Manual seems pretty clear:

"Volvo requires premium fuel (91 octane or
higher) for all T5, T6 and T8 engines, and recommends
AKI 93 for optimal performance and fuel economy."

 

I only use premium. Your dealer probably puts the cheapest gas in to save $$$$$$.

Kris

 

You cannot put premium in drive-e engines.

Your salesman (knowingly?) lied to you.

 

???

 

It requires premium. Search the forums, you'll find plenty of people who want to argue with me about it.

 

Premium. End of story. Salesman are not technically savvy AT ALL. I'm surprised at times that they even know where the gas goes.

 

Will it run wit 87 octane? Sure. Will the fuel per-ignite under high load so bad that your engine will pull timing? Absolutely.

 

This.

Volvo only has two engines in the USA in the new models (for now) and both REQUIRE premium otherwise you lose power and fuel mileage due to retardation.

Is it worth it to save a dollar or two in fill ups to diminish total MPG and horsepower? NO!

I've been through this extensively and the science involved in other SPA forums.

 

I don’t mean to beat the guy or place up. the overall experience at the dealership was top notch. I drove further to avoid a sketchy dealership nearby me who would say they could get a XC40 sooner just to get the customer through the door.

I just wanted to make sure it’s not like my Audi A4-octane 91 recommended for peak performance but some still use 87. I don’t.

 

I picked up my Momentum T5 two days ago and I was told by the salesman to use regular 87 octane gas. I argued for a bit but didn't think it was worth the time.

He said that's what they fill with at the port, that's what the dealership recommends & it's the #1 incorrect thing that customers arrive thinking. Obviously the Manual says Premium. I kept my last car 12 years and would like to repeat. So what's the deal and can anyone clarify?

On a side note, supposedly ANY new orders won't be realized/delivered till the end of this year. And this is one of the biggest Volvo dealerships by volume in the state.

Your sales consultant needs to better learn his product. It even stipulates it, through a sticker inside the fuel filler door, where it's illustrated that Premium fuel needs to be used.

 

I don't waste much time arguing with car salesman that don't know their product.

Either they are new, or will be selling something else soon enough. I've bought all my VWs from the same salesman for the past 26 years. He knows VWs and is very knowledgeable about cars in general. On the other side of the coin are people who get hired to sell but are not car people and don't tend to learn the details of what they are selling. Its pretty easy to tell what kind of salesman you get when you enter a dealership.

The type of fuel the vehicle takes is pretty easy to determine. Its a weird thing to be wrong about since the manual tells you.

 

It's not just Volvo, I used to have an Infiniti and the salesman told me that regular was fine even though premium was required per owners manual. He even told me that the dealership only used regular in their loaner fleet - who knows if that was really true.

Having said that, it's not going to kill your car or significantly reduce it's life. In my Infiniti, I used 87 several times when there were the gas shortages here due to a pipeline issue. The car will pull timing because of the knock sensors and you'll have less power but it's not really noticeable unless you floor it. Additive package is the same for all octanes so 87 isn't missing any detergents that are found in 93.

Just don't do it to save money. In my experience, mileage was lower on regular vs. premium.

 

Waiting for my XC40 and the dealership gave me an XC60 T6 to get by. The car was jumping on every gear change. After filling a couple of times with premium fuel the car runs supper smooth. Bet they are using the cheep fuel on their loaner fleet.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

Possibly the dealer, but also customers refueling their loaner. You're likely in the minority.

Sent from my F8131 using Tapatalk

 

Will 87 octane actually harm the T5?

I just bought a 2021 XC 40 with the T5. First time Volvo owner, and new to this forum.

I have no intention of consistently filling the car with regular fuel. But last night I was at the Chevron and they put their 87 button all the way to the right behind a red background, whereas the 91 button is in the middle. At my local gas station (Shell) it's exactly the opposite. So I hit the 87 completely by mistake and started filling up. There were probably 2 gallons in the tank to begin with. I added about 8 more of the 87. Then I noticed the problem and topped it off (another 4.5 gallons) with the 91. So my blend is probably somewhere around 88-89 octane.

This was literally the second time the car has been filled with gas (first fill up was from the dealership). I am not trying to wage a debate about whether regular gas CAN be used in the T5, only whether these 8 gallons (mixed with 6.5 of 91) will pose any damage to my brand new engine?

I've driven only about 35 miles since the fill up. Should I siphon all the gas out of the gas tank and just start over with a fresh tank of 91, or is that overkill?

And is there some outside chance that I could void my 48,000 mile warranty by having added these 8 gallons of 87?

Thanks all!

Alex

 

I just bought a 2021 XC 40 with the T5. First time Volvo owner, and new to this forum.

I have no intention of consistently filling the car with regular fuel. But last night I was at the Chevron and they put their 87 button all the way to the right behind a red background, whereas the 91 button is in the middle. At my local gas station (Shell) it's exactly the opposite. So I hit the 87 completely by mistake and started filling up. There were probably 2 gallons in the tank to begin with. I added about 8 more of the 87. Then I noticed the problem and topped it off (another 4.5 gallons) with the 91. So my blend is probably somewhere around 88-89 octane.

This was literally the second time the car has been filled with gas (first fill up was from the dealership). I am not trying to wage a debate about whether regular gas CAN be used in the T5, only whether these 8 gallons (mixed with 6.5 of 91) will pose any damage to my brand new engine?

I've driven only about 35 miles since the fill up. Should I siphon all the gas out of the gas tank and just start over with a fresh tank of 91, or is that overkill?

And is there some outside chance that I could void my 48,000 mile warranty by having added these 8 gallons of 87?

Thanks all!

Alex

You will be just fine.

 

The bigger concern should be are you using top tier fuel? AAA has shown that top tier fuel has cleaning agents that leave less gun on pistons.

 

I'm with you on Top Tier Fuel...Costco is my preferred source(never a "skimmer" found at Costco, I believe) and the 4% rebate and lower pricing is a plus.
I'm actually experimenting with our XC40 T5 by mixing 1/3 tank of 87 with the balance being 93 octane. At 50 or 60 cents a gallon "premium" for "premium", it all adds up.
Our C70s have run on a steady diet of 87(except when I was trying to read a performance/mileage difference by using 93...never found a difference in five different Volvos).
I'll agree the current T5 is a different beast; but the performance we're getting from the mixture(that theoretically is ~91 octane) is just fine with me. I don't mind saving a few hundred bucks a year between the two vehicles. Takes about 2 extra minutes at the pump.

 

When in doubt, read the manual for your car/engine. This screenshot is from the 2020 XC40 manual.

 

I don't see the value of being cheap. Volvo insists on 91 both for performance and environmental impact. But good quality 87 shouldn't physically hurt anything even used all the time. The computer retards the timing as said above. It won't hurt the warranty but if you're keeping the car past that then all fluids in the car should be as good as you can get.

For sales, some find it a challenge. We don't earn a living without selling a car. Each month we start at $0..... It can be a bit stressful. And customers aren't exactly forthcoming with us most of the time. When I switched from Ford to Volvo I was much more sensitive to the octane cost because of the customers I was used to dealing with. I certainly am proud of never lying to sell a car but I know I was less direct about fuel requirements. I still don't bring it though unless asked, until delivery. And I basically say what I said above. But I used to be scared of the question to be honest. Sales folks will only talk about the good because that's all our competition will do the same and we assume customers are comparing based on that. It's hard to believe but a majority of our customers do very little real research. If I say Volvo needs it and BMW says they don't... I'm behind for being honest. Use us as a resource but realize the position we are in. Most genuinely want to help you, but we also want to make a good living, and it's very rare one of my customers doesn't make a good deal more than I do. No grudge at all there, but it's hard for us to understand the cheap skate mentally when the fuel cost increase per year is about the same as our paycheck on most new car sales.... And that's before factoring fuel economy and future parts repair.

 

Also.... I'll bet most sales folks don't know what octane and timing are..... Most sales folks I've worked with are NOT car guys or gals.

 

Found this posting..Implies you CAN run regular fuel. But should you???? False economy seems to be the main issue. My manual says I will experience lower performance. I am happy with that.

Fuel Requirements. Volvo recommends premium, 91 unleaded octane or higher for optimum performance, but your Volvo can run on regular 87 unleaded octane without affecting engine reliability. It is safe to use fuel containing up to 10% Ethanol in your Volvo.

Fuel Requirements - Volvo Car USA Support

 

Do you have a T4 or a T5?

Volvo only recommends premium for the T4, but requires it for the T5:

Volvo requires premium fuel (91 octane or higher) for all T5, T6 and T8 engines, and recommends AKI 93 for optimal performance and fuel economy. See decal examples in illustrations 1 and 2.

For optimal performance, Volvo recommends premium fuel (91 octane and higher) for T4 engines. However, engine reliability should not be affected as long as 87 octane or higher is used. See decal example in illustration 3.

From https://www.volvocars.com/en-ca/support/manuals/xc40/2019w46/starting-and-driving/fuel/octane-rating

 

i ran 87 for a few weeks and didn't realize the stated MPGs.... been running 91+ for a year now and MPG's are much better.

 

Here we go again

 

I love the gas threads as much as the oil threads. [emoji58]

It's all in YOUR manuals folks. Requirements change from year to year and model to model.

 

If you're unsure, just run 100 octane race gas.

 

We just lost a beloved 2005 S40 T5 at about 140000 miles due to head gaket failure. I partially blame myself for always using regular gas instead of premium that was required. I understood preigition knock and the function of knock sensors and thought that the technology would completely protect the engine. I did SCCA racing and ME degrees a long time ago. Preignition is an explosion that occurs before the spark plug fires. It occurs to me now that heat from a preignition probably exposes head gasket to temperatures that it was not designed to endure continuously. The knock sensor must sense the preignition in order to retard ignition. Occasional use of regular gas with a knock sensor probably does not do significant harm. Continuous dependence on the knock sensor probably does do harm.

We have 2020 XC40 Inscription T5 now and I intend to use to premium whenever possible.

 

Octane did not cause your head gasket to fail.

 

Okay. That makes me feel better. Is that type of failure a common occurrence? It had excellent maintenance record. We have a 04 S60 T5 with about 250K that is still on the road. I recall that premium gas was recommended but not required. My daughter drives it and has not been nearly as conscientious about maintenance.

 

No, not very common without another failure, like a coolant reservoir cracking and leaking and the car overheating.

 

I replaced the reservoir about 4 years ago. No evidence of water leak. Did not seem to be overheating. I was not driving it at time but the driver indicated no dash light illuminated. Does not really matter. We throughly enjoyed it for 15 years.