A guy i work with has a 2012 VW Golf GTi and has a several questions. First one: the exhaust area seems excessively sooty. He says the back of the car looks like he drives an old Mercedes diesel! The dealer has told him that is normal... Doesn't sound normal to me. Second question: the car (much like old Cobalt SS/SC) says that it requires at least 91 octane. Can this car be driven on good old pissy 87 octane while still maintaining some measure of mileage and zip?

i know some of you are VW techs and Larry would greatly appreciate any answers you might offer.

double post
SD

Posted by Samurai A guy i work with has a 2012 VW Golf GTi and has a several questions. First one: the exhaust area seems excessively sooty. He says the back of the car looks like he drives an old Mercedes diesel! The dealer has told him that is normal... Doesn't sound normal to me. Second question: the car (much like old Cobalt SS/SC) says that it requires at least 91 octane. Can this car be driven on good old pissy 87 octane while still maintaining some measure of mileage and zip? i know some of you are VW techs and Larry would greatly appreciate any answers you might offer.

my mom had a 1.8T Passat and it would ping at detonation of 87 octane gas
turbo engines don't like regular gas. so if it's a Turbo i wouldn't run the cheap stuff.

some say the newer cars will detect the pinging and actually detune themselves to run on the 87 before it causes damage and starts to knock.

VW recommends 91, I do not know that it is required simply suggested.

SD

Posted by secretdestroyers my mom had a 1.8T Passat and it would ping at detonation of 87 octane gas turbo engines don't like regular gas. so if it's a Turbo i wouldn't run the cheap stuff. some say the newer cars will detect the pinging and actually detune themselves to run on the 87 before it causes damage and starts to knock. VW recommends 91, I do not know that it is required simply suggested. SD

the reason this question came up is because I have a 2012 Cruze 1LT with the 1.4L Turbo... it runs all day long on 87 octane. Therein lay the rub... I do know that the Cobalt did NOT like pissy 87 AT ALL... the thing ran like a turd when I filled it by mistake with 87.

This probably won't help to answer your question but I own a MINI and have always run 91 just because the car says 91 only in multiple places, the gas tank, the owners manual and the engine compartment.

Also, I get a lot of soot around my exhaust pipe as well. It bothers me, and I'm constantly cleaning it with my foot or a towel. I just had 2 G's worth of work done to the car and the shop never made any mention that their was anything wrong with the exhaust system though so I'm going to leave it alone.

No european car should be run on anything less then 91 octane. 87 will foul up the sparkplugs, lose performance etc

FSI and TFSI are prone to carbon build up n stuff, sooty exhaust will be normal.