What type of gas?

It will work but it might cause damage to your engine. The engine has a low compression ratio because of the turbo and 87 octane will not burn as well. I have an '01 S4.

I HIGHLY SUGGEST 91 octane or higher. (look at the inside of your fuel door). Even the tiny smart takes premium. Not using premium can cause turbo damage which is very expensive.

Premium is necessary. Plain and simple. It's not a suggestion nor is it some kind of "maybe." You risk seriously damaging several engine internals by using just one tank of plus or regular gasoline. Plus, what've you got to worry about? You just got an A4 and the premium gas gets you better mileage than the others.

Whenever you have a turbocharger its a good idea to use premium gas. Especially if you bought it used and the previous owner used premium, its not a good idea to witch to regular.

chevron premium. worth the price

Definitly premium.....why fork out for a great car and bugger the engine with crap fuel.

MY OPINION... ALWAYS THE BEST ... but maybe for that year i assume that they will told you , premium.. so i guess by now could be de middle one.. but even that i will go witth premium

Premium for sure. I have a 98. The engine will knock if you use less octane... It won't get you hardly any better mileage but you still need it.

Use what ever it says on your book or gas cap. Your car is programed to burn a certain octane. If its meant to burn 87 then put 87. Since it is a turbo vehicle you will probably be using 91-93 octane for the slower burning fuel which reduces your chance of knocking.

A4's are made to run on premiums only, any other type of fuel hinders their performance.

definately go with the higher octane. the higher octane fuel burns much better than the others. the higher octane will keep your engine much happier and increase performance of your ride even though its more, ALOT more expensive

Premium only, any thing else will cause damage to both the engine and turbo.

Hi-test, 93 octane is all I used when I owned mine. Used 89 once and i noticed a lag, idk if you will with 91, but the 93 for me worked great, and do not use fuel additives, they are a waste and actually corrode your gas tank

Premium is the only way to go. Without the high octane rating, you risk knocking and damaging your sparkplugs, especially since it's the turbo'd version.

I recently purchased an '03 Audi A4. The dealer (not Audi dealer) never told us to use Premium gas! I filled the tank with regular and now the car is running crappy...knocking and the engine light flashing! I was advised to put an Octane booster in which I did. Still have 3/4 tank to use up. Still knocking...any suggestions?

Thank you for the reply....... I do not think it is "pinging" I don't hear any loud noises...just running really rough and engine light flashing. It was running wonderful until after I filled the tank with reg gas the next day it started running bad and trying to get passed 45mph is very shaky. Also idling at a light the car vibrates terribly! I don't know anything about cars so I am concerned putting the regular gas may have damaged something.... Hopefully running the gas out and filling with 93 octane will help significantly. Is driving it until then hurting the engine? I did put one bottle of octane booster in the tank....Thank you for your help! ML

Welcome to the world of Audi's...

redline your car for a FEW MINUTES!??! do that if you want to buy a new engine, that would be a great way to blow it up. crotch rockets are completely different.

Don't run the tank out, drain it put the right stuff in. I believe the 1.8l runs a static compression of 9.3:1 and is boosted to ~7psi so roughly it behaves like a ~13:1 compression engine.... At that compression predetonation will happen regardless of retarding timing so damage will begin to occur, it's not like the 300c where it can sacrifice it's efficiency to prevent damage. (SRT8 only runs 10.3:1 to put things in perspective) Now drain it before you damage the valve seats.

Sorry was meant for the guy who said ' Hopefully running the gas out and filling with 93 octane will help significantly'...

I'm a woman, not a guy, and now I am REALLY confuzed!!! Too many conflicting answers! I guess I will see about emptying the tank somehow... thanks for all the reply's though!

running one tank wont damage the engine. and i figured trying to drain the tank wasnt really in this person capabilites. hence the reason i suggested just running it out

Good lord there is some serious misinformation in this thread. 1) Don't use less than 91 octane -- there is no savings. You will get worse MPG and worse performance, nullifying any $/gal savings at the pump. 2) One tank of lower octane should not hurt the engine unless you drive aggressively. Run it out, don't use regular/plus again. Motronic uses the engine's knock sensors to retard timing, but it can only do so up to a certain point -- about 15 degrees. Stay out of boost if you can, drive it at part-throttle and shift early. Keep the load low and you'll have enough overhead that you won't blow anything up. To the user whose car is already running poorly -- you have a bad coilpack and one of the cylinders is misfiring. That's why the check engine light is flashing. This is unfortunately incredibly common. Stop driving the car. Get a diagnostic tool and scan your car so you can figure out which one it is. Go get a new coilpack from the dealer or an independent parts place and swap it in. You don't need any tools, it takes 2 minutes. Old one pops off, new one pops on. Part's $30. If you need more help, go over to forums.quattroworld.com/a4 and ask. Worse-case scenario, have it towed to the dealer.

Why would you not put premium in it? the difference per fill up is at most 10 cents a gallon. With a 15 gallon tank your saving a whoping $1.50 a fill up. I only use premium.

Hi, I had the same exact problem with my Audi A4 1.8T 2001... I did fueled on Regular (87), then Premium (91), then regular (87), etc. Now I know it's a bad mistake! Stick with 91... always! (Even when the prices are sky high!) I also ended up replacing all 4 spark plugs and 2 coils (I will change the other 2 this week!) I also have a rubber hose that has a vacuum leakage... (I think the part name is a boost sensor that is attached to the side mount intercooler (for the 1.8t engine)) I'll post back when the repair is done, to tell you if it got rid of the problem! Please check this link for further infos... Many other guys have had the same problem! http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=FcQ8BPfVAJQ&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3DFcQ8BPfVAJQ%26feature%3Drelated

i deffinitly use Shell 91 or Other Brand 93. I did use plus once (89) and noticed a difference. My friends say its all in my head and say i should use regular but i notice a big difference right away and use 93 ever since! runs sooo much better trust me! *99 Audi A4 1.8T Quattro

Kevin, don't believe all the Dale Jr. wannabe's on here. Using regular (turbo engine or not) does not blow up your engine, nor does it do any damage to your turbo. It does lower the performance output of your car, but let's get real. Will you be able to smoke the asian kid with the suped up ricer if you use regular? Probably not. Will you be able to quickly accelerate for lane changes and passes? Yes. It's all about what you want to do with your car. Honestly, if you bought the car to feel like your %*&*# is bigger, then you bought the wrong car. (Not saying you did and no offense) Don't feed into the hype about Premium vs. Regular gas, especially from people who only know what they read on the internet. Does anyone here on the forums have a degree in mechanical engineering or chemistry? Most likely not.

GOD knowes gas is high,if manual says prem,run it,mid grade might work with oct bost,never run regular.

@Tim your awesome!!! Can you be my personal advisor!!!! Just bought an A4 yesterday... i'm in love.

Premium vs Regular, what is the difference, and will running the wrong type of gasoline hurt your engine? Both fuels are graded by their comparison to octane, and premium is NOT better quality gasoline; it simply is more like octane than regular gas and burns slower. In a high-compression engine, regular gasoline will burn too quickly and make a 'ping' noise when it completes it's burn before the piston reaches the top of its stroke. The ping is an explosion and over time may even burn a whole in the piston. It also puts unnecessary pressure on rod and crank bearings. In this situation, burning regular grade gasoline will harm your engine. You can mitigate this by retarding the timing, and in the old days we would tune a car 'by ear' by test driving various timing settings until we eliminated ping. Newer cars automatically retard timing and eliminate ping, so the short answer is NO, burning regular gasoline will NOT harm a modern engine designed to run on premium gasoline. So will running premium gasoline in an engine designed for regular cause harm? No. However over time premium will produce more firing chamber deposits in the lower compression engine because it burns slower than regular and does not completely burn up.

Well Kevin if u start using cheap gas in a FSI engine u will experience high carbon build up and even if ur car is under warranty the dealer will run some test guided by audi tech line and u will end up paying crazy repairs . I been an audi tech for the the collection (02 -10 ) and for audi pembroke pines and every time I have any audi i will try to Perform warranty in misfires due to carbon build up . They will make me call tech line and charge the cust , so be real carfull on what u pump into ur tank my advise as a tech always pump good gas and u will gain better gas mileage and to keep ur engine clean. THEKRANKENWAGEN@GMAIL.com

I am no expert on Audi's. I have an 08 a4. PREMIUM IS BEST! I was using Mid-grade, i realized the car was squeaking, switched to PREMIUM and the squeaking went away. Not sure if the gas was the issue, but it seems like it was.

Audi is an awsome car I recommend buying 1

This is 1 bad ass car.....it handles like a dream....if u do not own 1 get rid of that peice of shit ur driving and buy an audi

She's so pretty

I have a 2008 audi a4 2.0 turbo S-LINE and you can tell a difference of how the car drives with different octanes. Definitely 91 or higher octane is the way to go! Your car will run so much smoother. Now im going to get another 2003 audi 1.8t avant for the wife. Audis are handsdown best cars ever built!

so thinking of getting a 2013 A4, but the maintenance scares me. Jpballer - what kind of repairs have you had being your car is now 5 yrs old. One headlight now w/the LED is $940, someone told me they had to replace.

I have a 2008 A4 convertible - I just paid $1280 to have my convertible top sensors changed. The top was down and would not go back up.

If your engine doesn't knock/ping using 87 octane then use it. Your 0-60 time might not be as high but there is no point in using high octane other than to prevent knocking. The computer automatically adjusts to prevent knocking.

...I've owed 2. An old 1986-5000, bought in Canada, sold it at 250,000 miles and a 1992 station wagon sold with 200,000 miles. Gas prices at a $1.00 elevating to $2.19 at 28 to 30 MPH for the 86 5sp, and the 92 with 19 to 23 MPH. All Audis are beautify autos, but the car owner needs to be aware that the cost is High, today, at $3.46 prem/per gallon...

...And, there only was, WAS ONLY, prem. fuel you should have purchased-Standard Oil (A) know owed by BP. I felt Audis cold run only on this pem. fuel-but no more!...

I owned a Audi A4 for 15 years. Initially I only used Premium gasoline, but once car hit about 80K, gas prices were really high at the time, I switched down to regular. Mileage was really poor to a tank, so i tried Plus. 89. Car drove fine till 150K when I finally had to get a new transmission, which I bought used on Ebay. Car now has 180K and im still using Plus

My Audi A4 keeps jumping every i take off.. I have put nothing but 91 in the tank and i'm still getting this jumpy feeling.. any suggestion?

"This is a common complaint on the A4 auto tranny. A search will find many of us complaining about it. 1st to 2nd shift is premature (1500-1800RPM). Audi service managers shrug and say "Its normal." any time I bring it up. Audi should correct this with a transmission module reflash, but in that typical Audi attitude we have all come to love, they simply stick you with the problem and turn their backs. Welcome to the Audi world, where you are oooohhhh.... number 234,345,232 from the top of their important customer list. I have learned to launch in S, then just bump it to D when rolling. Vince" From: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/275996-Auto- transmission-Hesitate-on-take-off-No-time-in-first-gear-problem

I have a6 N a4 and I will never betray my cars always 91..... Useing cheap gas results in fucked up engine trust me u don't want it..... Reffed gas station will be shells V-POWER 91.....

Thinking about getting an audi a4 98...but do most of the regular maontenance myelf. The hermostat is behind the bumper. ,,how often dk the part behind the bumper need to be changed or go bad...timing belt..drive belt water pump and alternator...new to these kind of car and engine. Thanks . Parts are fine but just curious as to when partshave to be check....and can i check the. Condition of the timing belt without my mechanic having take the bumper.,.off. most the car i had before had timing belt or chain to thw right or lleft of engine near theaxle s or wheels . Hmmm.

Money for old rope! I imagine the extra value (power) you get from premium gas is barely 3%, but the price is inflated by 10% or more! Those who use premium unnecessarily are subsidising the rest of us (thanks, sukkas). My Audi 2011 has done 64,000 miles on 87 octane and it runs great! I've never noticed any difference when I've rarely tanked using 91 octane. The manual says it's fine to use 87.

Hi guys , i have Audi 2012 and was first time i fill gas was confused and i filled it with 91 oct, but do you think if i go with 94 next filling it will damage the engine?? please need advice

94 won't do any harm at all... Go ahead, fill her up! Let us know if you feel it gives you more power (acceleration). It might. The only danger is when you use gas from a dubious source, like if a gas station has water in the fuel (usually as a means to cheat people). In fact, to be sure, you really should fill up only at Tier One gas stations, then you'll be sure to have "clean" gas with the right fuel additives.

Check the user's manual, folks. Both my old (2006 A4 1.8T) and current 2011 A5 books recommend using premium gas, but then go on to tell you "not to use gas under 87 octane." This is not like a BMW, where you're told specifically to use premium gas. I would NOT put regular in a BMW. But then again, maybe I wouldn't buy a BMW ;-)

I have an A4 turbo and was using regular gas all the time. One day it started running rough and felt like it was missing. Dealership found a crack in the porcelain tip of one of the spark plugs caused by me using regular gas. Replaced the one damaged plug and started using premium gas. Problem solved.

From Personal experience in 2018, my 2014 Audi A4 with 53k miles on it blew the engine and turbo... PS... I used to put 87 octane in it... 12k later and a new engine and turbo... I use 91 Octane!

With grade price differeces now at 30cents/gal, leaving premium 60c higher per gallon than 87, 30c/g over 89-91 octane, it's a real deterrent to buying one of these cars. The price per mile to operate goes up substantially.