Gas Type

[Aiden]

Ok, I searched the boards and could not find an answer.

With gas going up in price I was talking with a fellow bimmer owner and he said he has always used regular 87-89 unleaded in his vehicle. I told him I did not think that was the best or even something he should do...but he swears by it. I have a 1996 328i sedan with about 125k on it. I am curious as to whether it is "ok" to put regular into it? I know some of the BMWS are ok to run on regular and others are not, is mine one of them?

Any thoughts or direction as to a guide online that would give the official "yea" or "nay" to the idea of using regular?

 

[frolf]

well the manual says 91 octane, not 87. NOT 87!!!#@!# But since our cars weren't made in 1902, we can run MID GRADE.... NOT 87 and be fine. though you will most likely notice a performance loss of 10-20% (just a guess, on new new cars thats what it is like)

also, if they check engline light comes on, that means your car did not like the gas.

 

[mjbst111]

my manual say use what ever you want, the computer will compensate but recommends against it. Says to use 91 or better. Continuously running cheaper gas will work but it is best to use the recommended as it burns better and cleaner, gives you more power and gas mileage etc.

use what you want but as in all things... you get what you pay for. sometimes you don't want to go cheap. This i think is one of those times.

 

[f1racer77]

89 will work just fine, and 87 will also work too. I'd go with the 89, but i do know of many BMWs running fine on 87. I've put 89 in my car and only noticed a 2hp loss measured with a Gtech RR performance meter.

 

[andreyiv]

My mom used to put 93 in her corolla (don't know why) but lately she tried 87 and she got 1.5 the gas milage, now she only uses 87. I say, use whats recomended. Personally, I never went below 93 just because nowadays you have no clue what they have in those tanks and by getting 93, I might only be getting 91 and so on. Might try 91 just to see what happends.

 

[Bmw 325i 7803]

Putting 87 into that engine is downright negligent.... especially with 125k.. If you don't care about the engine then go ahead and save a few pennies.

 

[Joe_31]

The manual for my car says use regular 87. I use 89 for now but if the gas price goes to much higher then I'm switching!

 

[Bmw 325i 7803]

That's interesting, if BMW's I6's used regular 87 back in 1997 then what did they need 93 for anyway??? Ferraris?

 

[mjbst111]

??? i have a 1997 328i and my manual definitely say 91 or better is recommended as i stated in my post above.

someone must have stolen your engine... at least they were nice enough to leave you with the manual for the replacement.

 

[Chesty Bonds]

We use 98RON over here in BMW engines.

My manual for my E30 318is says to use 95 or better so I just chuck 98 in it. Works very well.

 

[nadroj]

We use 98RON over here in BMW engines.

My manual for my E30 318is says to use 95 or better so I just chuck 98 in it. Works very well.

wtf 95 98????

 

[Chesty Bonds]

Yeah that's what we can get in Aussie. The lowest grade fuel we get is 91, then 95, and finally 98. It's good shit!

My owners manual specifically says to use 95 or above. I'm sure they alter the requirements depending on which country the cars are delivered to.

 

[andreyiv]

Actually, Aussie gets different rating system for gas so its not the same as US ocatane, a little different, 93 I think is somewhere around 99 or so.

 

[fritchy]

My 98 328i manual says a minimum of 87 grade, just that you will lose some performance and get actually worse gas mileage. I personally put in the highest grade simply because it is cleaner, more power, and will get me better gas mileage which will pay for itself anyway.

It is funny. When I was 16 and started driving gas was only around .90/gallon. Now it is $2.90/gallon. But even back then premium was 20 cents more per gallon. So premium gas is even cheaper now in comparison to regular. Another words in 1992 premium gas was over 22% more than regular. Now it is only 6.9% more than regular. So percentage wise premium gas is a lot lot lot less now than it ever has been. So for 6.8% more in price I'll get the premium.