Premium fuel in Outback XT

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

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

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. :/

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. ___________________________

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

$1.62/L NZ$=~.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.