I have a 2001 S40 1.9T vehicle. I have tried to use regular gasoline but sometimes the engine will stall on and off several times when I press down on the gasoline and the engine light will come on my dash. When I use premium gasoline this does not happen. I have noticed many other Volvo owners using regular (87 octane) gasoline and they told me that they have never had a problem with it. Is there a trick to using regular gasoline?

It will take your car a while for the ECU to retard the timing to take into account the lower octane rating(three to four tanks full), then the car wont stutter and run as rough as now. As the ecu has done this your mpg will go down as will the power produced by your engine. You will find although super cost you more to fill up it will work out cheaper as the car wont use as much fuel and will travel much futher on each tank of fuel. There is no saving to be had by using lower octane fuel when the car is mapped to run on higher octane stuff.

Greetings, We totally agree with Dandle. We have 3 volvos and all are affected just as he said.
The S60 will drop about 6 miles to the gallon if we have to use lower (89 or lower) octain fuel on a trip or such. We get 30 miles to the gallon usually. The only time we use lower octain is in the 240 in winter due to the lower firing temp. it starts quicker due to the winter blends which are used in our area. A Volvo dealer recommended it to us. The power loss is most noticeable in our 850. We also stick to the same gas station when possible. They are all picky and seem to all like gas from SAM'S Club go figure.

:thumbsup: hugdi

Thanks for the reply. The prt about the computer adjusting after a few tankfuls explains why I see some Volvo owners using regular gasoline. Looks like I will just stick with the higher grade stuff then and skip the headache.

Thanks