2001 SE...So whats the diffrence if I use Regular 87 octane opposed to using premium 93 octane...will I loose HP with the 87 octane???? What effect does using 87 octane have on the car???? Why does the gas lid say "premium fuel is recommended for maximum performance"????? Does this mean Premimum ONLY...or can regular be used but with less performance????? I'm confused.................I'm not being cheap by not wanting to use premimum. I just want to know if there is a big reason to spend the extra bucks....

 

the general consensus is that you *can* use 87 octane if you want/need to, but you'll get poorer performance and crapper gas mileage to the point where you'd just be better off running premium to begin with where you get much better performance/mileage...

So just use 91+ in your Max

 

Welcome, merlin_2001. I'd recommend you begin by doing a search under "gasoline" in the 5th Gen Forum. That should get you started.

 

I'll put it to you like this...yes you will loose hp why? cuz not using the right gas causes pinging and knocking eventually causeing damage and possibly killing the engine thereby not allowing any hp.

 

Nissan recommends using 92 octane but they admit it is OK to use 87, since the 2001 maxima has a very advanced engine with superior timing, there is not an issue with pre-ignition (knocking/pinging). However, 92 octane is still better for your engine, as this will give you much less of a chance of losing performance.


So do whatever your budget allows...you won't kill your car with 87.

 

Hi merlin_2001. This isn't directed to you in particular, but you were the one who brought it up.

Let's look at the actual figures and economics:

Assumptions:
You drive 25,000 miles a year. (Okay, *I* drive 25K per year. Others usually drive less.)

Premium costs $0.20 more per gallon. (No matter what the price of gas is in my area, 93 octane is 20 cents more per gallon than 87.)

You normally get 22 mpg.

You save all of $228 PER YEAR. I don't understand where the big cost savings are. If you think $228 is a lot, why are you driving a Max? You should be driving an Echo.

Formula is pretty simple. Plug in your own numbers:

Annual mileage
--------------- * (Cost of premium - Cost of regular) = $ savings
mpg of your car

I don't get the usage of 87 octane. I paid a premium on my Max over any of the other similar cars (Accord, Camry V6) for the higher perfomance. Why would I want to cheap out on the gas and lose that edge?

 

I find this interesting. On one of those old posts a bunch of you were talking about mileage and many said they got low 20's as well. That's the LOWEST I've ever gotten and our GXE doesn't even have 3000 miles on it yet. Just filled up last night, just shy of 28 mpg.

Now granted, I don't race, but my foot goes to the floor once or twice almost every time I drive the car, and I don't drive it easy, but I don't abuse it either. I wonder why there is such a difference in mileage?

 

You should count your blessings because you're getting fantastic mileage! I'm assuming that you have a 5-speed. Even then the official MPG is 22/27 (Forget about the 19/26 that we're supposed to get with Automagics )yet you average 28? That's great! I think the low 20's estimate is typical because that's what we're expected to get. As for me, I'm happy when I break 20.

 

Actually we have an Automagic! (It was originally supposed to be my wife's car) I wouldn't say that I average 28, that was just from a mostly highway almost 400 mile trip this weekend. I'd say the average is about 25 though. I filled up before we left on our trip and I got 22.5 on that tank which was totally stop and go in town travel.

I guess I'm just lucky!! WHEW! It's a blessing after driving a Pathfinder for 6 years where I was lucky to get 18 on a really good highway trip!

 

The 2000 automagic has EPA ratings of 20/28, the 2001 has 19/26. Why the difference? Or is it just that they got caught fudging on the 2000 and had to correct it for 2001?
It's funny you guys keep talking about 93 and 92 octane. In California, the highest obtainable octane is 91. For many years it was 92, then just a few weeks ago they changed it because of the phase-out of MTBE. I would not even call the stuff we get in CA gasoline, it's such a joke. You will always get much worse mileage in CA than in most other states because of the junk they have to put in our "gas".

 

I don't know about the difference in ratings. As for gas in CA, yeah it sucks. I used to average 10mpg with my jeep grand cherokee V6. That was horrible. At least now I'm getting about 16...I think