On the gas door, it says please use 91 or above


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On the gas door, it says please use 91 or above

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Exactly. The gas door says 91 or above so that's what I use. I use regular for every other car I have owned, so I am not someone who goes for premium. But the car says to use it, so I use it.

 

So I have been wondering about this too. In the manual it says 87. What is the verdict?

 

93.. it burns cleaner than the lower octane fuel.

 

"Burning Cleaner" is not a function of octane. Any gasoline that is rated a "top tier" detergent gasoline has the detergent additives for ensuring a clean b urning engine. The Octane boost allows greater compression. My question is what real world benefits, if any, as anyone observed. IN most engines, burning a higher octane gas in an engine that does not call for it is a waste. In a supercharged and turbocharged engine like the XC90, the difference may be significant and noticeable. Thus the question. Thanks!~

 

Oh man, I was editing my post and accidentally deleted it.

What I was saying is similar to Fmfosnacht. Higher octane allows for more timing advance. Lower octane promotes pre-detonation. You really don't need to worry about octane at elevations over 5,000ft due to the lower atmospheric pressure.

In one sense, lower octane fuels do burn dirtier. Since most modern vehicles retard timing with the use of lower octanes to prevent ping/knock, you get more unburnt fuel mixture in the exhaust. Thus more HC emissions.

The "sucks" part of my username came actually from my 1996 VW GTI, which did in fact suck. I'm my_bmw_sucks, my_vw_sucks, etc, etc depending on the car site.

 

I was going to ask! It really sucks if you had an xc90 that sucked. I guess we have all been there. My_bonnevile_sucks.

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Use #91 or #93. It has better mileage that offsets the cost at pump to some degree, and is good for the engine, if you are owning it not just on lease.

 

Premium, sorry but I never remember the number. I think it's 93.

 

Premium as well.... We are paying a "premium" for this car, so whats a few extra dollars at the pump?

 

Premium. Because more HP/torque and MPG (which helps offset slight initial cost anyways). If I wanted to save pennies at the pump, I'd buy a Prius C....

 

OR, you could have done like I did and bought a car that boasted about having lower emissions than a Prius! The Audi A3 was the Green Car of the year in 2010!! And it was Green Car of the Year.....until a few weeks ago. Anyway....went off topic a bit.

Even though it says 87 Octane on our 2012 S80, simply because it is a turbo'd engine, we typically use 91 or 93 because of what what my_volvo_sucks was mentioning. So, if my XC90 ever gets here, we will be doing the same.

 

I would also suggest a name brand gasoline. I prefer Sunoco or Shell. Just a personal preference. I don't like the greed that comes from Exxon/Mobil.

 

Another dumb comment to follow up with your dumb comment on octane ratings. Are you going to go for the trifecta?

 

awwww... not this debate again.
Gas Door says minimum of 91.
The extra $2-3 per fill up over regular is not worth the drop in fuel economy and harm to engine.
If you cant afford this than go drive something else.

 

^ To be fair, you could say the same thing about buying cars in cash or not buying them at all, and I doubt there are more than 5 people on this subforum who'd have XC90s if that were a prerequisite.

 

Btw, anyone use Costco or Arco because usually they're the most cheap gas stations?


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Btw, anyone use Costco or Arco because usually they're the most cheap gas stations?

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I don't use Arco unless it is the only choice. I use Costco now and then but there is only 87 and 89, no 91 or 93 there.
Chevron is the smoothest, Shell is a little noisy and expensive but has the best mpg.

 

Costco gas here is "Top Tier" approved. I use it and hard to beat the price.

 

I was just reading latest manual downloaded from the volvo site (v2).... it was says minimum is 91 octane. Did they change this? As said earlier, they were recommending 87.

 

There must be half-a-dozen topics on this exact same question floating around here, leap-frogging each other...

 

I have been following and participating in the Octane discussions for a while now... I have not seen anybody point out that the manual has changed from 87 to 91. Also, the vovlo.com online manual used to have a dedicated page to state the requirement of 87... but now the link is invalid/not found.

 

The manual used to be ambiguous. I don't recall it "recommending" 87, but it stupidly had that icon that showed it could handle 87 though also said in the footnote that high performance engines might require 91. Since it was a manual for a vehicle that only had this kind of vaguely defined engine, it was just dumb for them to have ever mentioned the 87. From the earliest production cars, they always said 91 on the label next to the gas cap. So someone figured out the mistake and corrected it. Good catch noticing it.

 

A local gas station has premium gas without ethanol for a very high price. (I suppose to handle antiques and small engines.)
EPA uses gas without ethanol for their tests and then adjusts the milage for ethanol.
Dairy farmers and meat farmers blame the high cost of grain on ethanol requirements.
Is anybody using ethanol free gas for their modern vehicles?

 

Since the XC90 is designed to run on 87 Octane, but offers enhanced performance on Premium, I am wondering gas others are using, and what "real world" difference anyone has noticed in mileage or performance on premium?

Premium gasoline does not have enhanced performance; it is designed to offer stated engine performance and fuel mileage when premium fuel is used.

 

Yannis provide the answer here and I think there shouldn't be any questions regarding the fuel octane level needed. 91 higher because that's what it was engineered for to get the advertised engine performance and efficiency. 87, if for example you went to Death Valley with your XC90. After driving for hundreds of miles you are close to an empty tank and the only gas station for the next 50 or so miles is the one that carries only a fuel that has an octane level of 87 then thanks to Volvo's amazing engineers you can use that and your vehicle would still run like a charm - without of course the actual performance and fuel mileage that is stated on the brochure.

 

Its not always so clear cut, especially if you are leasing for a few years.

On my QX60 that I am replacing, I tested 87 vs 93 and it made literately no difference that I could tell on MPG or general driving.
I have done over 40K miles on it in the last two years on 87 and its still running just fine.

 

Any advantage of using 93? If not using 91 makes sense I guess. I used to have an Infiniti g35 first edition and treated it very well. Someone had put 87 in it once and I could see significant difference in performance. Couldn't wait for that tank of gas to be done.

93 vs 91 is still the question. Thanks

 

91 and above is considered premium in this country.

I do not know about the XC90 however in my My01 V70 T5, I do notice a little difference in acceleration from using 91 octane vs what the car felt like when I lived in the Midwest and East Coast, where premium was 93.

 

Planning on using premium (taking delivery around the first of the year). 91 is the highest octane generally available in California. You can find higher octanes at the track and at specialty gas stations, or perhaps in other parts of the state.

The car this is replacing is a Subaru (4 cyl) and we put regular grade in that. The other car is a 2006 A3 (4 cyl turbo), which has had premium its entire life.

 

I experienced 87 when my dealer delivered the car. 1/2 a tank of 87 was enough to convince me to top off with premium. Has been running much better since. I'm lucky enough that my Costco carries 93 and I'll never look back.

 

Premium or unleaded is incorrect. All fuels sold today are unleaded unless you are buying race fuel specifically for off road.

87 Octane carries more energy and can produce more HP if you can control detonation. The engine control on modern engines can use either fuel without damage. If you have a performance or blown (turbocharged or supercharged) engine you will see a decline in performance under load. This is due to the ECU not being able to control the detonation any other way than retarding timing.

 

If I remember correctly the manual states min octane 91 but I hear about people who just ignore it and pick the cheapest fuel. Here in NC/SC there can be as much as 50c difference and that can add up during a year. I have always picked the highest octane (93) which is the generally the only one that exceeds 91 here. What do you guys use and is there anyone out there who uses 88/89 without trouble?