Car Talk Shenanigans

[Mr. Pockets]

Okay, I don't know if you can still listen to last week's Car Talk show (they keep the show up on their site in RA format for a week), but I think that they gave a poor guy some bad advice.

The caller had a '98 Audi A4. He had lent it to his dad for a couple of days, and during that time his dad accidentally put a half tank of regular gas in the car. Like our beloved SVXs, this Audi has warnings on the car that say, 'premium gasoline only.'

Lo and behold, since the half-tank of regular gas, the car runs like crap. Did it still have the regular gas in the tank when the guy called? I dunno. I think that's unimportant.

Tom and Ray, in their infinite wisdom, told the owner that the regular gas had noting to do with it and that the car could run on regular with no problems. They recommended replacing the spark plug wires.

I checked, and the '98 A4, with either a 4- or 6-cylinder engine, came with coil-on-plug direct ignition. So the plug wires, as on our cars, aren't of the standard, high-voltage type.

I think that the car was built to run on premium, and the ECU had to adjust to regular. I think that the correct remedy would have been to run the regular gas through the tank, fill up with premium, and disconnect the battery overnight.

I think that telling owners that their cars 'don't really require premium' will lead to lower performance, lower gas mileage and even lead to engine damage.

I told them as much, but they didn't answer my email in their mail bag section. I'll listen to this week's show from work tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.