2002 Fuel octane

What octane should you use in a 2002 Maxima. The GXE model. Any ideas?

Anyone....need some info soon...

Anyone....need some info soon...

[first: I dont know, dont care; lowest available here is 95]

- Nissan electronics with KS makes the Maxima system immune to low octane
- will retard ign if octane is too low: Lose some pwr, lose mpg. Thats all
- gas is cheap. Use highest octane available.
- 'all info' is clicked from 'Favorite Links', reach it via link below (top left).

they recommend you use 91 or better it says it right on the inside of the fuel door. as nahka said, the knock sensor will retard timing if you use a lower octane and your car will run with a lot less power and worse mileage.

In California we have 87, 89 and 92 octane at most gas stations.

My 95 Maxima was recommended to us premium unleaded, but I listened to a very famous inventor/engineer(world renown) on the radio a couple years ago, and he said that all passenger vehicles built to be sold in the U.S. must burn 87 octane safely without damage to the engine.

I took him up on his claim, and filled my old 95 Maxima with 87, and low and behold.......no knocking or pinging.

Why does it work......because there's a thingy(lol) called a "knock sensor" that adjusts your engine timing accordingly if you use lower octane fuel.

Most manufacturers that recommend mid-range or premium unleaded do so because this will give you optimum fuel mileage and a little bump in performance because the knock sensor doesn't tell your ECU to retard the timing.

Anyway.......the MPG difference with my 190 h.p. VQ series V6 Maxima is so minute between unleaded 87 and unleaded 92 that the cost savings of using the cheaper 87 is trully that........a monetary savings.

Now, if you plan on driving up some steep inclines/grades with your Maxima or plan on pulling a trailer and carrying 5 passengers besides........you might want to use a higher octane, as the engine will probably ping a little with 87.

Engine pinging is not damaging if it is minute in degree.
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Again.........the U.S. or Feds...........mandated that all passenger gas engined passenger engines sold in the U.S. must burn regular octane unleaded without damaging the engine........in other words........you can't get your warranty voided from burning 87.

That knock sensor on my 95 maxima does an admirable job. My nissan has 142k miles on it, and that engine runs like a smooth purring cat. It's idles is as smooth as the day I bought it new.
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they recommend you use 91 or better it says it right on the inside of the fuel door. as nahka said, the knock sensor will retard timing if you use a lower octane and your car will run with a lot less power and worse mileage.

I'm telling yah......the performance difference between 87 octane and 90+ is very negligible.

In fact 87 octane actually had more BTU value than the higher octanes.........higher octane just means that there more anti-knock chemicals in it to cause a slower combustion burn, to avoid pre-ignition(knock/ping).

I'm telling yah......the performance difference between 87 octane and 90+ is very negligible.

In fact 87 octane actually had more BTU value than the higher octanes.........higher octane just means that there more anti-knock chemicals in it to cause a slower combustion burn, to avoid pre-ignition(knock/ping).
it depends on what you consider negligible. this was brought up on another forum i frequent and someone dyno'ed their car with 89 octane and again with 93 and posted the results:

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~kevgrob/dyno/89vs93.jpg

and that's compared to 89 octane, it's probably even more of a loss running 87. some people spend good money modifying a car to gain 12 hp and 13 ft-lbs. of tq, especially at the wheels. It seems a shame to throw that power away to save a few cents per gallon.


This is the original thread topic:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?p=3520382&mode=linear#post3520382