bert

If I can afford the best V6 engine on the road, I can affort to treat it right.

91 all the way. I would run Sunoco 94, but there are VERY few here (less than 1%).

GNGXE

Higher octane doesnt really increase mpg,I have yet to use 87 in mine but I probably will. Wouldnt the performance losses mostly be at WOT?

The_quorum

Running 87 for 2 weeks now...No problems/performance differences that I can tell except when I went up a steep hill in Elicott City this afternoon...18% grade...and went moderate speed uphill. Engine was making all sorts of ugly knocks if the rpm dipped below 3k. When I stuck it in 2nd, the rpms rose and seemed to aleviate this problem. This has't happened before when going up this hill.

Astringent

The engine doesn't retard the timing until knocking has been detected. Engine knock damages the engine, albeit slightly, every time it occurs, and the damage is cumulative. While many people may use regular unleaded for the driving lives of their Maximas, it's not something I would do with mine.

pmar

So many people are making comments these days like it's an internet society of no doers. How many people have actually rebuilt a motor? Guess it's just not done these days, as people get Maximas for their 16th birthdays. Anyway, as you know, I prefer super especially when it is so cheap today, like 12 cents more than regular. Not much of a hard decision there. But I had one of those Chevy Caprices back in the early 90s that pinged quite a lot, even with super. The owners manual said it is designed for REGULAR and that some pinging is healthy and normal. No joke. You guys have this unrealistic idea of how delicate a motor is. This gas thing is out of control just like the oil thing where some thought if it's not changed in 3k the car turns into a pumpkin. What is this cumulative damage, seriously, what is it? Do you get little pits on the crowns of your pistons, do the connecting rods come lose, does the crank get toasted, what? When a manual says 93 octane is required, like in the BMWs, there is nothing to debate. You need premium. When it says regular may be used when premium is not available, what the heck do you think that means? It's also stated on the fuel filler door. Now how hard was that?

Eric L.

I've learned that no matter how much you try to convince people to read the owners manual, some will persist on maintaining their car "according to grandpa's time honored methods" such as "you must use super, you must change the oil every 3000 miles, etc..."

I'm not against being dedicated to maintaining your car, but I just find it irritating when people make up half truth answers where the real solution is plainly obvious. The FACT is that you do NOT have to use super. You can, and it won't hurt. But regular is fine too.

bill99gxe

iTrader: (1)

never let facts get in the way of a good story.....

We all live in a vacuum, so there is no need to change maintenance habits....

wdave

Grandpa also probably said - "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

The way the system works is that there's some maximum spark advance that the ecu will run. Some minimum octane is needed to run at that advance without knock. If you put lower octane than that minimum there will be knock and the computer will retard the spark accordingly. Therefore, if you put higher octane than needed for that maximum advance you get no benefit. If you put lower octane than that minimum you will loose mileage and power. It appears that the magic octane number for a Maxima is about 91.

Dave

pmar

How you measure the octane, what is the oil man's bait?

Car Recommended Required

Toyota 87 87
Maxima super regular
BMW super super
Volvo S70 super super
Volvo V70 T5 super super
Chevy Caprice plus regular
Volvo 240 1985 plus regular
1970 Lemans 250 plus regular (lead+)

Look, put super in the tank, it's only 0.12 cents more than regular even though it is getting uncomfortable as gas is now a good 10 cents per gallon more than it ever was when it peaked last time. The extra 12 cents is negligible, forget it. Maybe when gas is 84 cents and super is 1.04, then use regular. I heard a rumour that 2.50 for regular is not too far away and the oil man is swimming like a pig in **** right now. Must be dancing in the streets in Houston these days. Who would want to live in Houston anyway? All pure black gold profits, there is no shortage folks. Claim they were hurting when we were pumping super at 1.049, yeah right, they were making big denero then too.

It's a real shame that they will not give us a decent transit system here in the States. When I went to Europe I was gonna rent a car and found it's actually a waste of time and money to do so. Here there's a manditory $6 charge to the airport. Then, because the slips are too small for the Airbus planes they jack the taxes on rental cars to over 22% to pay for expansion. To make matters worse, the City jumps on the bandwagon and slaps their manditory surcharge as well. We sure have one ****** up notion of transportation here!

Jesse93GXE

Some cities used to have good transportation systems, but the big car companies like GM destroyed them or stopped development of them.

Their most common way was to buy the transit companies and then just shut them down.

For example San Francisco had a great cable car system at one time that was really city wide (for the city at that time). So they bought the cable car company and literally tore up all the cable car tracks out of the street, except for a few 'scenic' routes.

Many reasons why we don't have decent public transit these days.. including our own lazyness.

Eric L.

Actually, SF still has a great public transit system. Sure sometimes the buses are late, break down, and there is a crime problem, but before I drove, the bus got me where I needed to go everyday. Oh, I am from SF, and I have NEVER ridden the cablecar. Funny thing is that if you are a city native, you don't care about checking out the famous landmarks.

Jesse93GXE

Yeah, I'm an SF native. I didn't mean to say that there was no public transit system in SF. Relative to other cities, SF does have a great one.

But a long time ago, before MUNI and BART, we had a cable car system that rivaled the quality of NYC's subway system. But thanks to the big car companies, the cable car is now for the most part just a tourism thing.

SleeperSE

- I apologize for not reading all the way through, but I'm in a rush. So if someone already mentioned this, I'm sorry.

- The knock sensor detects "knock" (ie. detonation). Once the pinging starts, the damage has already been done. You will have already wounded the compression level in your engine and it will get exponentially worse in the future.
- Suck it up and use premium. Or find a new job/move closer to work.

Jesse93GXE

Speaking of which, went out to the pump today and it was $2.15 for regular and $2.35 for supreme.

BippuBenji

iTrader: (4)

Man, I guess the gas prices are getting even higher every month. Right now its at about $1.90 for 93 and I thought that was already expensive, but $2.35? Sh*t!

BippuBenji

iTrader: (4)

I also wouldn't downgrade on to anything lower than 93. I've been puttin 93 since day one and I wouldn't want to make any sacrifices that I'd regret in the long run. To save a little gas, I guess I gotta let up off the pedal more often and go a little slower.

Sarah99GXE

All I know is that I always used 87 in my 91 and after awhile I started using mid grade 89. My idle wasn't so rough anymore so I continued to use it. As far as my 99, well I filled up this morning for the first time with 89. Everyone keeps talking about one extreme to the other, 87-91, but no one mentions if 89 is ok...yeah maybe a little better than 87 but not as good as 91. I know it will be OK, does anyone else use mid grade?

P.S. GNGXE - I am sooo jealous you have a 86GN

Jesse93GXE

My 93 GXE manual recommends 87 octane as being fine for my vehicle. For improved performance they recommend 91.

I tend to use 87, unless 89 is under $2.10. Right now that means 87, but on the whole about half the time I use 89.

Once in a while I put in 92.. if prices are low.. just for kicks..

On the whole you could say I'm not too concerned since anything meets the recommended minimum of 87.

Finality

I would never downgrade. The morons at the dealer I bought this car from filled it with the cheapest gas they could find.

It took me about 5-6 tank full replacements and I've already noticed much better performance. Add to the fact its a much smoother ride.

pmar

I saw on another bbs that a person claimed different brands of the same grade yielded different mpgs from his car. I'm pretty a*** about mpgs, and have tracked it over 45,000 miles.

He had the data to back up what he was saying, but I wonder if there were other circumstances that yielded his results. I kinda think same grade/different brand is equal, at least from my experience. There does seem to be a diff. in the winter where the mpgs go down (oxygenated?). My mpgs are the same though 87 or 93, only better in the summer.

Jesse93GXE

The only thing that I find affects my mileage is the weather and the length of my trips.

Lots of short trips during cold weather == complete crap mileage.

But for mostly warm engine driving, I don't notice any variations in my mpg by brand or octane.