What to do if wife filled Boxster with 87 instead of Premium
 

So my wife borrowed the Boxster and accidently filled up with regular (87 octane) gas instead of the recommended Premium (91 oct). :nono:

What is the impact to the engine from this? (never mind impact to marriage -look for us on Dr Phil next week..)

Does it require emptying the tank before driving, or will the pinging just be a nuisance and no damage done? Car only for highway driving (mostly flat).

Lennart

Just drive it easy and add premium at each quarter tank. You could add a bottle or two of octane booster from PEP Boy or similar parts store. Just drive with an egg under her foot no passing gears. Engine should compensate with in reason.

I have been using 87 octane for 8 years. My car is still alive. I'm still alive, but may not go to Porsche heaven....

shouldnt hurt that bad. plus, seems to me these are set to compensate timing for whatever octane you put in there, so pinging shouldn`t be an issue . If you are really that worried, just add octane booster

You won't hurt anything as the car has a knock sensor and will just detune the engine while on the lower octane stuff.

Throw a can of Octane Boost in there - drive it 1/2 tank - fill with 91/93 and you will be good to go.

As long as you don't get too deep into the throttle - bet you won't even notice!

:)

Yeah, Porsches are made to run on crap (remember, not every country in the world has as nice of gasoline as "we" do), so it won't have any detrimental effect on your car. It wont' run at it's utmost best, but you'll probably never notice the difference. I'm not a fan of octane boosters or additives, I would just run the tank down as low as you can go and then be sure to refill it with premium gas.

Change wife. :icon501:

What is the impact to the engine from this?

In a word: none. As others have said, a very slight performance decrease because of the retarded timing due to the lower octaine. The only concern that I have with the lower octaine is that some companies skimp on their detergents in their lower octaine fuel. So if you use a low octaine fuel, make certain that it has the same detergents as the higher octaine fuel.

Just drive the car avoiding lugging the engine (too low a gear) and add premium at every opportunity as was suggesed. I would AVOID octane booster as a couple of people have had issues with their cats as a result.

I would throw out her laundry soap and go buy something in a white package with Black lettering , More generic the better, or better yet, do it to her face cream or hand lotion.

It'll never happen again.



JK,

Mike M
02 986S
AS.GG.GG

Lennart,

fess up.... we are amung friends here.... was it really your wife? :bigbye:

Just pulling yer leg.

Lennart, Take your wife to a really nice restaurant, and tell her how much you love her and that the two of you will pull through this thing together :) Next I would top-up with 91/92/93 octane when the tank reads 3/4 full. Back in the day when I was at the university, a friend of mine at MIT told me that the octane thingy is exponential, not linear, so that when you add 1/4 tank 92 octane to 3/4 tank of 87 octane, you end up with virtually a tank full of 92 octane gas! FWIW, this was field tested when I was a short-of-cash-and-credit student and borrowed my pop's Corvette - I used 3/1 ratio of 87/93 octane to replenish the gas I used and neither my pop nor I ever knew the difference. Happy motoring!

That sounds like an old wifes tale. Not saying it is not possible but at some point the additive the gas company uses to increase the octane rating has to have a break point. I dont think they would waste any chemicals if they could do exactly what your suggesting. Maybe some one in this field could be so kind as to comment on this. :confused:

Absolutely not true. What was your MIT friend smoking at the time? It is linear with pump gas and no other additives. You also can't mix gold and iron ore and end up with 100% gold, nor can you..... :burnout:

Darn, I hope my pop's not reading this. Bull, Are you absolutely sure about the gold and iron ore thingy?