suggested going to plus grade (89 octane) and see what the difference was. Immediately there was an improvement to where the car stalling dropped from two or three times a day to maybe once or twice a month, maybe not even that often. A serious improvement and worth the extra 10c a gallon (then) in terms of reduced aggravation. Then I got the idea that if plus helped this much, would premium help more? So, I even tried a tank of premium (91 octane) and I got worse performance than on the cheap stuff!

I don't know if I got better gas mileage or anything else but in my case it did help. Later a friend did an adjustment on the engine - I think he fixed the carburator - and it seemed to work okay on regular, but I only had the car for a week after that before someone rear-ended me and the insurance company declared it totalled. But for the two or three years I ran it on plus grade I never had the stalling problem again.

My suggestion: if you aren't sure, try one tank. If you don't immediately notice either better mileage or better performance, switch back to the cheap stuff and save your money.

Answer 3

Let's get this straight. The higher octane rating means less prone to detonation. The way that is accomplished is to SLOW DOWN THE BURN SPEED for high compression engines. If your car does not require higher octane you WILL LOSE fuel efficiency and there for use MORE fuel and have LESS horsepower. If you need premium and have a knock detector the engine will run on the lower priced fuel, but produce less horsepower as the computer RETARDS the timing to prevent damaging detonation, but unless you need higher octane, it WILL NOT turn up the timing. Now, you could do this on some engines..most not today due to electronic control and take some advantage of the higher octane, but then you MUST always use the higher octane.
Good Luck

Answer 4

Unleaded Plus gasoline has a higher octane rating, and theoretically will burn longer than the lower octane rated fuels. This does not necessarily mean that your car will get better gas mileage, although the performance/responsiveness of your car should show a noticeable difference and typically it will provide a better average MPG.

Answer 5

Not unless the car's manual recommends plus over regular. Putting plus doesn't make a difference in a car that only requires regular.

Answer 6

You car is designed to run on a certain octain of gasoline, you can find out what octain this is by consulting a service manuel or contacting the dealer. That said, If your car runs on the cheap stuff and does not ping or run-on, then run the cheap stuff. Running an octain higher than the car was designed will not hurt it but it also does no good either.

Answer 7

It makes no difference unless your car's engine requires it. Consult your owner's manual to find out if you need plus or premium. Otherwise, regular works just fine.