Infiniti7

quick question. back home alot of gas stations offer 87 91 and 93 octane levels. I am pretty sure i always used 93 back home and i came out west about a month ago and noticed they only have 91 octane in the area i am staying. if i put 93 octane back home and switched to 91 out here is that bad? what is the octane infiniti reccommends in the car and what do you guys put in yours? thanks.

wakeboardr116

iTrader: (6)

Its fine. I'm in OK and all we get is 91.

SM_Shadowman

My owner's manual says 91. The experts usually say putting in higher than the recommended won't hurt, but won't make any difference either.

Gas stations around here sometimes have 91 and sometimes have 93. So I use whichever is available. There hasn't been any noticeable difference.

Infiniti7

but switching back and forth from 91 to 93 isn't that not good for the car? what if u switched from 87 to 91 whats the diff?

TinsleyC

If you READ THE MANUAL you will see that 91 or better is required. So that means 91 or 93 is fine. 87 and 89 is too low. It's pretty simple.

Some run lower grades of fuel to save money. You can do this but if you get engine ping on acceleration, you're running too low of a grade and can damage the engine over time. Just stick with 91 or higher and you'll be fine.

SM_Shadowman

Octane rating is simply a measurement of the fuel's resistance to detonation. An engine can experience "knocking" if you use lower than the recommended octane. Higher compression engines like the VQ require a higher octane (in this case, 91).

Modern cars contain a knock sensor that detects detonation in the engine (which is harmful) from lower octane fuels and reduce the timing, which results in less power. So you would not ever want to switch to lower than necessary.

Incidentally, most gas stations have 2 tanks, one with higher octane and one with lower octane fuel. They dispense a mixture of the 2 grades to make the various octane levels.

As long as you are using the recommended or greater, there shouldn't be a problem with switching. I've never heard anything about switching between octane ratings being bad for the engine assuming you're not switching to a too-low grade.

Arvig

91 is fine. So is 92 or 93. Here we have usually 92 octane. But (I think) if I cross the border into the next state it's only 91. If I let's say have a half tank of 92, and decide to gas up over there and top it off with 91 I wouldn't be hurting a thing. Or if my tank was empty, I was over there and I gassed up with 91 instead of the local 92 again I'd be fine. Just don't go under 91.

Oh, and just because it says 10 percent ethanol on the pump (if it does), that doesn't mean you can build a still to distill out the gasoline and drink what's left either.

lokitiw

If you use lower octane, yes you will pay less, but the power generated from it is much less, therefore your gas MPG will drop and you will use more gas. What previous inputs say about the engine is also a fact. It is really not worth it.

Chekov

With the endless number of threads on this subject available to you with the search function, and, of course, with the information clearly stated in the owner’s manual, I cannot understand how you can ask these questions. Do you just like to ask questions regardless of the answers?

cdso

Does anyone feel the G37 runs better on a specific brand of gas? When I had my 04 coupe, I always felt it just ran better using Texaco w/ techron.

SindhiStyle

I am pretty sure its just in my head, but sometimes I think my car runs better and get more miles when I use Shell Vpower.

cdso

I think your right about the v-power. I filled up with some Texaco today and it doesn't seem to run as well as with the Shell.

SM_Shadowman

Probably more in your head, as you said. Generally the gas is all the same between brands, they just have different additives. All gas has to have additives; sometimes the only difference between company A and B is contained in a gallon of chemicals added to an entire full tanker of gasoline.

In my understanding the additives & detergents that make brands differ are more about long-term effects like reducing deposits and cleaning the fuel system, rather than anything that will affect performance from one tank to another.

10 things gas stations won't tell you - MSN Money