I have a 97 Maxima GLE. I've been putting just Regular gas in the car since I got it from my uncle 2 months ago. Is this okay? Or what else should I be filling it with?

 

if only it told you on the inside of the gas cap.

 

Well I read on here that you should put Premium, so now I'm not sure?

 

Rocket fuel.

 

I been using Premium max runs great

 

Premium or bust

 

You should be putting in premium gas.

 

The engine will probably knock with regular. I find that I have to use mid grade or premium.

 

The gas cap says 91 Octane or better. Put premium in bro, you wont regret it.

 

premium from chevron is what i do and it treats the max with love

 

Previous owner used 89...I use 89.....no problems.

 

at $3 difference a tank. is this even a question? i wont even bother wastin my breath on how premium gives you better MPG and performance.

 

Premium is the way to go

 

it says to use premium gasoline but i uses regular gasoline at shell eversince i got my 96 max. doesnt really bother me, plus with all the rough economy and stuff.

 

...if you were looking for the best possible MPG/Cost per fill-up why did you buy a max?

 

I run Coleman lantern fuel usually. An track days I fill up with Ronsonal lighter fluid. Its expensive but I get 73 MPG Angeles an extra 300 RPM when double clutching.

 

Premium only since purchased in 98...

 

93 or nothin'

 

Bought vehicle 5 years ago at 135K miles; now has about 215K. Never use anything but regular; no knocking or pinging, smooth, and still runs like a scalded dog. Manufacturer recommeds premium for marketing reasons more so than performace or mileage, but ECU adapts to the lower octane level with no problem.

 

I would love to hear the marketing reasons.
And yes octane affects performance and mileage. The knock sensor is what keeps the engine from not pinging, it tells the ECU to retard the timing.
The VQ30DE has a compression ratio of 10 to 1. 91 octane is recommended for it to run normally.
But u run what u want to. Ur car not mine.

 

I thought 91 was always recommended for the car, i learned this because my car didn't feel as responsive when i had 87 in it, so i tried 91 for a month and felt the difference and have kept filling it with 91 since

 

Never said it wasn't. Keep running 91. Running anything lower will cause a knock. The knock sensor will pick it up and tell the ECU to retard the ignition timing.
It is not good for the engine to keep running 87 octane because the ECU won't catch the knock all the time. So your engine does knock using 87 octane it's just not as noticeable with a knock sensor trying to compensate.

 

If it says Regular on the gas lid, then it means the engine was designed to use regular. If it says premium, premium.

 

Read the owner's manual...

 

Thanks T-mon3y, i still keep feeding her that 91 as usual. And it doesn't matter how hard the economy is hitting. lol

 

lol do not drive till reading the entire owners manual havnt u ever seen that?

 

premium all the way, once i put 87 and my max didnt agree with it

 

The knock sensor retards timing very quickly; the ECU advances timing very slowly. You won't be at full-blown engine-wrecking pre-ignition if you're on a steady stream of 87.

I can't comment on MPG claims as I've never run a controlled experiment, but my MPGs dropped a few when I had a bunk knock sensor, the same condition the car is in when you pump 87. I kept very close track of my mileage. It rarely deviated from about 25.0MPG on premium, and it dropped to about 21.5 with the blown KS. Someone else will have to comment on how 87 vs 91 is affected by the sensor, as I've never consistently run 87 with a functional one, but my experience (retarded timing resulting in higher fuel consumption) seems to indicate that you should see an MPG improvement with premium. Someone else will also have to run the numbers on whether or not that evens out the extra $ for a tank of 91.

 

I am with everyone who have said to use Premium gas. The difference in price really isn't all that much from going Unlead to Premium so if you are looking for max performance and max mpg, Premium is the way to go.

 

 

seems i get better gas milege with 87 octane but the motor feels really weak. when i run premium it feels like a whole different motor. yes my knock sensor works its new.

i get 26mpg highway and 20 city on 87 octane, and 28mpg highway on 93 oct and 16 to 17mpg city.



but it maybe cause i step on it more with premium, thats just my though i mostly run 87 but weekend fun i run 93. mine has 230k miles.

 

Premium over here. Might just be some weird placebo effect but someone put 87 in my car once and I noticed quickly. The car just didn't respond well. I couldn't wait till my tank was on E.

 

I use premium, only because it calls for it. better gas mileage too...