87 octane gas In a 2000 LS V8????

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owoodu

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The wife filled up my car with 87 octane at a gas station on the last 2 fillups. The red engine light is now on always solid, and starts to blink when I try to push the engine harder and the air conditioning stops working. The car eventually behaves better after a few miles, but then the light goes from flashing to solid.

I added some octane booster to the tank which is now half full of the 87 octane, but really no improvement.

Is the car going to destroy itself?
Is there any permanent damage?
What should I do to correct it?

Thanks
Bryan
:slam
 
owoodu said:
The wife filled up my car with 87 octane at a gas station on the last 2 fillups. The red engine light is now on always solid, and starts to blink when I try to push the engine harder and the air conditioning stops working. The car eventually behaves better after a few miles, but then the light goes from flashing to solid.

I added some octane booster to the tank which is now half full of the 87 octane, but really no improvement.

Is the car going to destroy itself?
Is there any permanent damage?
What should I do to correct it?

Thanks
Bryan
:slam
Click to expand...


i have a 2000 v8,, and i used 87 few times when i got it,, not a big deal, did run crappier but all u need to do is go fill the other half of tank with like 92 - 93 octane that will all mixx and u should be at an avr 90-91 octane, should be all set.

from now on just use 91 or better, u will notice a difference in way it runs.
 
I'm no expert on this, but from what I know, and what I've learned here, I'd say you should be having no major problems because of this.
Worse thing that should happen is maybe you'll hear some knocking and feel the performance downgrade a bit , but just fill her up with 91 and you should be OK.
I dont see how 87 would cause your engine light to come on...unless she filled it with diesel... argue2 ...

Again. I'm no expert on this, but I'd say theres no way 87 screws up your car like that....it will only affect the performance a bit.

P.S. When wife's start being cheap on gas, it means they went shopping when they shouldn't have and now they're feeling guilty...... :Bang
 
I missed the part about the AC the first time...

DUDE...you have other issues!

It's got to be a coincidence that this happened right when you found out the wife was being cheap.
They cant be related!
 
in the manual, it says that if the cel is blinking, there is a misfire, and driving can cause damage to the emmisions system. when i took the one i bought for a test drive, the light started to blink, and the car ran like total crap. hooked it up to ngs, and sure enough, 1-4 was misfiring. had all 8 coils and plugs replaced to be safe. week later the cel came on again, but solid. book says solid light is ok to drive on. anyways, turns out the cats were toast, and pieces broke off and went into the mufflers. ling story short, i just had the whole exhaust system replaced free under warrranty. have that cel checked out....no sense ruining a nice car.
 
What should I do to correct it?

Thanks
Bryan
:slam[/QUOTE]

I know it's a tough decision, but you're gonna have to file for divorce. As long as your the only driver this wont happen again :Beer

No but seriously..I don't think the AC has anything to do with the gas. From what I have read there are lots of people who have mistakenly used 87 octane before and reported maybe a little sluggishness or knocking but never the engine lights. I don't think the gas caused all these problems that fast, but maybe I'm wrong. I would go top the tank off with the highest octane gas you can find. Some places around where I live have 94 octane. Good luck.
Bob
 
bobslydel said:
What should I do to correct it?

Thanks
Bryan
:slam
Click to expand...

I know it's a tough decision, but you're gonna have to file for divorce. As long as your the only driver this wont happen again :Beer

No but seriously..I don't think the AC has anything to do with the gas. From what I have read there are lots of people who have mistakenly used 87 octane before and reported maybe a little sluggishness or knocking but never the engine lights. I don't think the gas caused all these problems that fast, but maybe I'm wrong. I would go top the tank off with the highest octane gas you can find. Some places around where I live have 94 octane. Good luck.
Bob[/QUOTE]

Go to Autozone and they will for free pull the codes that turned on your CEL. I will bet you have a misfire on one or more cylinders because of bad Coils on Plug. This has nothing to do with using 87 octane gas.
 
I am guessing there was a problem that was just getting to the point where you would notice it. The 87 octane either kicked it over the edge or the timing was ccoincidence. I think you already had a problem, which needs to be addressed regardless of the octane issue.

I have run 87 in my 2004 LSV8, it runs OK but I do get ping on heavy acceleration and some stumbles. The stumbles might have been the famous tranny issues the LS has since I did need to take the car in for the "Customer Satiwsfaction" Program that addresses the tranny issue.

My car runs fine on 89 and maybe better on 91/92, hard to say without a diagnostic computer or trip to the drags. I am still experimenting on whether the 89 versus 92 makes a difference in mileage. The manual recommends but does not require 92. Some people claim you must use 92. I am of the school of thought that the computer's job is to adjust timing as needed. Most car manufacturers design their computers to allow for a broad range of octane, it would be odd if Ford couldn't.

I believe 92 is a better choice if you do a lot hard sotp and go driving in hot weather.

I would not use 87 unless I drove mostly freeway in cool weather. 89 seems to be the minimum and 92 of course is the recommended and safe.

Just top up your tank with some premium to at least address the octane issue.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson
 
Glad I could get sage advise from people other than the engineers that designed the engine and emmission parameters for the engines.

As for me, there's a reason the engineers specified 91+ octane. It even says so on the fuel filler door. It sure would be easy for Ford to deny a warranty claim after finding out less that 91 octane was used!
 
BTW those octane boosters are not what you think. Read the can very carefully and I believe most of them will say, use XYZ ounces per gallon to raise 1(that's just one measely point son) point of octane. Essentially you would need to add probably 5 cans per tankful to make any real difference. Better and cheaper to just use premium.

I have used these booster before in my truck with well know octane preferences on a well know path, and the single can did nothing. After reading the label I realized I would probably spend $10 on booster to get what an 18 gallon tank of premium would do for me at under $2.00 more for the tankful.(that was several years ago when premium was about 10 cents more per gallon.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson
 
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