Premium fuel in Outback XT

[mark.bergman]

Has anyone else had any experience running reg fuel in the 2005 Outback
2.5XT? When I ran reg, I saw my mileage drop from a high of 22 to 18 so
I've stayed with the premium. At today's prices, I'm considering
mid-grade, but just wondering what sort of performance others are
seeing. i see so few of this model on the road that I have no close
contacts to consult.

 

[Bryan Lee]

Why evrytime gas goes up I see the same post. You wont save any money per
tankful cheap gas. You aready said you lost 4mpg on cheaper gas( 4mpg x 15g
= you lose 60 miles of range a tankful on cheap gas). They reason your
milage goes down is because the motor is retarding the timming to keep the
car from knocking to save the motor. The motor will not get it's best
overall preformace running that way. Do what the book says they know more
about what is best for the car anyone on newsgroups, forum, and fan site.
The manufactures wants to make sure thesse cars running well and they do'nt
have to do any warranty work. They want their cars to have good reps so
people will keep buying their cars.

 

[bigjim]

Buy cheaper gas and add octane boost additive. Continue to use cheaper
fuel and the computer will adjust to it

 

[Dave - Dave.net.nz]

Buy cheaper gas and add octane boost additive. Continue to use cheaper
fuel and the computer will adjust to it

if you want it to adjust more quickly, pulling the negitive terminal off
the battery for 30-60 mins, hooking it back up, then leave it idling for
30-60 mins with the new gas in it.

 

[mark.bergman]

Is this theoretical or have you done this with this model? How is
performance affected?

 

[Dave - Dave.net.nz]

Is this theoretical or have you done this with this model? How is
performance affected?

I have done it, it tends to perform much better than prior to it, sorry,
I don't have a dyno handy

Here in NZ we have three(for the moment, soon to be 2) types of
petrol(gas), 91, 96, and 98(only some gas stations).

I used to run on 96 due to the car running much better on it.
Prices began to rise so I tried 91, but performance was worse than
before I was using 96, so I had a bit of a read on these things, and
found that you could reset it, by simply letting it's charge die.

The easiest way is to kill the power for long enough, I've heard that
15mins is long enough, but 30 to be safe... myself, I'm extra cautious
with this sort of thing, and so 60 mins for me.

The car then ran fine on 91(no ping/king, no stutter etc), although it
wasn't quite as quick as it was on 96.

I have since moved to 98, as I'm a performance junkie, so I prefer to
have performance, even if it costs a bit more, although it doesn't seem
to as I get heaps better mileage with 98, ~420km/55L, which for the
yanks is something like 260M/13G so 20mpg.

I live in southern NZ, very hilly, short trips, so fairly hard on
vehicles, oh, and I'm young, so a tad lead footed. :/

 

[Dave - Dave.net.nz]

I used to run on 96 due to the car running much better on it.
Prices began to rise so I tried 91, but performance was worse than
before I was using 96, so I had a bit of a read on these things, and
found that you could reset it, by simply letting it's charge die.

the first paragraph should have read as follows.
___________________________
I used 91 first, but performance sucked. I then used 96 due to the car
running much better on it.
Prices began to rise so I tried 91 again, but performance was worse than
before I was using 96, so I had a bit of a read on these things, and
found that you could reset it, by simply letting it's charge die.
___________________________

 

[mark.bergman]

Dave,

Just curious...are yuo driving the 2.5 XT? Your mileage is the same as
mine. What does 98 cost down there? In rural NY, it now costs
$3.79/gallon.
Mark

 

[Dave - Dave.net.nz]

Just curious...are yuo driving the 2.5 XT? Your mileage is the same as
mine. What does 98 cost down there? In rural NY, it now costs
$3.79/gallon.

$1.62/L
NZ$=~.7US$ and ~4L=1gallon

so umm, $4.54/gallon at a rough(really rough) guestimate.

We are only a nation of just under 4M people though, and 1000s of miles
from anywhere, and a very spread out population too.