well, I was just wondering if WE HAD to put 93 in, Like I saqid some cars you NEED to.

 

Another data point:
I've been running 89 octane for a couple of months now, and I've seen no decrease in fuel economy. (I always scribble the mileage down on my gas receipt and put it into a little spreadsheet, so I *know* what my fuel economy is). No knock sensor codes either.

Interestingly, I've found that avoiding running the A/C save a good bit of fuel. I run the auto climate control at 77 in summer, and in winter I make sure to switch from defroster to heat asap. I used to run it in heat/defrost all winter long and my fuel economy suffered.

Dave

 

Good point ....

 

I have two bikes that cost more than my Max! Oh yeah I use premium. My wife filled it once with mid-grade and I scolded her "whats $1.80 per tank!

 

SO true, most likely, very few are actually "average" drivers, I'm certain that most believe that they are above average, and a few probably are. But I would wager that most on here are below average and don't realize it.

 

Correlations. Remember correlations. And knock sensor will constantly adjust itself without throwing a code. No code does not = 'perfect running engine'. Very important to know what's happening with your engine without solely relying on codes. My $.02.

 

Holy crap, another gas thread.

Who gives a rats azz. Use regular if you wish or use premium if you wish. Write about how regular is the greatest or write about how premium is the greatest.

I use premium because that's what the car says is the best for best performance. If you want to nit pick or distrust or give reason why that's wrong so what.

I choose to spend 20 cents more per gallon and you don't. I choose to spend 20 cents less per gallon and you don't. So the fukk what.

In the grande scheme of things WHO GIVES A ****!!....

 

I agree that these gas threads are frustrating, but Wow! You ever thought of enjoying a nice, relaxing cup of tea?

 

Somebody crapped in my cornflakes this morning I think....

 

agreed.. (sips a cup of green tea.)

 

.......

 

haha use whatever you want.... i choose to use 93, it may do nothing, and even if it be proven to do nothing someday, I dont care, I still feel like im doing better for my car by running the BEST there is. Because thats all my baby deserves... the best. BP 93 FTW!
I spent 80 bucks on plugs when I could have spend $40... I spent almost $100 for a o2 when I could have spent $60.... My car is just not something I go cheap on. You want to save money, skip that fast food your about to pick up. Thats the 7 bucks right there that you cut your car out of.

 

I find it funny when people are loyal to a name brand of gas station. How many big name stations are there in your market? I've never counted, but there's Hess, Shell, ExxonMobil, Conoco, Marathon, Sunoco, the list goes on depending on where you live. I suppose about a dozen or so anywhere you go. Now, how many oil refineries are there that serve your market? Probably one or two, again, depending on where you live. Your fuel is made at the refineries, not the stations. The refineries give every one they serve the same fuel. They all sell the same thing. The same truck delivers to many different name brand stations. Now, there could be differences in business practices that are worthy to support, but not differences in quality of fuel (of comparable grade).

 

each gas company adds its own additives to the fuel. For citgo thats water.

 

This is thing I noticed at sunoco gas stations. Their ultra (94 octane) and their premium (93 octane) has switched in the philly area a couple months ago. Now ultra is 93 and premium is 91? What's up with that? Their 93 octane is now more expensive than the neighboring gas stations with 93.

As far as the gas debate goes I just use whatever the car company recomends

 

What happened to the sticky that said "Anyone who starts gas threads will be banned"?

We need it back.

 

The refineries that you refer to are terminals, fuels are pumped into the terminals via the pipelines. Remember last years "shortage" after Katrina? Many pipeline pumps lost power. When the tanker driver load up at the terminal, they select the grade of fuel and the supplier, and the brand name additives are added to the fuel while it is being loaded. Whether you choose to believe it or not, there is a difference in brands. And if you compare the color of Amoco Ultimate it to any other gas, you will notice the ultimate is clear, not yellow.

 

As long as I continue getting 25-26mpg on my commute, and it doesn't show any other symptoms, I don't care about any supposed performance loss. The 'value' of a Maxima with 149k miles is insignificant compared to the cost of fuel.

Dave

 

There is another issue: when the truck arrives at the gas station, the manager instructs the driver how much of which fuel to put into which storage tank. A guy I know who drove tanker trucks said he had a disturbing number of managers instruct him to put 87 or 89 in the 93 tank, and so on. He would deliver to all different chains too.

The only fuel *I* place additional value in is Sunoco 94. I figure because they blend it with 87 at the pump to make the 89 and 93 grades, and because nobody else makes the 94, that I'm less likely to be given crap gas (lied to). And I only buy the 94 for my turbocharged RX-7, where low-grade gas will blow your engine, rather than trip some weenie knock sensor code or retard your timing for a week. The Maxima gets fuel from whatever pump is cheap and convenient.

Dave

 

I can respect that. I tell the same thing to all those health nuts warning to stay away from 'bad cholesterol'. My body feels fine, I'm trim and slender, and I have great energy. Screw those guys! What do they know? I can eat as many double bacon cheeseburgers with extra cheese and wash it down with as many lard shakes as I want, because I don't see any bad results, yet.
Tell you what. I'll trade you 10 tanks of gas for your car.

 

its the sensor that activates ur alarm when u knock on the window........and its recommended to use Premium fuel....is it required....no ....ur car may run like ***....and ur knock sensor MAY have premature life....but do as u wish

 

Bottom line, our Max's are optimized for 93 octane, don't cheap out by using 87 or 89 just to save a buck or 2.

If you want a more thorough explanation on why our Max's need 93, I suggest, as most already have, to read the FAQ's

This thread needs to be

 

If you owned a nice BMW and it asked for premium, would you still feed it regular to save a few pennies?

Collect the pennies you've saved by using less than premium to donate 20 bucks in order to use the search engine. I've seen diagrams, graphs, equations, chutes and ladders, etc on this stupid topic. In my preference, I will spend the extra few dollars to help me sleep a little better.

You don't have to challenge me to anything. If you want to save a few bucks on your vehicle, be my guest. It's not like Nissan Engineers know wtf they are talking about anyways

 

It seems like the longer I'm on this damn site, the more defensive people get when it comes to saving money. This reminds me of the thread where the guy bought a tornado and really thought it worked. God forbid.

 

What's regular?

 

I use 93 octane. 93 has a better resistance to pinging since it combustes less easily. Also, it's not that big of a price difference once I fill up anyways so I go all the way. 93 is $2.89 here in TN.

 

It's not like these are $30k cars anymore. Most are more like $3k. If you have an aging car, it does pay to save your spending for things that really matter, and skip some of the things that aren't.

Dave

 

I just dont see the point in buyin a car you cant afford the gas for. I have never put in anything less than premium (i have 93 out my way) and i wont regardless of the age of the car. And its not just maxima owners doin this, i see you guys are makin coments about doin that to beemers... sadly (i work for a gas station) i have bmws, mercedes, tls, and so on that come in all the time and buy regular. Its funny its the people that have the mercedes that complain to me the most at work about the price... first i could care less about the price, second i could care less how people feel, third Kia's have great gas milage lol.

 

Yes, this does happen, and any driver caught doing this is in deep 541t. It is highly illegal. When I was hauling the stuff myself, my dispacher told me how much of which grade to haul, and I didn't even speak to the store personnel until it was in the ground. Some of the less scrupulous stores would request more of the 87 than they could hold, forcing us to put it somewhere, but we knew they did it and alway cut back the load by 500 gallons or so. If a driver knowingly puts the wrong grade of fuel into a tank, s/he is responsible. It isn't worth the consequences since the driver receives nothing for the risk.

 

good god, i've always run 87 in all my cars. never noticed a difference at all in gas mileage or performance, sheesh. i thought it made it run better, but it was a mind control thingy( placibo?? ) that made me think it ran better. keep your fluids fresh, and fix stuff when it breaks, not rocket science< you know??

 

ha ! good guess, its new technology introduced in the sport of boxing, instead of the ref, doing a count or trying to make a visual observation, the ref connects the knock sensor to each temple to determine if the boxer is in fact ---> KO'd. i believe this is often confusing because Nissan developed the technology.

 

93 smells better and it keeps deer away. But 87 does taste a lot like regular pepsi.

 

personally i think everyones nuts gas is gas 87 never hurt any car out there

87 in my max all day long cheaper and just as good as 93 really no difference in performance watch the nightly world news they even tell you that.

 

The sheer comedy of these threads is how the facts get twisted and more twisted. Maxima has 91 octane recommended, not 93. And the manual says 87 can and I quote, "CAN" be used.

And when you multiply 20 cents per gallon, it's 3.70, not 7, not 1, not 2.

People are so one-sided here they get the facts wrong, and then they continue to insist on the same position without even thinking about what they are saying.

Can the Maxima benefit from 91 octane over 87 octane?? YES. Can a CR-V? NO. Can an Avalon? YES. Can a BMW? YES.

Does it cost only $7 more per tank for super? NO. It costs about $3.70.

Can it be concluded that a person who uses regular is cheap, or can't afford to use super? NO.

Is super relatively cheaper today than it was in 2001? YES. When you think about it, 0.20/3.199 is only 6.25%. That's relatively cheap. The absolute marginal amount is basically unchanged.

Sometimes I can't understand why facts aren't important on this forum. The only thing I can possibly think of is the age factor.

 

Well stated. I applaud your struggle for an objective stance.

 

Do what you want. It's your car

 

that's what I've experienced.. i don't have a Max, but premium is recommended on my car. I was curious as to the mpg diff.. performancewise, i wasnt able to tell any difference (i don't run my car hard).. however, i did 2 fillups on regular grade, and then 2 fillups on premium.. My mpg was better with the premium and thus I was able to driver a longer range.. its actually cheaper by the mile to drive with premium instead of regular unleaded on my TL.