mnmsnowbeast

Does running premium really help much on the 2016 max,as of now,i have been running reg. as gas is pricy enough,with only 780 miles on the car we are averaging 28 plus,around town and some highway,but the highway is 75 speed limit,so everyone cruises at 80 plus,now at 80 my trip saids I am getting 27 plus,would running pre. get me even I more mpg,because if it wont why waste my money,and really I would exspect 2-3 mpg increase with the best gas,but it is now into winter fuel here in the no east,so our milage goes south from now till summer additives are back at the pump,my mph is still quite impressive at 134 gps indicated,so I guess reg. is doing ok.

Cotozic

Your motor is designed to use premium fuel. In order to prevent knocking while using lower octane fuel, your car's computer will dumb down ignition timing since they knew some would choose not to use premium. This will cost your performance, which in turn will cost you gas mileage, since your car in theory will have to burn more fuel to achieve the same speeds.

All in all, for about 30-40 cents extra per gallon, it makes more sense to use the fuel your car was designed and programmed to use. You will notice a difference in the feel of the drive if you switch, and if you continue to drive with the same habits, you should get better mpg. Not only that, but there's a chance that using fuel your car isn't designed to use could have negative effects on the life of the motor, though I doubt it.

Rennmeister posted this in another thread before yours http://www.vikingspeedshop.com/detonation/
It talks about a lot of stuff, but mentions the different levels of octane, and how they burn. It also talks about winter fuels and the different types of gasoline, as well as some differences in where you get them. Pretty interesting read.

Maybe this is all stuff you know, but all in all, the car was built to use it. Using the lower octane literally dumbs down the car. I don't mean to sound like a snob, but if you don't want to buy premium gasoline in a new car you bought, which both would be considered expensive, you should have just bought a different car that doesn't require it. I've never ridden in the newer Maximas, but they were built for a sporty-edge sedan. Some would argue, but the car does have some power to boast. While mpg is the concern, you won't get the most out of your Maxima without premium fuel.

mnmsnowbeast

Thanks,Good info,the reason i put in reg. was i have not had enough time to read every page of the book,and to be honest there are some points of interest that need more attension than fuel,lol like how to start the car,stop the engine,etc things like this,but i will read thru it,and am sure it states premium will give the best milage and performance,but it may still say reg. can be used,as long as you understand it may lower your performance and milage. Thanks pete

Cotozic

Yeah, no problem. Glad you didn't take me as coming off harsh. While premium is "required," it'll still work with regular. I read someone got a free full tank with a Max they bought from the dealer, but they filled it up with regular instead of premium. Seems it's just something that's often overlooked, shockingly so, even by those who sell them - but ideally, it's worth using to achieve ideal performance.

All in all, enjoy your new Maxima!

mnmsnowbeast

Hello,you know my car came with a full tank to,and i will have to ask if it is 91 or 87,i am betting 87,i did fill today with 91 for the first time,hope to see an improvement,not that there is much improvement this car needs IMO.

Rennmeister

The only way for your engine to tell you are running lower grade fuel is to detonate / knock, which is bad. It then applies a global knock correction which reduces the ignition timing considerably. This is the power loss you feel.

Premium fuel also has more fuel injector cleaner / detergent additive in it, which is already in low supply in US gasoline. If you intend to keep the car for a while, I'd just put premium in it.

Don't be cheap.

Just about any modern vehicle will run perfectly on 91 ACN.

mnmsnowbeast

We have a twin turbo ford f-150 that is suppose to run on premium fuel to,it has only had one tank thru it in 66,000 trouble free miles,hasent hurt that little 3.5 v-6 one bit,but it is a ford,maybe they can stand more abuse than the jap cars can,i dont know,its my first jap car in a long long time.

Rennmeister

Given the high failure rates of the 3.5L EcoBoost motors I'd say you are tempting fate on that one.

It's one thing to run low octane on a N/A 3.5L in a 3500 lb. car, and completely questionable to do the same in a turbocharged 3.5L in a 5500 lb. truck that is constantly in boost.

Just because something has gone XX number of miles does not make it the right thing to do, either. It's your vehicles, and your motor at the end of the day. I can only offer my advice.

For 30 years we've received watered down Japanese motors because the Japanese engineers know the first thing Joe Public is going to do is put 82.6 octane lawnmower gas in his $100K GTR so he can save 50 cents, LOL.

Mattx

iTrader: (2)

The problem with running regular on a car that clearly states premium only. Not you can use regular if you want but you'll loose performance or any other language, is the following.

What the car will do is it will pull timing or delay ignition spark. Now that doesn't sound bad right. Wrong. What that means is it will delay the burn of the fuel. Which will in turn not burn all the fuel efficiently. What that does over the course of time is clog your precat and main cat over time the will determinate clogging up your exhaust. This will lead to many different problemS. Your o2 sensors will become faulty, if you catch the cats in time you'll have to replace if not it could damage the motor. Causing it to burn oil or possibly blowing it up.

You just bought a brand new car. The manual clearly reads premium fuel only. Why would you spend 40,000 and the cheap out on something that the car needs? It's really not that much more money. Here in NJ we're at 1.99 a gallon for premium. Even when it was almost 4 a gallon it's still not an excuse to give the car the proper fuel it needs to run. You have a really nice car don't cheap out on something it needs to make you a happy owner. Cheeping out now is going to cost you in the end. You'll be the first one crying about how much money your repair bill is and that nissan makes crappy cars.

mnmsnowbeast

where have all these failed ecoboost 3.5 been in,trucks or SHO cars?? I have not heard of any motor failure,maybe some hiccups in the turbo trucks on the intercooler.

Rennmeister

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Ford+3.5L+Ecoboost+failure

Rennmeister

You are delaying the ignition timing to prevent detonation. The actual burn times are very near each other (within a few degrees / ms).

What kills the cats is the ignition retard causing an increase in catalytic temperature, but driving hard on 93 octane fuel will cause catalytic failure far before running 87 octane fuel like a grandma.

The O2 sensors will pick up any unconsumed mixture and trim the fuel tables to accommodate.

The engine is capable of running on 87 AKI octane fuel, and the ECU will do it's best to protect it, but ultimately the protections built into the car are there to protect the motor from occasional 87 octane fuel or poor grade / compromised premium fuel. They aren't there to allow cheapskates to let the car live on 87 octane fuel. Ultimately, if the person drives the engine at WOT or in other areas of the map that causes knock, they will develop piston ring land, headgasket, and/or rod bearing failure eventually. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

But I suppose when the owner knows better than everyone else it's best to just toss the JiffyPop on the stove and align the lawn chair.

I wonder what kind of oil goes into the car? I hear Supertech 0w20 is on sale at Walmart. No need to run any of that thick, wallet-thinning motor oil. Go ahead and just put about 3 qts. into the sump, it'll have less windage and get you another 1 MPG. Between the 87 octane pisswasser and the low budget oil changes you should have another $200 in your pocket every year. In fact, that'd be a great start towards a Prius.