Anyone having to use premium when not called for?

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Originally Posted By: skyactiv
From what I've read, it's a common problem with Hyundai/Kia products. Something about some Hyundai/Kia vehicles want a battery that puts out higher voltage well before a typical auto battery is deemed bad by load testing it. The battery can start the car and test okay, but if the voltage is who knows, 13.1 instead of 13.3 or higher, it can cause the pinging. It doesn't make sense, I know. Some have also stated disconnecting the battery has done the trick. I would disconnect the battery overnight and try that since it's free.
If neither of those fix the problem, I'd take it to the dealer.


WOW! Thank you for that information. I have a 2011 Hyundai accent that likes to ping. Using premium helps a lot and also changing spark plugs yearly helps. My next step was to try new coils as I have heard that is an issue but I still have the original battery made in 2010 so I will give that I try.
 
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Yup, BMW 320i in my sig calls for mid-grade (i.e. 95RON) petrol but gets a steady diet of 98RON (BP Ultimate) to help with pinging. Two new knock sensors, which helped for a time, but gradually worsened again, might have to double-check that they're secured properly and do a ECU reset... Also bear in mind the 2L six in this engine is actually the highest compression of any E36, bar the M-series engines, so they're likely more susceptible in the first place. Another potential contributor is oil in the intake manifold from the crude PCV system on these vehicles.

I notice a significant number of late-model vehicles clattering away (pinging) these days, I've a theory that it somehow relates to the refining processes or additives in the fuel. No reas
 
Originally Posted By: newbe46
How can one tell the engine is pinging? What are the symptoms?
Sounds like pennies in a can ticking or popcorn popping while accelerating.

My Sonata does this on 87 octane.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: newbe46
How can one tell the engine is pinging? What are the symptoms?
Sounds like pennies in a can ticking or popcorn popping while accelerating.

My Sonata does this on 87 octane.


I must say I don't think I have ever driven a vehicle with a pinging engine.
 
I had a Chevy as a long term rental years ago while my CRX was being repaired after a near-Tboning on a 75 access road in Dallas.
Thing made a weird noise whenever I accelerated and a coworker told me that was knock.
Just for the sake of my own curiousity, I filled it up with premium (91?) a few days before I returned it and the funny sounds went away.
Didn't cost me much because gas was only about $1 a gallon down there at that time...
 
Since the engine in my Fusion has VCT, I don't HAVE to use premium, but I DID notice one time that I did use premium that my Torque Pro showed the timing advanced a bit farther than I'm normally used to seeing.
 
I do the opposite in my wife's BMW, I often run 87 in it, even though it calls for 91. Gas is ridiculously expensive here this year, and my wife doesn't drive her BMW hard so we're noticing no ill effects at all from running the lower octane. I suppose we might lose 20hp at full throttle, but this car never sees full throttle.
 
If your engine is not burning oil, I would try to use this Berryman Combustion chamber cleaner Berryman.
You may follow with Redline SI-1 on high dosage after the Berryman treatment.

This probably one of the most effective way without doing top overhaul, however if you want to keep the car for long time, top overhaul may fix your problem in more permanent way.

Now I run premium RON 98 on My Crosstrek (that require regular gas) due to high compression 12.5:1.
 
Yes. Manual says 87 is fine, but that premium can be used for better performance. Indeed, using 93 from Shell allows it to wind up a little nicer.
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. One fuel cost average calculation I ran put me at about an extra $350 a year to burn premium in every tank. So it's not nothing, and I doubt MPG savings will pay for all that. I do like how it runs though. Kinda like why I'm more likely to spend $150 per tire vs $84 per tire. The differences in ride quality, handling, and traction far outweigh the money spent every 3-4 years. YMMV
 
When-ever the price of 93 octane top-tier falls below $3.29, I'll buy it. That's my ceiling price and my vehicles run without issues on 87 octane

Both vehicles, especially my Colorado 3.5, idles and runs smoother - has more pep and gains 1-2 MPG, on 93 octane.
Mostly use Mobil / Exxon. Once in a while I'll buy BP or Shell. That's it.... no other brands of fuel. I wanted to get a Sunoco credit card, but their prices for 91 (where available) and 93 octane are too high.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one having this issue.

As for the car being carboned up, it's possible, but to be honest, it sees enough high-speed driving and hard acceleration that I can't see that being the case.

I might start using some more FI cleaner to see if it helps - I usually just buy it when our house brand PEA stuff goes on sale 50% off 3-4 times a year.

A water de-carb did wonders years ago on my Cavalier, I should take the time to do that before winter.
 
Last year and into this year I had pinging in the 05 Matrix esp when letting up on the gas around the 40 mph mark. It went away with the switch over to cleaner summer gas which lasts until 9/15 around here. Per a sticker on the gas pump at Getgo. So I will fill up again before that date.

Filling up with premium seemed to help.
 
A lot of "experts" will say that there's no reason to run anything other than regular in an MG. On a stock post-72 engine with an 8.0:1 C/R, I'd tend to agree with that. Even stock factory high compression engines were 8.8:1, which should still be doable on regular.

I bumped my C/R up to 9.5:1(using the right combination of early and late parts it's possible to do this pretty much off the shelf). The guy who advised on it said that when he builds an engine with this particular "formula"(using that particular C/R) he advises mid-grade gas.

With that said, I've found that I can do even better running a bit more timing advance than is usually suggested. The usual suggestion is 32º full mechanical advance(vacuum disconnected, and that 32º figure is base+mechanical and usually measured somewhere around 3K rpms). My car responds very favorably to upping that to around 35º full advance-it gives me a smoother idle and better acceleration. On mid grade, though, it will ping pretty badly going uphill with that much advance. I rarely fill up more than once a month or so, and the tank holds ~12 gallons. Even at a 50¢ markup on premium, the extra $6 a month for a car that's more fun to drive is worth it to me-it's not like it's exactly a powerhouse anyway, so every little bit helps.

Of course, that's a bit of a different situation. I could certainly make it run and drive without pinging dangerously on regular, but it would involve retarding the timing too much for my liking and also probably running it rich(to keep cylinder temperatures down). From experience, I'd lose low end torque and the gas mileage would be terrible. Again, from past experience, I'd also have to deal with dieseling, something I don't have to worry about now. Consequently, it gets midgrade at a minimum, and I don't even remember when I last put that in.

The MKZ is another story. I've tried running it on premium for a few tanks, and didn't notice a difference in my "butt dyno" or in fuel economy. When I've looked at OBDII data that I collected and saved in real time, I didn't see that it was changing the timing relative to regular, nor did anything else really change "behind the scenes." That puts me firmly in the camp of thinking that I really was just tossing money out the tailpipe with anything other than regular. What IS interesting to me is to watch how it responds to E85-the fuel system is the same as on a Flex Fuel Fusion of the same year, so it won't DAMAGE anything. Apparently, though, the timing/fuel map isn't present as even a small amount of E85(25% in a tank of regular) will cause it to go incredibly lean and throw a code. The two times I've experimented with it, I'd need to manually reset the code even after running it most of the way down, filling up with regular, and watching the A/F ratio return to normal(and, yes, on one occasion I did give it a couple of tanks and quite a few driving cycles to clear on its own before I manually cleared it).

I do love that a cheap OBD-II dongle lets us find out more than we ever could have known otherwise about our cars. I actually have an A/F meter for my MG sitting in a box, but I can't weld and consequently have yet to have a sensor bung fitted to the exhaust pipe(the shops I've talked to around here will charge me a LOT less if I bring them a pipe with the position marked vs. bringing in the whole car, and I've been too lazy to pull it).
 
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