What is the consequence of using 85 octane level gas in my 2007 Audi A4 3.2 Quattro?
Asked by PlanoYaYa Feb 01, 2014 at 05:34 PM about the 2007 Audi A4 3.2 quattro Sedan AWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I bought the car used. It has 80,000 miles on it. I have been using premium but a friend
says Ed Wallace says that it makes no difference whether I use regular or premium. I
don't want to damage my car and I know next to nothing about engine maintenance. I just
know to fill the tank when it gets low and change the oil and rotate the tires periodically.
5 Answers
well lets jsut put it this way. if you use regular gas in a high performance engine you will get less then half the use out of the gas plus could gum up the system with the poor quality gas. Its best to stay with the better quality gas and pay a little extra then to screw up the system on a very pricey to fix car. i generally use petro's ultra clean which is a 93 tes gas and my car loves me for it sure its like maybe 6 dollars more to fill the tank but its better then changeing the fueal filter and cleaning the sensors every month due to poor quality gas
I would definitely only use premium gas. When I first got my A4 and continued my old habit of putting in regular fuel, you could almost tell that the engine wasn't running as smoothly as it's supposed to. Once that fuel was flushed out and replaced with premium, she loved me once again! It does make a difference what fuel you put in.
You can use regular, but your performance and MPG will go down. I already did the math. the miles you lose in using lower octane mean you have to fill up sooner. You end up spending the same in the long run (not counting the additional carbon buildup) by using the low octane gas. So do yourself a favor and keep the octane to at least 91. :)
As with other answers you will get less MPG which wipes out the fuel cost saving as well as poorer performance from your engine. It pays to follow the manufacturers recommendations or you will pay on costly repairs. Your engine management system is also mapped for the higher octane and it will try and compensate for the lower octane fuel.
At a minimum, use the Octane recommended by the manufacturer of the vehicle. They spent millions of dollars in design and testing to come up with a recommendation that will provide long engine life, and good performance. Now who is smarter, the ones who spent millions doing the testing, or, the one who is going to make an expensive wrong guess, and then pay for it again and again.
