Hi Everyone,

Yesterday I went to a Shell gas station to fill up my 997. I live in Oregon so the only option is full service. I asked the attendant for a full tank of "Premium" gasoline (92 Octane). Once the pump started and was running for a while I decided to check to make sure I was getting the right octane gasoline. To my surprise, "Regular Plus" (89 Octane) was being pumped into my car -- I got out of my car and stopped the pump and asked the attendant why he did not put "Premium" into the car and he told me that "Premium" = "Regular Plus" and 92 octane should be referred to as "V-Power." I did not feel like debating with him but guess in the future I will ask for fuel by stating the octane I want. Anyway, there were about 5 gallons of 89 octane pumped into my car and I then had around 6 gallons of 92 octane pumped into to car to fill up the tank.

Will the 89 octane fuel that is in my car or the mixing with 92 octane cause problems or do you think I'll be okay? Thanks for your help.

 

The owners manual states that the car can run, if necessary, on lower octane gas. It automatically adjusts vavle timing etc to compensate and avoid detonation. Anyway you have an average of about 91 octane in there. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

 

Yeah, boolala is right. Don't worry about it. That attendant is an idiot though. You should have shove some V power up his bottom hilarious

 

If you were in Southern California you'd only be getting 91 octane anyway. It won't hurt your car.

However, the Oregon law that won't allow you to pump your own gas...that's government's "good intentions gone bad" at work.

 

Thanks for all your responses and advice, very helpful. Oregon is the only place I've lived where full service is mandatory, some places have a choice between full or self serve.

 

Actually I believe the knock sensors that monitor each cylinder will retard the timing and prevent any damage to the engine. The downside is reduced power and fuel economy.

 

New Jersey is another state that prohibits pumping your own gas. I think these are the only two states that prohibit pumping your own gas.

 

I have never heard of any laws requiring attendants to pump gas. Wow, has it really come to this?

 

I don't think I could live with that rule. One of the most common problems that you get with an attendant filling your gas is that they will drip gasoline on your paint. The gas eats away your paint, especially if its a sunny summer day. I had a BMW 2002 with a white area underneath the gas flap on the back fender because of inept filling station attendants.

Can you get an exemption from the rule somehow? (go to filling attendant school and get certified?)

 

Every day there's at least one more reason I need to leave the U.S.A.

 

It's definitely a pain. The most common problem I have encountered (outside of having the wrong grade of gas pumped into my car) is on cars that have a "string" connecting the gas cap to the car along with a holder for the cap. 99% of the time, the attendant will not put the cap into the holder and drop it against the paint. This happened a lot on our G35. I think on the 997 it would hit the wheel, but anyway, I cut the strings from the cars so the caps have to be put up instead of dropped against the car. Just have to be careful and make sure the attendant puts the cap back on the car after filling. Sometimes I think I should just take the time to drive up to Washington State (10 miles away) and fill up there as it is self serve, but that would probably be overdoing things.

 

u'll be fine but make sure next time do it urself or give the guy few bucks tip to stay away from the car. i wouldn't trust anyone but myself for the refuel action LOL!

 

Interesting reading about your problems gentlemen.. In Sweden there is no such thing as an attendant taking care of the filling.
That's part of the value we get for paying 6$/gallon ;-)

 

My understanding is that the knocks sensors and so on detect lower octane fuel and adjust the settings accordingly - in effect "de-tuning" the engine. The engine will run perfectly well but you will have a loss in power.
A couple of magazines over here have run tests to see if the higher octane"premium" fuels give increased horsepower and torque than standard fuels and the results show that they do.
I run my 997S on Shell Optimax which is 98 octane whereas standard unleaded in the UK is 95 octane.

What I don't understand is how US spec cars which have to run on 92 octane fuel give the same power rating as European spec cars which are running on 98 octane ...........

 

The NJ law irritates me to no end. By nature, I am extremely impatient and I hate waiting for an attendant to wander over to my car. A service station owner once told me that NJ has an old insurance regulation on the books that prevents self-service.