Beat me to it...

 

I would rather save money by taking the bus or biking to work than put 87 octane in my car.

 

Not, 93, but 94 instead at Sunol Super Stop has 87, 91, 94, 96, 98, 100, E85, & Diesel all at the pumps.

While I haven't been there in a while, I used to fill up there when 94 was less than $1.00 (closer to like $0.50/more per gallon than 91). However, the last pricing I saw for it basically was over $2.00 more per gallon compared to 91. At that price it just isn't worth it.

California and all of the surrounding states that switched down from 93/94 to the current 91 octane should really ditch this garbage fuel and just give Premium owners back the 93 octane. That should be the country wide minimum for Premium grade fuel. I'm sure it won't ever happen, but it's b.s. that California gets a lower grade of fuel and has to pay more for it.

C.A.R.B. is a freakin' joke. Run the higher octane fuels that burn more efficiently, get better gas mileage and pollute less rather than mandating watered-down fuel that has to be compensated for and pollutes.

 

Carb and BAR makes a lot of sense.
If I have a polluting smog making CO emitting 94 civic with a **** D series and I want to put a new cleaner less smog producing more efficient engine from a different car its illegal because it wont pass smog inspection......o.0
makes more sense for BAR to make me put back the old polluting engine as its better for the environment you know?
makes all the sense in the world.
CA is such a ****ed up state I dont even know where to start.
Gettting the **** out this dump as soon as I close on a house in Texas

 

dont worry I found that pic for you. good price for a gallon of currants

 

The ECU compensates because it detects detonation in the 1st place. And it will keep attempting to advance timing again until detonation ceases. If you keep running 87, that means it will just keep detonating even after the ECU tries to compensate. It's not the ECU adapting for lower quality fuel, it's the ECU trying to save the engine.

 

Isn't that octane in EU and Japan measured differently? Either RON or MON only, not the average like we get here of the two? 95 about same as our 89-90? Off to the google...

 

derp

 

Yes, so EU and AUS 98 is, give or take our 93 here.

 

Yes it's measured differently, but CA fuel is known to be absolute crap. I remember when I moved here and the fuel smelled like that which you would find in a small gas can that you left in the woodshed for a year - like stale fuel. It would be fascinating to see how the cars run on different fuels. Historically speaking, any car I have owned has performed better and gotten better mileage after running around a tank of out-of-state (not AZ or NV) fuel. It's been a while for a road trip but gassing up in OR and WA made the car run so much better even though the numbers on the pump were the same.

That's probably right. It would still be interesting if there were a way to measure and compare or find a basis for comparison. You always hear of EU cars coming here and needing to be tuned to run on the crappier fuel which is mildly confusing if the octane ratings are supposed to be more or less the same.

When I got my WRX, it had come from CT with a full Vishnu "back to the future" kit, VF23, XEDE and all. It was tuned to run on 93 and would just about not run at all on CA 91. It would sound fine with half a tank of 91 and half a tank of 100. It had been driven like this in CT for almost 10 years but a full tank of CA 91 and a gentle roll on the throttle would produce audible detonation and a bad feeling in the tummy.

 

You mean it is retarding timing? Advancing would cause more detonation.

 

No, I typed it right. The initial response of the ECU will be to retard timing. However it will try to advance timing again and it will keep going into a detonation-retard-advance-detonation cycle until the detonation ceases to happen. The problem is that it won't as long as you're running 87 and driving in boost.

 

Same happened when I moved to Cali from Illinois. Switching over onto 91 after 2.5 years of 93 octane...was depressing experience. Oh well.

 

Makes sense.