infiniti medic

Nothing good. She's pinging. Oh well won't do that again. She does not like it.

Waxima

iTrader: (3)

That's a bit surprising, I ran 89 for the first two months I had my car and it had no problems and ran smoothly until it shut off on the highway one day. However, I also suspect that my car may have been filled up with regular its whole life before I got it.

I would think 87 would be an issue, but not 89.

Clashez

iTrader: (5)

I run 89 all the time with no problem. it also depends were u get the gas at to on how good it is

maxurlife

iTrader: (1)

when I bought mine I don't remember any pinging, but I do remember reduced gas mileage and throttle response. I always use 93 (91 when I'm in CA) but I learned from the 3rd gen that i had, the best performance and mileage comes from high octane.

L36

iTrader: (4)

VQ30DE-K here, if id run 87, there would be no pinging but an obvious loss of power for some reason, the car would not aceelerate as hard. I now run only 93 and well the power is great and the car sounds deeper, but that might just be me..

Also, 93 smells a bit like sulfur while 87 did not, probably because of no cats.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

That's b/c it is pinging and the ecu retarded timing to prevent knocking.

infiniti medic

Well I always use 93, but wanted to see if the car would knock or not. So I'll add a bottle of octane booster

Airdale2

Even if the engine is able to run 87 with no problems I think I'd still get 93 just because its better for the engine, oh and the car pulls harder

ranmas2004

iTrader: (2)

I used to run 89 all the time in my 02 max......then oneday I said...Let me try 93...DAYUM!!! Never been back to 89 since!! Get more power with 93 and seemed like better mileage too. But 89 never hurt......never had issues like you had.

ChrisMan287

iTrader: (34)

91-93 or don't fill up.

Chris Gregg

iTrader: (59)

Yeah, I think this issue of fuel grade is well established. Especially if timing is advanced.
I think it's also established that Ethynol free helps the car run even better.

worldwiderecognized

iTrader: (9)

advice anyone?

i replaced knock sensor last night. and rear o2 about 2 weeks ago. well mechanic did. filled up with 87. since doing the knock, now i have vibration in the pedal a very steady consistent vibration in the pedal/etc. took it on the highway. got a p0325,p0400 and a p0411. **** after coming off the highway. i cleared the codes. went back on the highway later on a few hours later and codes didnt come back on. im planning a 3 hour trip on the highway tomorrow. im sure they will come back on... think i can still drive with them and not damage anything? keeping it at 65mph on cruise?

im thinking im going to have to try 89/91. you americans pay about $30-40 less to fill up your tanks though. its just not fair lol. i dont know if i can afford to drop $120 on a fill up. i prefer $80/85

i got about i think 200-250 km's out of a quarter tank. running 87.
what do you guys get in miles/km's per quarter tank running 89/91?

ps. i have a 97 se i just picked up. used to have a 95 se. always ran 97 never problems until timing chain issue after 4 years of owning it. this car seems to occasionally have a rough start and slightly rough idle but i thought that might've been because of the knock sensor. which did have a crack in it. fuel injector cleaner didn't really help my cause. but i haven't run it through a full tank yet. just put 25mL in a little over a quarter tank of gas and ran it till empty. not enough to make a difference i guess.

should i clean tb and try running 91? they used to live on a new development very dusty roads all dirt for over a year dust every where and im pretty sure they never put anything but 87 in.

i just wanna know if theres a difference between 87/91 at least. bang for your buck so to speak with mileage? i think 91 is a bit out of my price range. unless its significantly better in terms of mileage.

infiniti medic

Yeah just wanted to see if I could cut fuel cost abit. But destroying my engine is not worth it. So back to the 93. It's not that I can't afford to fill it with the 93. I can afford it. My feeling was to try and save a couple of dollars. Actually saved about 8 bucks. Just not worth the knocking for me. I'm a type A personality. So again back to 93.

Flanker84

Ok, I want to add my info for everyone that are planning a travel to Mexico.

Thanks to PEMEX (Government's Oil Industry) we only got 2 kind of gasolines: Magna and Premium.

Magna it's a gasoline with 87 octanes and the quality it's "good".

Premium it's a gasoline with 92 octanes and with better quality than Magna but a little more expensive than Magna gasoline.

From the day that I bought my Maxima I'm doing a journal of every time that the Max it's refueled (kind of fuel, MPG, price, cost, quantity, mods, etc.) and my early conclusion it's that with 92 and 87 gasolines I get almost the same MPG!

And yes, the difference in performance between 87 and 92 it's very noticeable but the MPG it's almost the same (Same conditions of road, climatic conditions, driving style, etc). Also the VQ30DE-K doesn't make any drama if it use 87 or 92 and I'll keep using 87 octanes for a long time.

JDM BOIIA32

I used 87 n switched to 93 n didnt feel much diffrence

infinimax96

I have 2 cars. 96' I30 and 97' Maxima

My girlfriend drives the I30 and almost always puts 89 in the tank
I drive the Maxima and ALWAYS put 91 in the tank

If you park the cars bumper to bumper and pop the hoods while running you can notice a slight audible knock coming from the I30 and not the Maxima. If you put 91 in the I30 after the tank has ran almost dry, the knock goes away.

The Maxima also has 43,000 more miles then the I30.

worldwiderecognized

iTrader: (9)

hmm ive gotta do this 3 hour ride on the highway. since replacing the knock... putting 87 in and getting the steady vibration and knock, etc. should i throw in some octane booster OR fuel injector cleaner for the trip? ive got 3/4 tank and thats about what ill be goin thru. its a steady speed mostly the entire way.

L36

iTrader: (4)

Octane booster. I personally do not trust the injector cleaners.

worldwiderecognized

iTrader: (9)

yeah im gonna throw in some octane booster for the trip hopefully it will help out. and now on use midgrade.. premium too pricey! if midgrade will actually help at all. compared to regular

johnsonzx77

89 for me. I think the previous owner used 87 because once I started using 89 there was less vibration and just a bit more pull...which we all like

buddywh1

if it's pinging you have something wrong. there are anti-knock detectors that detect pinging and retards timing to prevent it. you might have a little reduced performance, but not that much on 89 octane.

wirelessdude04

iTrader: (24)

I run 91 and no problems what so ever. Ran 87 before and car didnt wanna start until after two cranks

jzwu

When I run 87, there is weird noise from the engine even my daughter can tell from outside the car.

So for me minimum is 89.

EsQueue

iTrader: (2)

I think that most of this is a mental issue or your cars have issues. It true that my car felt a little slower after going back to 87 but there is no audible pinging and milage hasn't gotten any more ****ty than it usually is.

spock

iTrader: (5)

I used 89 for the first 2 years that I owned my I35. No pinging, no problems. For the last 6 or 7 fillups, I've switched to 91 because the wifey has a company gas card and it's not abusing it as a few other employees also use premium. ( She is the book keeper/office manager, so she knows.) I really don't notice much difference. Maybe slighty better respose on throttle tip in. I haven'nt done an actual mpg, but the trip computer only went from 9.2 liters per 100 km to 9.1 liters per 100 km which is not even worth mentioning.

sontakke

I have 2000 and except for the 1st year or two, it has been fed nothing but 87 octane. The has been always purchased at brand name stations such as Mobil or Shell. It currently has 170K. I will put 93 once in a while to find out what am I missing but for me the difference is miniscule as far as way behaves.

- Vikas

MaximusTi

iTrader: (1)

All that is really going too happen when you run a lower grade of gas is your ECU will retard timing too compensate.

You'll lose some power, if you want maximum performance then you need too run 91+.

This has already been mentioned in this thread, just saying.

Flanker84

Well, it's the best to use 91+ octane gasoline in our cars but sometimes you can't get it and must use gasoline with lower octane level. But with all this responses I'm curious about the noises that the engine will make with different gasolines, I'll keep an eye in that the next time.

Snypa

iTrader: (35)

I run 89 religiously and no problems.

raaizin

Same here, have a 2002 purchased new. Run only 87 octane in it since new. No issues 143k miles on it

Shirke

I have 2K Maxima I have to use 91+ octane gas.if anything lower, it knock & ping.currently has 108K miles.

Comicus

I have a 2k with 192,000 miles and have only filled up with 87. No knocking, pinging, or weird vibrations and average 27 mpg. I'll continue saving the extra money.

Puppetmaster

iTrader: (48)

It's up to you really... if your car runs fine with 89 and you don't feel that it's any different, go for it. I've tried 87 and 89 for the hell of it, and only notice a slight difference (which may even be in my head) with 87. No noticeable difference with 89. That being said, I run 91 on a regular basis.

Prophecy99

iTrader: (1)

This! nothing else, no problems, no mental issues, no pinging, and still plenty of go.

spock

iTrader: (5)

Plus 3,595.

jruss21

Got an 02 I bought new and started running 93. When gas got more expensive, switched to 89. No problems. When gas got MORE expensive, I decided to try 87. No problems and no lack of performance that I can see. I've been running this for a few years now without problems. Got 138k on it now. I generally only fill up at major gas stations (Chevron, Exxon, Shell). Occasionally I'll fill up at walmart (murphy oil) or racetrac I'm around one when I need gas but no mom and pop shops.

sontakke

The car has "adequate" (using Rolls Royce specification :-) power with 87 octane. I have UltraGauge installed and I do see that with 93 octane the timing stays on the higher side as compared to 93 octane and so does the performance.

BUT the difference is NOT night and day and at least for me, 87 octane gives "satisfactory" performance and has ample acceleration and throttle response.

- Vikas