Hey guys, Im looking at a 2004 Acura TL 3.2L . We love the cars and are considering buying one but with gas prices as they are we are worried about the fuel issue. I have spoken with a lot of people and they say that premium is recommended. Does anyone know if you have to use premium or if its just recommended. I spoke to the service dept. at Acura dealer and they said it would take off about 27% power if you use regular and it might start knocking. First off I dont see why a 3.2L V6 engine has to have premium in the first place. Anyone know for sure if it will hurt the car or just rob power.

My '04 3.2 TL requires premium fuel, as does my '96 3.2 TL. The requirement from Honda is 91 octane premium. Here in ATL, the regular grade fuel is 87 octane, the mid-grade is 89, and premium is 93. On the older car, I will fill up with 93 octane, burn it down to half a tank and then top up with mid-grade (for an average 91 octane) and then run that tank all the way down. On the 04, I always run premium.

The reason for needing premium fuel is the high compression ratio of the engine (I'm too lazy to go out and look in the manual to tell you exactly what it is). You can run lower octane fuel, but the engine computer will go into anti-knock mode and retard the ignition timing which will rob the engine of some power - but it will prevent it from knocking (which is a very bad thing). You will probably get worse fuel mileage with the lower octane fuel.

I can see how that would affect it. Im just going to use premium completely since im paying over 20k for this car. Whats another 3-4 bucks at the pump. Thanks bro