Just as the thread title says I accidentally used $10 worth of gas in my ES (was putting $20 to fill er back up) but luckily I caught it just in time to pump the rest of gas as Premium (93 octane here). I'm wondering if this once in a lifetime thing is going to hurt my car? I know these cars call for Premium Fuel only but hopefully, this won't do any damage to the car's engine. Does anyone think this is going to damage the car? This is the first time it's ever happened and the last. I'm nervous because I read somewhere that for the 09' ES it will damage the car if you use anything other than premium. I just want to make sure this won't ruin my car's engine or anything. I'm hoping this isn't the case and my car won't grenade itself. ALL responses appreciated in my time of panic.

 

Yes, it will ruin the engine. I bet the head gasket is already blown.


Come on man, all of us use regular gas. I use regular gas on all my cars. They are low compression non turbo engines, there's no need for premium.

 

Ha. I'm just a by the book kind of guy and got nervous when I put regular in it. All of our cars run Premium except our new Optima and I wasn't paying attention and pushed 87 on the pump and almost had a stroke when I realized I was using regular gas. I even did some deeper digging after posting this and read the manual and found out it was okay to use Regular gas (in certain circumstances). Thank you.

 

Now if you had pumped diesel into the tank......

 

I would've slapped myself lol. Funny thing now that I think about it I realized the pump I was at also had the diesel selection. Thankfully I'm not that dumb, I just wasn't paying any attention haha!

 

The so called book states regular gas for my 2012 ES350, it has identical engine as yours, Lexus just decided that premium gas is no longer needed, or more precisely it was never needed and they cleaned up the manual.

 

My recollection is The only reason 93 was ever stated was so they could claim 5 more HP, for the “luxury” vehicle over the Camry with same engine.

 

I’d be more concerned with getting top tier fresh gas from well maintained pumps (regularly serviced to change filters and newer tanks).

 

Nothing to worry about at all

I ran regular in my ES350 all the time.

 

My 2011 ES calls for regular, but the owners manual says one can run premium for extra HP. The knock sensor must allow the ECU to change the ignition and valve timing to an optimum point, just shy of knocking, regardless of what gas is in the tank. It's a good strategy because even though the pump displays octane numbers, it's like a box of chocolates...you never know what you are going to get! Earlier ES's called for premium, but they likely had the same ECU programming to protect the engine from bad or mis-labled/misrepresented pumps.

 

Couple of things to add:

1. what you’ve done is basically manually mixed the mid-grade fuel for yourself. That’s actually how the mid grade is made, half and half.

2. The diesel nozzle is larger and won’t fit in a gas car so no worries there.

 

I suppose my fuel selection is often a by product of pricing - --when it's expensive I tend to run 87 octane but will add a bottle of techron every few tanks or so . .

By comparison, on road trips to California, I'll run 91 and find I get almost 2mpg better mileage if you believe the data display on the dash . . .

I had injector service at 100k along with new plugs and wires so the car is running better overall- but nothing remarkable

This is our 4th Lexus ES - - -thought about a certified LS460 but why mess with a good thing.

Enjoy your ride..

 

I seem to recall that if you use hi-test your HP was 273 and if you used regular it was 268 HP. Not a screaming difference here.

 

My wife and I struggled with the same dilemma and settled on the ES. We have saved a lot of $ over the course of 10 years of ownership. It's not that we couldn't afford the LS, we just thought the overall savings could be used in better ways.

I have only run premium gas in the ES occasionally, usually on road trips where the extra HP might come in handy passing semis on Interstate 5!

 

I think that's the real question about these cars. If the manufacturer is recommending premium, I don't care if it's going to give me a few extra horsepower. But if it's going to mess with my injectors or cause other failure issues prematurely that's what I want to know. In this whole thread I don't think I saw much serious comment about that. But I'd like to. I've been using the mid-grade fuel for 11 years on my '07 ES w no problem.