ayonnebay

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Toysrme
[B]Which owners manual? I can assure you no ES300 *should* run for long legnth sof time with 87 octane,

My 98 ES Owners Manual specifies 87.............

steviej

iTrader: (1)

get this:

the owner's manual in the 02 ES says to "select premium unleaded gasoline with an Octane Rating of 91 or higher for optimum engine performance. However, if such premium cannot be obtained, you may temporarily use unleaded gasoline with and Octane Rating as low as 87.

The 02 and 03 are the same exact car, engine, ECU, etc.


Anywho, I use 93 and don't question it. Never had a problem. Tried 87 and was not happy with performance...it just didn't act right. I haven't tried 89. Octane Rating of 91 is not available in my area.

steviej

amf1932

This scanned image was taken right out of my 2003 ES Owners manual:

Toysrme

WoW! Ok, then still don't use 87 and just use 89/91 =) For the life of me I don't understand why every other year but maybe yours asks for midgrade or better isntead of low.

Hey, aint my pockets you guys running 93 are burning holes in! If it aint broke, don't fix it!

FYI This '93 was having horrible pickup problems right after I got it. Toyota dealer had stuck 87 in it and by it was down to 1/4 of a tank I hadded 93 with some octane booster in it. (overboard I know)

But in 3/4 of a tank it had gone from OK to bad pickup to actualy pinging in the engine. I would guess the last FEW tanks of gas through it had been 87.

Since then I've used the occational Chevron 87 for short times without the reoccuring problem. (by that I mean I'm on empty and stick a 1/4 tank of 87 in it)

amf1932

My previous car, a '94 ES said basically the same thing in the Owners Manual as the image I posted above. It said you could use an octane rating of 87 or higher!!
I bought that car new and I used hi test gasoline with an octane rating of 91 for about a year. I than switched to regular gas with an octane rating of 87. I used this regular gas for approximately 8 years without any problems in performance or gas mileage and NO pinging ever. I did NOT notice any difference in performance switching from regular to high test. That's the reason I did it.

It's the same thing with the '03.........I tried both grades of gas in all types of driving conditions and again I didn't notice any difference in performance, or gas mileage.

If an engine has high mileage and there is carbon buildup in the combustion chamber there is the possibility that you'll get pinging when the engine is under load. Therefore a higher octane fuel is required.
Years ago when Oldsmobile came out with the "Rocket" engine the dealer had a machine to blow rice into the cylinders to break up the carbon buildup. This was done to engines that had pinging problems.

LexDiamond

Octane NUMBER 91 (87 Octane) Read the fine print

Ticman

Alan,

I agree with you. I did recently notice a slight difference in gas mileage between regular and premium with highway driving. In all my previous ES 300's I used 87 and never had any problem. At 20 cents a gallon difference I think I will opt for regular unleaded.

Mike

daryll40

I have an '02 and have always used 93. After reading about the CHANGE in the owner's manual for '93 (I suspect higher gas prices caused a minor marketing problem for Lexus so they went to 87 to compete better) I just might go to 87. I only keep a vehicle 3-5 years anyway so it will be the next guy's problem, if any.

XenonES3

My 1995 has been fed 93 octane (nothing less than 89) for its 104,000 miles.

Is it really safe to run 87 octane? I want the higher mileage (100K+ miles) people who've used 87 all along to answer this question. They'd know best from experience.

Personally, I've heard of very few people using 87 in a Lexus or Toyota V6....whereas the people I know who use 89 and higher have pushed their cars past 200K miles...any thoughts??

amf1932

The octane rating of the fuel should have very little to do with the longevity Of the engine! More importantly is the proper maintenance schedule such as oil & filter changes.
I have friends that have Toyota Camry's and Lexus ES's with high mileage(150K+) that have had no problems using 87 octane fuel.

steviej

iTrader: (1)

Alan, I totally believe that is what it says in the 03 manual. I am not disputing that. I am just stating that in the 02 manual it does say exactly what I stated. My guess is that it was changed due to corporate lawyers and too many complaints that the manual told customers to use premium with a non-high compression engine.

This entire topic with scannings was done in LOC, too.

steviej

mcelligott

Whoops -- looks like i jumped the gun on that one lol, my bad!

fallabel

Is there any disadvantage to using higher octane gas? (Besides the cost)

XenonES3

It can only help. It's been proven time and time again that higher octane gas is better for the engine components.

When I attempted to sell my car a month ago, buyers put HUGE SMILES on their faces when I told them the car has been fed premium gas all its life.

And of course, premium gas improves performance.

Toysrme

^^^ Only if the engine is able to take advantage of it Most engines once you go above their sweet spot won't see any more because they have to back off to maintain proper fuel/air mixes.

In the end, you're still burning18 gallons of gas from the tank anyways

All I can tell you guys is that my ES WILL NOT tolerate 87, even Cheveron 87 for any legnth of time before it sufferes from hesitation, decreased performance accross the board, unsmooth power and most of all, good old audiable pinging.

Most other "modern" (which i use loosely) might tolerate it, but do not like 87. If you're not suffering the symptoms, then by all means go for the better buy, but if you experiance anything abnormal after a few tanks of 87, please swap back before you cause damage.