Dear all,

Is regular gas Ok in a 2002 base coupe? The original owner told me they've always used regular gas, car has 20k miles on it.

No harm to continue using regular? or should i switch to mid, or premium?

 

I would wonder what else the previous owner skimped on if they used regular.

 

I will not use regular in mine (before tune) I can't use regular in mine (after tune)

 

heh. Well, I bought it last night, and they told me on the drive home and gave me gas money. It was a very nice husband and wife, wife owned it and babied it.. hardly drove it at all only 20k miles.

I have to make a separate post, it's my first vette, been dreaming of it since I was 18 and at 28 it finally happened : )

The only issue on the car is the driver side door won't lock with the key remote fob. I have to either manually lock it with the key itself or push the lever while inside and then close the door shut

 

Why skimp? It's not a Fiesta. I'd also be somewhat apprehensive about the car / seller... but if the car checks out fine carry on (and switch to premium IMO).

 

You want get the performance on reg.use premium.if he ran reg.you might want to run a few bottles of tecron through it.jmo

 

Danny, the owners manual calls for high test gas....also calls for Mobil1 motor oil. Its your ride but I'd use high test gas and a fully synthetic motor oil like Mobil1. As said before, I can't afford to use the cheapest on my Vette.

 

2002 with 20 K its 14 year5s old... IM willing to bet it has 14 year old tires on it, its never been serviced... and just a low mileage abused car... low mileage cars like this can be a disaster.. Owner nerve did the most basic maintenance and using regular is the big hint. The ownere who took delivery og the car was never told to use regular, but chose too. the owners manual says you can use regular when nothing else is available, to get you to a station with premium fuel,
This car will need new tires, ( 14 years old .. and at least 5 years over any DOT safety recommendation ), new tire sensor monitors, all fluids changed, belts and hoses. There is no way the owner changed the oil every year, and the oil in the motors has turned acidic, causing pitting of all the internal engine bearings both connecting rod, and mains. I'm giving a very bad scenario, and without any maintenance history... A low mileage pretty car owned by a nice old coup0le without a clue about automotive care, can be bad news, lets hope I am wrong....
You should focus very heavily on these points... Good luck, I hope I'm wrong and welcome to the forum... No IM not a boo bird, or someone willing to sugar coat a potential disaster... while it would be nice to say all the warm and fuzzy stuff... This car could need a lot of attention and quickly, if you want this one to last.
Bill aka ET

 

This does paint a worst case scenerio, but I hope it's not the case. I drove the car home about 250 miles. The car seems like it was babied. I pulled an autocheck for free via ebay and a carfax and all the service records did come up. tires were new, brakes and rotors also new. Battery was replaced last year and passed inspection in Aug I think. I hope it will give me no headaches..it was a major purchase for me

 

Change the fluids and enjoy it. Congrats on the car. Some people are too weird about the "premium fuel" cost. If you can't do $2-5 more a fill up then you probably don't need a corvette in the first place, haha. Sounds like they kept up with the rest of the car, which is good news. I think the worst case scenario is that it got on the low grade fuel advance table.

 

why would brakes and rotors be changed and New??? with 20K. IM very skeptical I have 90,000 miles on my rotors, and get 50K out of A set of pads.... I am " NOT" trying to rain on your purchase.... but you said you got the records from Ebay? I would like to back track those records to a shop who actually did the work. Are you saying that you saw at least 14 separate records of oil changes ( required at least once a years ) you have seen complete coolant changes, belts and hoses replaced... ( its not mileage that destroys rubber products, it's time . If I did not care about your purchase, I could have just said good luck and welcome and moved on, I'm trying to get you on top of this car. what is the tire manufacturing code on the sidewall of the tire... Are the tires run flats or conventional tires, are the tire monitor sensors working properly and displaying actual tire pressure at each tire or where they turn off. Do a search on how to find your tire manufacturing date, it will be two numbers ( the weeks of manufacture [01to52 ) followed by two numbers ( the year of manufacture ) typically and for example (4112 ) meaning the 41st week of the years 2012 )

 

I would suggest that the OP ask the seller when the oil was changed and it is possible that there is an existing record of oil changes.

One thing about a 2002 run on regular-I bet that C5 wasn't run hard at high RPM. The fact that the brakes needed service at that low mileage suggest that C5 was run in an urban environment. And high brake wear suggest that the C5 has an automatic transmission used in an urban environment by an older driver.
This thread does bring up a question: the oil life monitor doesn't just keeps track of the amount of miles between oil changes--but also the driving practices of the owner.

But will the OLM ALSO look at the amount of time between oil changes? I know that the owner's manual says to change oil each year-but it isn't clear if the OLM will request an oil change each 12 months even if the oil otherwise is good (mileage and driving conditions).

Will the Oil Life Monitor request an oil change when the oil doesn't have the maximum mileage on it -but the 12 month period has been exceeded?

 

Why do people post these questions about gasoline? If you bought a Corvette, how in the HELL can you not afford the extra 2.50/fillup for premium octane? Will the car "run" on regular...sure, at part throttle and some quit hard throttles, yea it will. If it detonates/pre-ignites, the knock sensors will detect it and retard the timing as a result. In that situation, an engine can tolerate some pre-ignition and detonation short term. Fact is though, you're pounding the ring lands and piston crown with frequency and heat that is potentially catastrophic.

Only a fool runs 87 octane in an engine designed around 91+

 

Premium fuel only. Listen to ET, he knows his stuff. If you don't want to listen to ET then read your owners manual. The car requires premium fuel.

I agree that if the owners were too cheap to use the recommended fuel they probably lacked on other basic maintenance. It's either sheer ignorance or stupidity on their part and if they are either too stupid or too ignorant to read the manual/follow directions than it's a safe bet that they probably didn't follow any of the other required service. I would change all fluids first and foremost and then see if the tires need to be replaced along with belts/hoses.

 

I have a gasoline question. Why is premium 40-50 cents more than regular now?

 

Good question. Probably has to do with limited demand of premium and probably is a way for the gas company to amortize the cost of EPA area mandated custom blends of gasoline for your area and other areas of the country. There is what-20 different blends of gasoline in the country just because of EPA mandates.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars...ence-13747431/

 

So in layman's terms, we're getting screwed

 

I change mine once a year when my tags are due and it always shows plenty of life left on the oil.

 

That was a design mistake. New car's OLM will tell you when not only when the mileage has been exceeded-but when the time limit has been exceeded. GM shouldn't have extended the oil change mileage limit to 15k miles-if there wasn't a timer in the OLM. Most of these cars are not driven more than 15k miles per year.

 

Yes-that is the purpose of the EPA and the Federal Govt. And is one of the things that they are very good at!