Hello,
I recently purchased a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse GTS and I wanted to know if I do indeed need to us this grade of gas. According to the manual if prefers you do so but, if you donot the performance will be lower and you risk damaging the engine. Is any of this true? I know with Dodge Stratus that has more or less the same V6, and you can use regular 89 octane, so is it ok to do the same as the Eclipse?
Thank you, Daniel
you are not going to hurt the motor but running regular 89 octane (r+m/2) will reduce power and fuel economy. a knock sensor allows the computer to adjust timing for variations in fuel. when you run 89 it will roll the timing back to prevent knock. if you are somewhere that only has 89, don't sweat it but my advise is to run premium fuel.
Although the knock sensor will help with preignition it can only do so within a certain range (performance will be reduced) and if it can not compensate and preignition (knock, ping) occurs your engine will suffer greatly (physical damage). The difference between your motor and what is basicly the same motor in different cars ao years is probably the compression ratio. As your engine gets older there may be some deposits in the combustion chamber that will raise compresion and make the need for premium even more evident....the higher the compresion ratio the higher the octane requirement. TG
I'm not sure I'd agree. I'd have to see a datalogged run to be sure, but my bet is that Mitsu put that on there for the hell of it or for warranty claims. After all, they abandoned the turbo for the V6 because they didn't want to honor warranties...also the reason they are soon to be an "ex-carmaker". The V6 in the 3g is anemic, to say the least.
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