I've been experiencing some knocking at times when i first start my 95 se-r, and can't fiugre this out. I've seen some discussions on fuels, but can't remember if anyone was able to conclude anything.
It's a sporadic problem, and the only consistent factor seems to be that i was using 89 octane with 10% enthanol (which the great state of iowa says is fine for your car
). It would happen just when I started, then, naturally, the knock sensor would pick it up and lean the mixture. After this, I would in turn experience less power. I don't mind paying for the 91-92 oct gas, but I still find it odd that it would happen with 89 oct, unless I had some internal problems.
I had my timing advanced slightly, and it would be a less consistent problem when I decreased the timing, which makes sense.
It's kinda hard to judge overall w/o a track nearby, but I feel as though my car has lost some serious power over the last 2 years i've owned it. I've driven it from 84k miles up to 116k in that time.
When I was young and foolish, I can remeber an incident where I put some leaded 108 (+/-) oct fuel in there, maybe 1/3 of a tank, which may have done something.
What I would like to find out is 1. Has anyone had problems with ethanol fuels; 2. What damage might I have caused by allowing the 'starting knocking' problem to go on for a while; 3. What could I have ruined with that leaded fuel experiment back in the day; 4. What maintenance schedule items might be affecting me?
Any thoughts are great, and thanks for reading.