I fucked up. Should I be worried?
 

Hey folks, 2nd thread I'm posting today (other one pertains to winter storage)...

To make a long story short, I had 2000Km/1200miles worth of fun with the car before I read the manual front-to-back. This was a mistake. I didn't do anything wrong except, I had 87 fuel in the tank instead of 91. The manual recommends 91 as an absolute minimum (it's the highest I can get where I live unfortunately :brokenheart:).

Not that it makes the situation any better, but the clueless dealer told me any fuel type was fine. :bonk:

Anyway, 1200 miles with the wrong fuel, did I ruin my engine or what? Should I be worried?

I ran on 87 fuel till around 9k miles and then I switched to 93. I haven't had any problems yet and I'm on 13k miles now.

you should try to find a lower octane. that is way too high for our car.

OMG you car will explode now!!! haha.




I am sure it would be fine. modern cars can adjust the tune for bad gas. It will just not run as nice as it could but so long as it wasnt making any knocking sounds you should be fine.

The ECU will protect the engine. No problem. You were just lacking power and fuel efficiency.

Your mileage is probably terrible.

Damage is done, just move on. I won't stress over it.

No harm no foul. You will however really enjoy the increase in power and mileage that you will now get.

Knock sensor will retard the timing and lost some power to protect the engine, no harm done. Or you can always sdd octane booster into the fuel

You've likely done irreparable damage to the engine and the entire fuel system. The car is only good for parts now. I'll give you $3000 for it.

Just kidding... unless you wanna sell it for $3000 just 'cause I'm a GREAT guy. You're fine.. no worries.. enjoy your car.

Barry

Is there something wrong with 93 that I'm not aware of ?? Or is my sarcasm filter set too high ?

yes turn that filter down. 87 will technically get the job done but 91 is recommended. I've never used anything other than 93 (as i'm sure a lot of other guys here will say as well) and everything seems smooth. 91 will be just fine for you. :burnrubber:

Totaled, get the insurance to do a write-off

When I bought my HyperBlue, I told the dealership if they were going to fill it up with 91 "premium" and they said "Ohh nah these cars run 89, you don't need to get 91" I told them, I heard on the manual it asks for 91. and the guy was just like "it'll be okay, don't worry"

I already bought the car so I didn't want to give them shit about not putting 91, So I waited for it to get close to empty then filled up 91. I noticed an improvement in MPG and a slight increase in power. This is just my story, anyways you're fine. As long as you weren't putting it cheap 87 gas or lower from some shady gas station.

Every tank of 87 reduces the lifespan of your engine by about 15-20 %. Google the harmful effects of lesser octane fuel on a high compression engine. I would try and sell your car before its too late.

It's fine.
For now on full up with 91.

Kids these days wtf. I miss my lawn, I wish I a full green grass so I can put a rocking chair on it and just tell all those kids their doing it wrong.

I did this when I first bought the car by accident, 2 thousand miles later and it is running fine. I read that the longer you put in the wrong fuel the greater chance of damage to the spark plugs and pistons since it is misfiring, the knock sensors can only do so much and depending on the elevation can determine how much or if any damage was done to the internals. Now 15-20% of life decreased from the engine seems a bit much considering you drove it thousands of miles and it still runs today. I wouldn't freak out the Fa20 is a very durable set up.

How old are you?

You'll be fine. Modern ECU's are designed to pull the timing back and run a safer tune for markets with crappy fuel. Load up on some 91 and enjoy your car.

It says Premium fuel only right on the gas cap, why was it such a mystery to you? Don't need the owner's manual to figure out cheap gas isn't good for the car.

Never grew up with cars, no one in my family close or distant ever had a car, got my license at 23 and bought the BRZ 9 months later. Had absolutely no knowledge of cars whatsoever and no way to absorb even the basics through osmosis like most people do growing up. Basically didn't (and largely still don't - but I'm learning and enjoying it) know anything at all about cars until I bought my BRZ and started becoming an enthusiast.

In other words, I'm a beginner who is just getting into cars and is loving it, but fuck me right? :bonk:

Dude where did you grow up? In a cave?
Just joking and don't listen to half these guys whose whole car "expertise" comes from anime, movies and video games. Many may in reality know less than you do but think they know more then everybody since they feel Fast and Furious and Initial D are instructional videos.
At least you have the balls to stand up and honestly say "I don't know please guide me"

Mario Kart made me the boy I am today.

https://mythirtycents.files.wordpres...art-banana.png

Grew up very poor in a small family of similarly poor people and worked my way out of the situation. Took buses and biked everywhere my whole life. Lived in a small town so wasn't a huge deal, though really sucked in the winters. Taught myself to code, got a very high paying job last year and removed myself from relations with my family and that whole poverty cycle. Moved away, and when I realized I could afford a car I got my licence and started really falling in love with cars in general, and the BRZ. Picked up a BRZ and here I am.

/lifestory

Appreciate your response. Most of the internet tends to be very "you're a beginner? go away." which is kind of awful. Everybody has to start somewhere -- and all of these guys were at the same level of car expertise as me at some point in there life... for many, it was just when they were teens, not adults :)

Thanks for posting your back story, SamuelDev, and sticking around despite the good-natured (yes, it WAS good-natured) foolishness by myself and others.

Congratulations on working hard and making a financially-successful life for yourself; there's nothing quite like being behind the wheel of something you've earned for yourself. Having said that, as a father with a missing son, AND as the son of someone who did pretty much what you've described (working your way out of poverty and your family's difficulties), I'd like to say two things, meant ONLY in a kind, helpful way. I have NO way of knowing exactly what your family situation was/is, but, in their own way, I'm sure your family loves you. Severing ties with them probably hurts them more than you know. Is that a necessary part, in your mind, of doing well financially and having a successful life? Who knows.. maybe more good may come of maintaining family ties and learning from each other.

The other is, and this may put me solidly in the minority, but when I see "Fuck" in the title of a thread or used prodigiously, my initial reaction is, "Here's another classless idiot." I'm far from a prude, but that's just something kind of jarring to deal with as a first impression. Maybe I'm just too old to be here... I dunno. I'm not saying you ARE a classless idiot.. you've already showed a great deal of class by the way you've dealt with the teasing and ribbing. I'm just saying that that WORD gives me an initial impression that's difficult to overcome at first.

As a guy who's been through the wringer a couple times myself, I'm just trying to help.

All my best, friend.

Barry

Thanks for your feedback Barry! I'll spare you any further details RE the family stuff as this is a car forum, though! Rest assured that severing ties was the best thing I could do for me!

Fun fact: Although I sometimes resort to using some coarse words here the word fuck has never been uttered verbally by myself, ever. My the worst word you will hear come out of me is "bloody". This is not some prudish attitude either but more a rebellion against my father who could not string three words together without swearing.
Unfortunately some words are now so common that they really do not have the impact they did in our younger days so I am not adverse to using them in print when they help convey the message or emotions.

Oh, and you are still at the lower level old guy classification here. You would probably be amazed at who is way older than you would ever guess.

I'd peg you at 40 ;)

17 years ago you would have been correct.

Doesn't matter. You're 40.

"I'm 39" -- Jack Benny

http://www.welovedc.com/prehistoryim...over_stamp.jpg

I'm a fucking pro.

You are? Could I have seen you in something?
https://filmthermometer.files.wordpr...vie-poster.jpg

Autobiographical work. Almost a documentary.

Would you kids quit messin' around? ;)

You know outta curiosity since we're on this topic what would happen if let's say you're tuned for 93 gas and someone borrows your car and takes it to the store to buy some idk oreo cookies and decides to be nice and put gas in your car....but they put 87. What would happen? In my case I got a tune for 93 gas.

I ask this because a friend of mine got his STi tuned and his dad took his car out and put the wrong gas in it and he flipped his shit on his dad. But as of today he's still driving it, so I'm a little lost as to how much damage it would cause. I don't remember how much boost he was running at the time or how aggressive the tune was but I don't think I've seen my buddy that pissed off in a while.

You're the same age as me @Tcoat

+1

I understand, out of the box, the tune intentionally seeks out a little knock and backs off from there. Is it possible to tweak the tune so it can't adapt to lower octane? Would a reputable tuner ever do that?

Hmmmm. If it had been my father, I would have thanked him for the kind gesture of putting gas in MY car, then kept my disrespectful, ungrateful mouth shut about how mad I was that Dad didn't put in the gas I wanted. Sheeesh... Christmas must be real fun in that house.

I know.. I'm being a snot. But seriously... for your friend to get that torqued with his father over putting some lower octane gas in once is .. well... not real understandable, at least not to me.

Doubtful any harm was done, and if your friend is THAT worried about, nothing says he has to run the car on that gas. Dad made an honest mistake. Drain the tank and put in the gas you desire. Haven't we all pretended at sometime to like a gift we really hated or appreciate a gesture we really wished someone hadn't done?

I would ask my friend but well, he didn't wanna find out and just drained the tank and saved it for when his family's car was low on gas and filled it up with whatever he pulled from the tank.

Lol let's not jump to conclusions, I can see why he was upset but at the same time what if something tragic actually did happen to his car? But I don't really wanna stay on that specific scenario, what I'm really curious about is, if you had a custom tune for 93 and 87 was SOMEHOW put into your car is there a fail safe that would save/protect your car? I know it's user error and all but come on our damn traction control and stability control saves our asses too, at least most of us when we have a little too much fun.