Which grade of gas do you use?

[kluczenk]

I just got an 05 TB and was wondering which grade of gas people tend to put in their TB? I have a Vette as my other car so using regular unleaded would be a welcome sight. Thanks!

[maxwedge]

87 octane.

[GMMerlin]

Originally Posted by kluczenk

I just got an 05 TB and was wondering which grade of gas people tend to put in their TB? I have a Vette as my other car so using regular unleaded would be a welcome sight. Thanks!

There is a wonderful little booklet in your glovebox that has a ton of useful information..its called the Owners Manual.
The recommended octane is 87 octane.

[dach95]

used to use 87 then 91, now 89.

[balboasdelight]

Originally Posted by GMMerlin

There is a wonderful little booklet in your glovebox that has a ton of useful information..its called the Owners Manual.

I find Owners Manuals less useful with each model year. The OM used to be a thin little boolket with useful information like basic maintenance procedures, fastener torque specs, etc. Modern OMs contain no maintenance procedures and minimal specs, but 138 CYA warnings about potential death and destruction. Like an entire CHAPTER on how to wear the flarpin seat belt -- anyone to whom that information is "useful" has no business operating a motor vehicle.

.

[GMMerlin]

Originally Posted by balboasdelight

I find Owners Manuals less useful with each model year. The OM used to be a thin little boolket with useful information like basic maintenance procedures, fastener torque specs, etc. Modern OMs contain no maintenance procedures and minimal specs, but 138 CYA warnings about potential death and destruction. Like an entire CHAPTER on how to wear the flarpin seat belt -- anyone to whom that information is "useful" has no business operating a motor vehicle.

.

I guess this information is useless
Scheduled Maintenance
The services shown in this schedule up to 100,000 miles (166 000 km) should be repeated after 100,000 miles (166 000 km) at the same intervals for the life of this vehicle. The services shown at 150,000 miles (240 000 km) should be repeated at the same interval after 150,000 miles (240 000 km) for the life of this vehicle.

See Part B: Owner Checks and Services and Part C: Periodic Maintenance Inspections .

Footnotes
† The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the California Air Resources Board has determined that the failure to perform this maintenance item will not nullify the emission warranty or limit recall liability prior to the completion of the vehicle's useful life. We, however, urge that all recommended maintenance services be performed at the indicated intervals and the maintenance be recorded.

+ A good time to check your brakes is during tire rotation. See Brake System Inspection .

Engine Oil Scheduled Maintenance
Change engine oil and filter as indicated by the GM Oil Life System (or every 12 months, whichever occurs first). Reset the system.

Your vehicle has a computer system that lets you know when to change the engine oil and filter. This is based on engine revolutions and engine temperature, and not on mileage. Based on driving conditions, the mileage at which an oil change will be indicated can vary considerably. For the oil life system to work properly, you must reset the system every time the oil is changed.

When the system has calculated that oil life has been diminished, it will indicate that an oil change is necessary. A CHANGE ENGINE OIL light will come on. Change your oil as soon as possible within the next two times you stop for fuel. It is possible that, if you are driving under the best conditions, the oil life system may not indicate that an oil change is necessary for over a year. However, your engine oil and filter must be changed at least once a year and at this time the system must be reset. Your dealer has GM-trained service people who will perform this work using genuine GM parts and reset the system.

It is also important to check your oil regularly and keep it at the proper level.

If the system is ever reset accidentally, you must change your oil at 3,000 miles (5 000 km) since your last oil change. Remember to reset the oil life system whenever the oil is changed. See Engine Oil for information on resetting the system.

An Emission Control Service.

See the mileage intervals following for additional services that may be performed with an engine oil change. After the services are performed, record the date, odometer reading and who performed the service on the maintenance record pages in Part E of this schedule.

7,500 Miles (12 500 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

15,000 Miles (25 000 km)
• Inspect engine air cleaner filter or change indicator (if equipped). If necessary, replace the filter. If vehicle is driven in dusty/dirty conditions, inspect filter or change indicator (if equipped) at every engine oil change. See Engine Air Cleaner/Filter for more information. An Emission Control Service. (See footnote †.)

• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

22,500 Miles (37 500 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

30,000 Miles (50 000 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

• Replace fuel filter. An Emission Control Service. (See footnote †.)

• Replace engine air cleaner filter on vehicles without a restriction indicator. If equipped with a change indicator, inspect the indicator. If necessary, replace the filter. If vehicle is driven in dusty/dirty conditions, inspect the change indicator (if equipped) at every engine oil change. See Engine Air Cleaner/Filter for more information. An Emission Control Service. (See footnote †.)

37,500 Miles (62 500 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

45,000 Miles (75 000 km)
• Inspect engine air cleaner filter or change indicator (if equipped). If necessary, replace the filter. If vehicle is driven in dusty/dirty conditions, inspect filter or change indicator (if equipped) at every engine oil change. See Engine Air Cleaner/Filter for more information. An Emission Control Service. (See footnote †.)

• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

50,000 Miles (83 000 km)
• Change automatic transmission fluid and filter if the vehicle is mainly driven under one or more of these conditions:

- In heavy city traffic where the outside temperature regularly reaches 90°F (32°C) or higher.

- In hilly or mountainous terrain.

- When doing frequent trailer towing.

- Uses such as found in taxi, police or delivery service.

If you do not use your vehicle under any of these conditions, change the fluid and filter at 100,000 miles (166 000 km).

• Automatic Transfer Case Only: Change transfer case fluid.

52,500 Miles (87 500 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

60,000 Miles (100 000 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

• Replace fuel filter. An Emission Control Service. (See footnote †.)

• Replace engine air cleaner filter on vehicles without a restriction indicator. If equipped with a change indicator, inspect the indicator. If necessary, replace the filter. If vehicle is driven in dusty/dirty conditions, inspect the change indicator (if equipped) at every engine oil change. See Engine Air Cleaner/Filter for more information. An Emission Control Service. (See footnote †.)

67,500 Miles (112 500 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

75,000 Miles (125 000 km)
• Inspect engine air cleaner filter or change indicator (if equipped). If necessary, replace the filter. If vehicle is driven in dusty/dirty conditions, inspect filter or change indicator (if equipped) at every engine oil change. See Engine Air Cleaner/Filter for more information. An Emission Control Service. (See footnote †.)

• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

82,500 Miles (137 500 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

90,000 Miles (150 000 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Replace fuel filter. An Emission Control Service. (See Footnote †.)

• Replace engine air cleaner filter on vehicles without a restriction indicator. If equipped with a change indicator, inspect the indicator. If necessary, replace the filter. If vehicle is driven in dusty/dirty conditions, inspect the change indicator (if equipped) at every engine oil change. See Engine Air Cleaner/Filter for more information. An Emission Control Service. (See footnote †.)

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

97,500 Miles (162 500 km)
• Check rear/front axle fluid level and add fluid as needed. Check constant velocity joints and axle seals for leaking.

• Rotate tires. See Tire Inspection and Rotation for proper rotation pattern and additional information. (See footnote +.)

100,000 Miles (166 000 km)
• V8 Engine Only: Inspect spark plug wires. An Emission Control Service.

• Replace spark plugs. An Emission Control Service.

• Change automatic transmission fluid and filter if the vehicle is mainly driven under one or more of these conditions:

- In heavy city traffic where the outside temperature regularly reaches 90°F (32°C) or higher.

- In hilly or mountainous terrain.

- When doing frequent trailer towing.

- Uses such as found in taxi, police or delivery service.

• If you have not used your vehicle under severe service conditions listed previously and, therefore, have not changed your automatic transmission fluid, change both the fluid and filter

• Automatic Transfer Case Only: Change transfer case fluid.

• V8 Engine Only: Inspect Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) valve. An Emission Control Service.

150,000 Miles (240 000 km)
• Drain, flush and refill cooling system (or every 60 months since last service, whichever occurs first). See Engine Coolant for what to use. Inspect hoses. Clean radiator, condenser, pressure cap and neck. Pressure test the cooling system and pressure cap. An Emission Control Service.

• Inspect engine accessory drive belt. An Emission Control Service.

[GMMerlin]

Originally Posted by balboasdelight

I find Owners Manuals less useful with each model year. The OM used to be a thin little boolket with useful information like basic maintenance procedures, fastener torque specs, etc. Modern OMs contain no maintenance procedures and minimal specs, but 138 CYA warnings about potential death and destruction. Like an entire CHAPTER on how to wear the flarpin seat belt -- anyone to whom that information is "useful" has no business operating a motor vehicle.

.

The reasons for the 138 cya warnings is for our sue happy society

[maxwedge]

GMMerlin, boy you must have a lot of time on your hands to spend educating the owner of a 30k truck!?

[ScarabEpic22]

I go by the book, 87 octane all the time. (At least until I get a Westers!)

[GMMerlin]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

GMMerlin, boy you must have a lot of time on your hands to spend educating the owner of a 30k truck!?

Thats because the owner can't educate themselves

[ScarabEpic22]

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what he said

[balboasdelight]

Originally Posted by GMMerlin

I guess this information is useless
Scheduled Maintenance

I didn't say the manual was useless; I said it is increasingly less useful, compared to prior versions of the same. Of course a list of scheduled maintenance procedures is useful... more useful would be information on how to actually perform them (which used to be routine in owners' manuals, and still is in many European models). Basically, my gripe is that engineers used to write OMs that had actual value to the owner. Now they're written by lawyers, and in one post GMMerlin extracted 87% of the utility to be found in 200+ pages of CYA BS.

So people who actually work on their own vehicles can either shell out $150 for a shop manual, or just take it to the dealer like a good little customer.

.

[GMMerlin]

Originally Posted by balboasdelight

I didn't say the manual was useless; I said it is increasingly less useful, compared to prior versions of the same. Of course a list of scheduled maintenance procedures is useful... more useful would be information on how to actually perform them (which used to be routine in owners' manuals, and still is in many European models). Basically, my gripe is that engineers used to write OMs that had actual value to the owner. Now they're written by lawyers, and in one post GMMerlin extracted 87% of the utility to be found in 200+ pages of CYA BS.

So people who actually work on their own vehicles can either shell out $150 for a shop manual, or just take it to the dealer like a good little customer.

.

At no time was the owners manual designed to be a repair manual.
The owners manual was designed to inform the consumer on the operation and features of their vehicle.
The reason for all the CYA information is because people will not take responsibility for their own actions and look for someone with deep pockets to blame for their ignorance (what? coffee is HOT! )

What you fail to understand is that the more complex todays vehicles get, the less and less you and other DIYs will be able to repair on them (along with many untrained mechanics out there)
Intermodule communication strategies and communication protocals are presenting extremely difficult to diagnose concerns.
Would you believe that a fault with your DVD player could cause a no start condition on your vehicle?
How are you going to diagnose it? What tools and testing procedures are you going to use?
The technical information changes so fast that GM no longer keeps volumes of service information in paper form (some paper form is available, but it is obsolete before the ink dries).
All service information is PC based and updated daily to keep up with the changes.
The terminals and connectors used throughout the vehicle have become so small and fragile that improper testing techniques can cause catastrophic failures.
Testing circuits has gone to doing voltage drops and calculating results with OHMS law instead of measuring resistance with a meter.
Testing a circuit with the incorrect impedance test lamp can cause meltdown of a module.

You are going to see a major shift in the next years in the service of vehicles.
The homeowner and independant mechanic are no longer going to be able to do more than change oil.
Even the simple task of rotating tires is going to take some specialized equipment to reset the TPM.

[maxwedge]

Well they better get some talent in the dealerships, I was Cadillac field troubleshooter and I am having all I can do to try to even scratch the surface with the newer technology, guys like GMMerlin are like gold to have involved on these forums. While the cars are getting ridiculously complex, the tech pool shrinks, nice scenario. If this keeps up I may have to " un retire".

[Robert1010]

I also use 87 octane. But then I don't listen to the crap they always try to sell on TV. Gasoline companies can no longer say premuim will make you car run better (unless it is designed for premuim).

A few years ago, I had a customer that had a rough running condition when very cold outside. I went though all the normal diagnostics. I found nothing out of normal. I asked what grade of fuel was he using?
He said he heard the premuim grade was better for his engine. I had him change to regular. The cold drivabilty problem was gone!

The same compounds in premium that slow down the combustion on high compression engine, ALSO slows down combustion on cold lower compression engines.

How did I fine out about gasoline?

When we started to change over to oxygenated and reformulated fuels, a group of gasoline manufacturers sent out 2 books on fuel.

The books expained auto manufacturers view on the new fuels. The problems the fuel will cause. They also explained that per volume regular had more heat energy, than premium fuel.



Listen to GMmerlin he is correct!

Rob