I needed a fix.... and couldn't find my syringe.

 

is this guy for real?

 

Not if we make an example out of him...

 

yup, better gas mileage w/ premium, that's a huge factor. plus people with aftermarket ecu's (eg. JWT) definitely have to use 91+ octane.... or you'll have to factor in the price of a new engine as well.

 

at least I don't post every little fart that comes in my brain.

You ***** up so much that if I were to close my eyes and point to the screen my finger would land on your posts 75% of the time

 

I'm sorry, but I missed your point...

 

No.


it UP.

 

My car has 176K on it, and has been using regular 87 gas for most of it's life (not by me). Does it matter at this point if I switch to high octane (91 or 93), or should I just keep using 87?

 

I would go to 91+.

 

Alright. Was thinking of switching anyways. So I guess with how high the state gas tax is in NC, I'll be reaching for the ground everytime I pull up to a gas pump...

 

And a friend wants me to move to NC. 93 Shell V-Power all day, every day.

 

When the knock sensor detects knocking or fails since it's poorly built and triggers 0304, does the ECU retard timing regardless of whether the real reason is knocking or sensor failure?
Might as well get some real information out of a pretty useless thread
94 octane all the way

 

dont you love how mike easley's 3 cent increase somehow transformed into 20 cents....................

Go Wolfpack btw!

 

It's not poorly built... your car is old... And the information you seek has been posted before...hence why this thread is still a waste.

 

Why don't you go to the stickies and read? This question has been answered countless of times. To start you off, go to this thread, read post #41:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=72447

Make sure you read it in its entirety.

 

Who Posted?
Total Posts: 55
User Name Posts
NmexMAX 12
Apparition 4
Tatanko 4
Brushedpewter 3
Fr33way 3
BlackMaxdout 2
Kevlo911 2
f550maranello2 2

 

Ok just to support what everyone has been saying here...I've been using 91 octane in my 5speed I30t since I had it....Lately due to financial difficulties I went down to 89 telling myself it's not going to show much since I'm not going all the way down to 87. I was wrong...I lost power, and the gas is going down so much faster. I commute about 5 miles of none stop uphill on the freeway and I DEFINETALY feel the difference because I have to sink my foot into the gas pedal more. Next tank? 91. I know the ECU will take a while to advance the timing but hey it's okay.

 

WOW! What a huge response! This has so much more (mostly negative) responses than I could have imagined in only a couple of hours from such a topic. First off, I was wrong in "Assuption 3." Cheap(er) gas will not negatively affect knock sensors. Okay. I get it. We all know (yes, I'm talking to all y'all with thousands of posts) that this comes up frequently on here. Perhaps it's readily dismissed as urban legend, followed with the all-too-often used quip "read the stickies." I have read the stickies. We all have probably read the stickies (at least those of us who devote way too much precious time of our lives to a four door family sedan web forum where everyone is expected to be an expert and simple questions are the subject of mockery, despite that being counter to the entire point of such forum [and by "us" I mean "you"]). So, to quote the conclusion to the source article in the stickies on the topic of cheap vs. premium fuel:

"Our tests confirm that for most cars there is no compelling reason to buy more expensive fuel than the factory recommends, as any performance gain realized will surely be far less than the percentage hike in price. Cheapskates burning regular in cars designed to run on premium fuel can expect to trim performance by about the same percent they save at the pump. If the car is sufficiently new and sophisticated, it may not suffer any ill effects, but all such skinflints should be ready to switch back to premium at the first sign of knock or other drivability woes. And finally, if a car calibrated for regular fuel begins to knock on anything less than premium or midgrade, owners should invest in a tuneup, emissions-control-system repair, or detergent additives to solve, rather than bandage, the root problem. Class dismissed."
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...r-premium.html

How can you compare a percentage of price to a percentage of horsepower? If a person could buy fuel at double the cost and get a 400 hp Maxima would that be an even trade off? Surely many of you would jump at the opportunity to do this, but you'll still be stuck behind the same beige Impala at the next traffic light no matter how fast you accelerate. To me, x percent decrease in power (off an already powerful car) is negligible compared to x percent increase in price. Would I drive a 100 horsepower car on gas that cost half as much? Damn right I would (here's where someone tells me to get a Prius, which I would gladly do if it could get 50 miles per gallon and have a purchase price, reliability, and handling characteristics the same as my Maxima SE 5 sp - with leather, Bose, moonroof, and cold weather package, thank you very much). If I had the money to care about a red light horsepower war on my way to work, my car wouldn't be an eleven year old, four door, five passenger, front wheel drive sedan. This cheapskate will take the eight hundred dollars in savings, thank you very much. As for frankd121's comment: "Bad assumption. Lower octane gas will result in decreased fuel economy," I average above 25 in overall driving (most of which is "spirited city driving" and I only use the cheap stuff unless midgrade is under $2.00/gal.). But, always open to new ideas, I will run higher octane fuel in my next few tanks. I keep track of all my fillups. If the miles to dollar ratio changes noticeably (for better or worse), I'll be on here to report on it. If the expensive gas gets me more miles to the dollar, I will gladly admit my mistake. If I get fewer miles per dollar, well, I'll very gladly tell you about that.

Bottom line, the almighty sticky says use whatever we want unless it results in a drivability issue. For those of us who aren't racing, apparently that isn't a problem.

I think I'm gonna use the savings to buy Altezzas and a Type R badge. That'll make my car faster.

 

So... your point is still invalid in the fact that you just ate leather becuase your entire point of behind the money savings was the theory of bad fuel results in bad KS.

The price between low octane and high octane is still not enough for me to go with the cheaper fuel, end of story. That's just my opinion though.

If I cared that much about fuel consumption, I would not have have bought 2 Maximas... especially the second time around, since I went with an upgraded engine size.

 

They're both . Get some under-body neon while you are at it.

Again if you care about cost more than anything, then you should give up the Maxima and get yourself something that will happily use low octane. BTW, I bet you didn't take into consideration that if fuel octane is too low for a given compression ratio, the fuel prematurely and spontaneously ignites too early and the fuel charge EXPLODES rather than BURNS resulting in incomplete combustion. The net effect is a loss in power and possible engine damage. This is usually represented by an audible "knock" or "ping", referred to as detonation. But hey, you are saving $400 so who cares if your engine dies later on.

 

Used VQ's go for about that... so it will pay off in the end...

 

HAHAHA.........true......that's if he does the swap himself. Otherwise, more $$$.

 

guys you know that simple solution is to buy the RB26DETT its fits right in our cars with no problem and I've heard they'll run on anything cause they're TuRbOeD and theyre like $15 on eBay. So why are we still talking?..

 

You're right, it was based on a different argument (an honest mistake, given the frequency of times this is brought up, albeit faulty). Now it is based on my experience, the experience of previous cars I have owned (and sold, running like a top, with over 200,000 miles on them), the experiences of other people on this forum who have used cheaper gas, and the information in the sticky you suggested I read.

I did. It's in the stickies. "If the car is sufficiently new and sophisticated, it may not suffer any ill effects." Sure, there's a conditional statement if and the passive word may, but I'd say our car is pretty damn sophisticated, and I've never heard of anyone experiencing long term ill effects in the year and a half I've been on this forum or in real life.

Please solicit posts from your friends who have lost an engine due to an octane rating.

This engine appears to be running fine.

Thanks Haibert88. Like I said, I will use more expensive gas and report my personal findings as well. If I experience an improvement, you'll see me on here in a couple weeks.

Listen, everyone. I'm not against you and you shouldn't be against me. If you're racing your car and need a couple extra horses, give the oil companies a couple of dollars extra each week. If you are using it as a daily driver and don't care if your max hp drops a couple percent, then save money like me. I guarantee you, my engine will outlast a heavily modded, highly stressed engine used for racing, running on 93 octane. Driving the engine aggressively may be good for it, but driving it hard is far more detrimental to its longevity. If you're actually using those last few hp, you're driving it hard.

 

Can't argue with a moron! Do some research for yourself. If the only defense you got is what you've just said about soliciting my friends to find out if anyone of them has lost an engine, then I might as well save my $300 and get gaytezzas. BTW, all my Maxima friends use high octane on their cars. I guess nothing anyone will say would matter to you anymore. I don't know why you even bothered to create this thread in the first place.

 

^^^ That's exactly what I said, keep the cheapness in your diary.

 

why do you come in here and try to tell us what to do? it's our money, we'll spend it on whatever we want. don't make a thread that says why 'I' should use cheap gas. make one that says that you use cheap gas and then brag to us about your huge savings and incredibly well running engine. this thread is beyond worthless.




oh, and i don't give a **** if you come back here with your precisely calculated data. keep it to yourself cuz i surely won't be thinking about it next time i fill up with 93

 

The car just wont perform the same period, end of story, yes it will drive, no one is disputing that it will not run on 87-89, it won't perform as well as 91+. You will also see it in the gas mileage. Find anyone who runs 87 at a track.

 

With regular gas I am near empty after a week. On premuim (93) I only use half a tank of gas in a week. Don't know what milage I drive, suppose I better check the ODO.

 

After reading this thread I realized that some people on here who run cheap gas should just trade there maxima in and buy a accent, hey you will get great gas mileage and, the sh;ty performance you deserve, I am a firm believer of if you take car of your car it will take care of you!

 

This is the worst thread ever. Mods really need to delete it before newbs start running around and ... ugh ... don't get me started ... just delete it

 

You haven't seen ****

 

Everyone knows I am an advocate of the 87 cheap gas. I have been suspended posting twice for defending my position, it isn't required and it doesn't harm the engine.

However, my car is about 270k miles now and still gets 30 mpg/24 mpg but I have found that my car starts better with the higher octane and it runs slightly better in acceleration.

So I have switched. I feel like I am wasting some dollars every time I go to the pump but the car likes it.

I haven't been wrong in advocating 87 but I feel that as the car ages it might be better to put in higher octane.

 

Perhaps due to carbon buildup resulting in a slightly higher static CR.

 

He's just telling us what he THINKS, not what to do. You may be lucky enough to run your car on 87, and not have issues. The majority of maxima's though do not have that tendency. I would not be surprised though if you used higher octane your mpg goes up a few mpg.

I've used 93+ octane since I got my car and nothing less after the ecu upgrade. I've noted gas mileage as good as 33mpg mixed city and highway. The lowest I've ever had was 23 and that was all city driving.

The VQ is a TOUGH motor, I have 158000 miles and drive it ***** out everyday. I've never had a problem with it except for stupid things that I've done. It's pretty heavily modified and I wouldn't be surprised if it went 200k+ with ease.

Just my .02

 

I don't think there's any need to be so hostile, he hasn't come here accusing or being a d!ck, he's being respectful of opinions and IS going to try higher octane gas to see if there's any difference. You need to check yourself on this one. You need to open up your mind a bit man.

 

WOW!! 29mpg? i get more like 21-22 with a CEL for back O2 sensors.

 

.But that's because he has a 4 cyl prior generation Altima...KA24

 

"With regular gas I am near empty after a week. On premuim (93) I only use half a tank of gas in a week. Don't know what milage I drive, suppose I better check the ODO."

Surely this can't be right. In past cars I've had, the mileage difference between high and low octane was minimal at best.

"dont you love how mike easley's 3 cent increase somehow transformed into 20 cents....................

Go Wolfpack btw! "

Yeah, don't get me started on Easley and the NC legislature... nice to see that this new "education lottery" has already directed it's income towards "more needy programs".

 

mine does too.....maybe people should look into other maintence items befire going cheapo on gas......and premium is recommended for a number of things like compression and timing and KS dont bad because they detect knock too much...they do it when u use 93 just as much as 87 would....it just doesnt retard timing as much to correct it when using 93