Northern Maxima

Ack! I have to pay $60 Canadian from 1/8th of a tank ($50 USD). They rip us off so bad up here it makes me angry.

Chillin, definitely use 91 octane. I used 87 in my old Maxima (didn't know it required 91 then) and my current Max performs way better with 91 and gets way better gas mileage too. I only use 91 now. It will be much better for long term wear as well.

Nmaximist

well, i tried 87 octane just before 2-3 days and i am not going to fill it again in my maxs' life. It really decreased performance and fuel efficiency. so now back on 91.

Bobo

Try the Husky 90 at 87 octane prices, its 11.5 cents/litre cheaper in Greater Vancouver than 91 and what's one octane in the scheme of things for a savings of Cdn$7/tank.

chillin014

iTrader: (67)

alright bro, im goin for 91 next time i fill up. i cant tell if the car has been driving better or its just my imagination/wishful thinking since i've gotten 89. either way, i feel proud to know i'm not running ****ty gas

lefty

Everyone is a cheap in all aspects of life.

Don't tell me that when it came time to change your air conditioner at home or your furnace you went top of the line to High efficiency....although you save $$ in the long run, most will not spend the extra 3 grand for it. Also will you go out and get hte top of the line roof that costs 10 grand more than the average one? Why? You house is hte biggest investment...way bigger than a car but most do not go BLING on these sorts of thing. I buy good stuff for my house but not the bling.

My point is that the Nissan Dealer told me that 87 Octane is fine. I have had the car for 7 years no problem and will probalby sell in the next year or so. My car accellerates fine, I get better mialege than most who post here so whats the problem? Just my preference. I did not state it was good for the car...just my experience.

I also do not run synthetic Oil or tranny oil. With regular changes and not being hard on the car...my tranny is fine and I don't anticipate it going.

However, I will pop in some 93 octane for the next couple of fill ups to see how the car runs. I am not against trying wiht others experience.

Shady33e

iTrader: (2)

well for my max/g35 i've done this before...i used to always run a 87 octane on the max and 93 on the G35 because its a new engine and i dont want to f*ck it up, i did notice one weekend when i put 87 octane on teh g35 nd it wouldnt be as fast on a str8away but either way there was an article about a special edition right hand drive Lancer Evo 7 that the higher octane it used, the more horsepower it produce at crank/wheels.

i also tried this one day and it workd but im never doing it again....pour a full bottle of Vodka(grey goose) into a 3/4 full tank in the max and its lik crack for the car...lol sorry

Shady33e

iTrader: (2)

Sport Compact Car...i really dont know wut issue but it was over a year ago, its that Tommy or w/e Lancer...supposably that higher octane is cleaner gas so its better bla bla...id rather just use the highest octane found...nd mayb alcohal

anton9881

I've experienced this first hand. I used to put 87 in my Infiniti. All of a sudden, my gas mileage fell down to 16mpg and I could not figure out why. I could also feel the knocking in the car. Then one day, I decided to stop being cheap and put in 92. My gas mileage sky rocketed up into the low 20's, and I can not feel any more knocking.

vqmax

the one im talking about is like the may or june issue, actually tested octane boosters on some weirdass machine that tests octane. pretty scientific for something as pointless as boosters usually are. buy premium.

nybali

most of us like maximas partly cause their fast, using the recommended octane will get the most power out of them but lower octane is not harmful to the engine in fact car and driver did a study on this and using lower octane DEPENDING ON THE CAR resulted in as much as a 10% decrease in power thats a lot of freaking HP. What i really want to know is whats the diff between mobil gasoling and sunoco, texaco etc. versus the crappy ones (no name brands) someone should really test that out cause i have no idea what octane im getting i have to trust the company, but supposedly only diff. between mobil and no-names is additives. anyway eventually gas is gonna get pretty expensive and we are gonna resort to ethanol which is much better for the environment and a higher octane than our engines can handle. I really believe in ethanol cause its made from corn so it wont run out actually our cars can run on 15%ethanol which is mixed in with gasoline in some states. if you want an octane booster poor some everclear in ur tanK!

Shady33e

iTrader: (2)

yea right i dont trust those for sht i thought those gas stations were for like lawnmowers or scooters...i go to the Mobil here that has the Limewire symbol premium or shell premium...try vodka in the tank for boost...it works but pour at your own risk

Dan

iTrader: (2)

Every grade of gas has additives, not just premium. If you look at chevron's they all say techron, not just premium. Premium gas gives you more resistance to knocking, that's all.

Northern Maxima

I must use one of those no name gas stations...I use the 91 octane and it does a great job. We don't have much selection here. There are some Shell stations, but they're more expensive so I just go for the cheaper gas, but still premium grade.

jaroque

dang it, and i got my maxima so i didn't have to pay for premium anymore too. =(

RockfordMax

iTrader: (2)

well the max was my dads for 9 years before it came to me, and im guessing he used 89 (thank god not 87 :/) but in the almost year ive had it all its seen is 91 except for ONE time i had to get 87 because the station was "out"... bumblef|_|ck wisconsin.... but yeah, ive noticed the 87 burned up in about 4 days compared to almost 2 weeks or more on 91. also, im hearing about vodka in the tank...now if i were to "find" some vodka and pour it in, what would happen?

JwaxMax99

iTrader: (14)

4 days....to 2 weeks by switching from 87 oct. to 91 octane! Way ridiculous....I call bull....

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

Ha ha! Your car would be a lil tipsy!

Northern Maxima

I had to fill up twice a week with my old Maxima (87 octane) and now in my new Maxima I fill up about every 10 days (91 octane). I'm sure something else was wrong with my previous Max though...maybe from using 87...

Bobo

The benchmark for determining fuel economy or miles per gallon is miles driven divided by gallons consumed. The number of days between fillups is irrelevant, particularly if the car was parked for a week.

Bobo

For your own personal interest, have you ever thought of asking your dad what kind of gas and what octane he used for those 9 years. I can't imagine not knowing what he used.

Northern Maxima

Similar distance...I drove the 98 a little more but not enough to make such a huge difference. The Nissan dealership couldn't figure out why the gas mileage was so bad so we sold it. A trip to town and back would take about 1/8th of a tank, in my 99 the gauge only moves a little.

sonicrunch

100+ octane? apparantly you do not know 87 has more BTUs than 100. Thereby 100 octane is going to reduce your power. But below 91 will reduce your power due to the knock sensor backing off the timing. Why don't you guys stop theorizing and look this crap up.
I'm not gonna sit here and explain it..look it up for yourself.

Chickan

iTrader: (12)

You've been registered since September 2004, and your first, and only post is this? LOL that's awesome

As for why I put in 100octane, as I said before, it was just for kicks, and I only put in 4 gallons, with another 8 gallons of 94 octane.

sonicrunch

Oh..
I gotcha now..

borgus

This may be a repost, but has anyone seen this site?
http://www.toptiergas.com/

SMX95

iTrader: (8)

Ok to sum of somethings I read in the past 3 pages... Shell V-power is ONLY 93 octane. It has a higher cleaning solution in it to clean up your engine. I use 93 @ sunoco which is about 2.23 per gallon. Higher octane is a SLOWER burning gas therefore you get higher mpg. Our cars don't really need anything above 91 but, 93 and 94 are a cleaner gas I rather go with that. Next Do you realize thats there's sediments in the tanks of gas? Lets say 87 or 89 octane isnt being used much (simply put all the new car demand 91+) Then you go and use 87 or 89 now your basically using gas that nobody else wants to use and your filling up your tank with sediments.

Do you know how much of a diff from 89-91 octane is when it comes to money? Prob 2-3 bucks more and thats pushing it. A 20 cent diff for 6-9 gallons isnt going to make an amazing diff that you have to pull out a credit card. Yes whoever said put vodlka in the gas tank is foolish. Dont put any alcohol into your gas, our engines ARENT MADE to run with alcohol. Kiss your pistons goodbye. This isnt like the 70's where they had 105 octane at the gas pump, We use unleaded FUEL ONLY! Lead is what boosts up the octance rating back then, now its ethanol. Before 2004 it was methyl tertiary butyl ether they stopped using it because it had contaminated groundwater. Im in fuels class right now about to finish today.

Sounbwoy

iTrader: (2)

Does the check engine light come on if the knock sensor is not working?
I've run almost always run 87 in the car (unless I was feeling generous with my check or going to the track), and the only time my check engine light has come on in 6 years is when an O2 sensor went out..
FWIW. I bought the car used with 65,000 and now it's got 228537 miles on it, with the MAJORITY of those miles on regular 87 octane gas. I get nothing less than 27 to 28 mpg and up to 30 on the highway, and I'm not a granny driver, but I don't drive wide open all the time either. I have had no engine worries.
Also, it seems to me that many folks are using regular gas, but expecting the car to perform like they're using premium. Won't work that way. If you use regular gas, change your driving habits. Be less aggressive. Use some octane boost if you have to, I guess, and use a good (IMO) system cleaner like Redline Fuel System Cleaner,or bite the bullet and run midgrade at the very least.

Loe max

iTrader: (6)

No, the CEL light is only lit if the effected area will effect emissions equipment.

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

The way additive is advertised, when they talk about 1 point they actually mean .1 octane. So, using their terminology in order to compare apples to apples, if the NOS additive raises the octane 2.5 points, then 4.5 gallons of toluene raises the octane 33 points.

But it is more correct to say (in this specific example) that the toluene raises the octane rating by 3.3, and the bottle of NOS additive raises the octane by .25 (this is all dependent on how much gas you are adding to, by the way).

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

Techron is one of the few cleaning additives that has been independently proven to actually work. Do some research on the subject.

Rickalodeon

Since my '96 was brand new, I've never used anything less than 91. By my calculations, at the current odometer reading of 155,000, I've filled her up over 400 times.....At a minimum difference of 30 cents per gallon, or $4.50 per tank (a little more than a movie rental), I've spent around $1,800 more for the higher octane.

That said, my Max has been running great since the day it was born...and has carried my happy a$$ for over 155,000 miles without complaint. I prefer to give it what it wants, not just what it needs.

chillin014

iTrader: (67)

Okay well at chevron I chose the most expensive of the three.
"Supreme" 20 cents more than regular.
Supreme was 93 octane though. It went from regular(87) to 89 then to 93??
Why can't I just get 91?

Frank Fontaine

*LOL* You state the facts that all the news people have been stating all these years, perhaps in a more direct way!

I think it's amazing to hear people say that "mpgs went up after I used higher octane" when CNN, MSN, Money, yada yada yada and everyone else under the sun states that's not the case at all.

Go to the other extreme--what if we were to fill 'er up with jet fuel--would our highway mpgs go over 40 or 50?

Why our manuals say 91, who knows. Probably 91 octane is available in another country. Every station that I visit has 87, 89, 93, and sometimes 94. No 91......

Bobo

I was under the impression that California had 91 octane gas and no higher. In British Columbia, depending on the franchise, we can get 87, 89, 90, 91, 92 and 94, but not 93.

Wetballoon

Actually, the owners manual says minimum 91 octane. This is determined by the ignition timing and compression ratio of the engine. Higher octane fuels burn slower allowing for more ignition advance on lower compression while allowing a higher compression to not knock. If I remember correctly, our cars have 11.5:1 compression while the average car is well below 10:1. Ratios this high were common in teh 60's but haven't been nearly as popular since. If you want peak pressure at the correct time during the ignition portion of the stroke without having the ignition retarded, you will use the appropriate octane. If you don't care about combustion efficiency, use whatever, and my car will make better use of it's fuel than yours. If you feel that I am in error, read a book. If you must tell me about it, provide your source (not your cousin that has been working on cars in his garage for 50 years).

RockfordMax

iTrader: (2)

well i changed stations. mobil has 93 octane. HONESTLY, its personal opinion. i dont care if someone flames me because i use higher grade gasoline. if it makes ME feel better about driving my car, then why the hell not..

Spaniard

iTrader: (1)

Im sorry to say that this thread has convinced me that there are very many uneducated folk in the 4th gen forum.

Frank Fontaine

1. USE THE LOWEST-OCTANE unleaded gasoline. Most cars do not need high-octane gas; only a few high-performance vehicles require it to run properly. Octane does not increase power or improve gas mileage; it stops pre-ignition, detonation or, as we say, pinging.

That's a direct quote from last Thanksgiving, right out of the mouth of my cousin Pelle Sundin. He's worked on Volvos for over 40 years and knows his stuff. He got a PhD from MN, and was a Fulbright Scholar at MIT.

chillin014

iTrader: (67)

if people go from 91 to 87 and their car runs like **** then where is the debate?
and honestly i think i'm getting better gas mileage too..i've been getting 250 on a full tank of 87, now im getting over 300.

Spaniard

iTrader: (1)

Octane by itself does not generate the power. But the ECU advances the timing in coordination with the knock sensor to provide the most possible power w/o knock. Higher octane gas= more advance = more power = better mileage.