View Poll Results: What kind of gas you use in ES?
Regular
134
42.54%
Plus
44
13.97%
Premium
137
43.49%
Voters: 315. You may not vote on this poll
Which gas you put in your ES300?
05-23-07, 07:43 PM
#77
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revs
[QUOTE=AzNMpower;2136125]The car runs substantially better with premium, but I rarely rev it past 3k anyways.
QUOTE]
hey i drive a 2000 es 300 and i so far have been getting around 22-23 all city with pretty hard acceleration. the car has 62k miles. anyways he says he never revs past 3k, well my car goes to atleast 3.5k on normal acceleration and 4k in hard acceleration from 1-2 gears. so does this mean that i have a problem? i also have some pretty bad lag in the auto tranny which sounds normal but could be related, just wondering if this is a problem and also want the lower revs for better mpg.
QUOTE]
hey i drive a 2000 es 300 and i so far have been getting around 22-23 all city with pretty hard acceleration. the car has 62k miles. anyways he says he never revs past 3k, well my car goes to atleast 3.5k on normal acceleration and 4k in hard acceleration from 1-2 gears. so does this mean that i have a problem? i also have some pretty bad lag in the auto tranny which sounds normal but could be related, just wondering if this is a problem and also want the lower revs for better mpg.
06-23-07, 03:52 PM
#78
Lexus Test Driver
[QUOTE=Colpup ES3;2644003]
4000 RPM is kinda high.
Are you sure youre not in power mode?
The car runs substantially better with premium, but I rarely rev it past 3k anyways.
QUOTE]
hey i drive a 2000 es 300 and i so far have been getting around 22-23 all city with pretty hard acceleration. the car has 62k miles. anyways he says he never revs past 3k, well my car goes to atleast 3.5k on normal acceleration and 4k in hard acceleration from 1-2 gears. so does this mean that i have a problem? i also have some pretty bad lag in the auto tranny which sounds normal but could be related, just wondering if this is a problem and also want the lower revs for better mpg.
QUOTE]
hey i drive a 2000 es 300 and i so far have been getting around 22-23 all city with pretty hard acceleration. the car has 62k miles. anyways he says he never revs past 3k, well my car goes to atleast 3.5k on normal acceleration and 4k in hard acceleration from 1-2 gears. so does this mean that i have a problem? i also have some pretty bad lag in the auto tranny which sounds normal but could be related, just wondering if this is a problem and also want the lower revs for better mpg.
Are you sure youre not in power mode?
06-24-07, 10:26 AM
#80
Lexus Test Driver
Like the non presense of brake lights while im stopped isnt enough of an indication that you dont want to ride my ***
07-10-07, 05:45 PM
#82
Driver School Candidate
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Illinois
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Mid-grade at least, always. My friend has an SRT-4 and it needs premium, his g/f put regular for months and it started knockin like crazy. Switched back to premium and it's fine, same with my friend with a new Altima.
08-28-07, 04:24 PM
#85
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I haven't owned my 95 ES300 long enough to have a useful opinion about octane requirements, but I feel compelled to replace some earlier posted misconceptions about octane with a few misconceptions of my own.
If you talk about "treating" your car to high octane, you are just a passive victim of advertizing hype.
Higher octane is a more refined gas (and so should cost a tiny bit more), but the only functional difference is that it burns slower and better resists false ignition. "Tier One" is a standard promulgated by some good car companies which specifies that all the gas grades from a company, say Shell, have to have the defined good additive package, be clean, etc.
I don't know if companies are prohibited from adding a little extra additive to their premium gas (and I don't know if that would be beneficial). PetroCan used to advertize double the Techron in their premium (and Techron (like from Chevron) is the cleaning additive that seems to be voted favourably where I browse).
The simple fact is that lowering the octane is the same as advancing the spark timing a bit which for most cars means more power. It can mean more pinging (the little hammers sound) or knock (the big hammers sound, if the two sounds are distinguishable). I can not say if the knock sensors (a kind of microphone, of course) can always be trusted to detect pinging, if present, and then retard the ignition to kill it. Nor can I say if the ECU can learn/perceive the kind of octane in your tank... but I am skeptical.
I do know that between my poor hearing and the super sound absorption in an ES, I am unlikely to hear pinging (or in any vehicle besides a motorcycle). What I am saying is, best to error on the high octane side rather than hope to hear pinging when it gets bad enough.
With much biking in my experience, I do have some grasp of occasions of pinging. Pinging tends to happen when lugging. To my taste, the ES300 engine runs awfully slow and thus may be susceptible to pinging - again, a reason to err on the side of high-octane. So for good peppy power, drive in the high-accel shifting mode and use regular gas.
I find adding a quite small fraction of high-octane to regular-octane seems to combat pinging readily. I suppose, therefore, that mid-range is the Goldilocks Solution.
If you talk about "treating" your car to high octane, you are just a passive victim of advertizing hype.
Higher octane is a more refined gas (and so should cost a tiny bit more), but the only functional difference is that it burns slower and better resists false ignition. "Tier One" is a standard promulgated by some good car companies which specifies that all the gas grades from a company, say Shell, have to have the defined good additive package, be clean, etc.
I don't know if companies are prohibited from adding a little extra additive to their premium gas (and I don't know if that would be beneficial). PetroCan used to advertize double the Techron in their premium (and Techron (like from Chevron) is the cleaning additive that seems to be voted favourably where I browse).
The simple fact is that lowering the octane is the same as advancing the spark timing a bit which for most cars means more power. It can mean more pinging (the little hammers sound) or knock (the big hammers sound, if the two sounds are distinguishable). I can not say if the knock sensors (a kind of microphone, of course) can always be trusted to detect pinging, if present, and then retard the ignition to kill it. Nor can I say if the ECU can learn/perceive the kind of octane in your tank... but I am skeptical.
I do know that between my poor hearing and the super sound absorption in an ES, I am unlikely to hear pinging (or in any vehicle besides a motorcycle). What I am saying is, best to error on the high octane side rather than hope to hear pinging when it gets bad enough.
With much biking in my experience, I do have some grasp of occasions of pinging. Pinging tends to happen when lugging. To my taste, the ES300 engine runs awfully slow and thus may be susceptible to pinging - again, a reason to err on the side of high-octane. So for good peppy power, drive in the high-accel shifting mode and use regular gas.
I find adding a quite small fraction of high-octane to regular-octane seems to combat pinging readily. I suppose, therefore, that mid-range is the Goldilocks Solution.
09-15-07, 10:54 AM
#86
Driver School Candidate
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: IL
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Car Talk says. . .
I just bought a 2002 ES300 with 50K and read through the manual. I've read through the forums and people seem to be leaning toward higher octane. Car Talk, a radio show that I really respect, says. . .don't use higher octane unless your going to be putting the car under a lot of stress (long trip in hot weather, mountains). From CT and other sources, it seems that those of you demand higher performance will see a increase in performance (but you won't get noticeably better gas mileage).
Apparently most cars newer than 1996 (including my Lexus) also have a knock sensor that adjusts the engine.
Regardless I've got to admit that I'll try out mid-grade and see what happens.
You can read about it yourself here
Apparently most cars newer than 1996 (including my Lexus) also have a knock sensor that adjusts the engine.
Regardless I've got to admit that I'll try out mid-grade and see what happens.
You can read about it yourself here
Last edited by hartwig217; 09-15-07 at 11:03 AM. Reason: update
09-17-07, 06:31 PM
#87
Driver School Candidate
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I have a 97 ES300 with 160K. I used to use regular but it felt sluggish so now I use plus with Chevron Fuel System Cleaner whenever I do my oil change 4500 miles with Mobil One Synthetic 10w30. You may want to try changing the fuel filter if you haven't done so in the last 30K miles. Helped my car get 23-24 mpg vs 20 mpg before.
10-10-07, 08:13 AM
#88
Driver School Candidate
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I have a 97 ES300 with 160K. I used to use regular but it felt sluggish so now I use plus with Chevron Fuel System Cleaner whenever I do my oil change 4500 miles with Mobil One Synthetic 10w30. You may want to try changing the fuel filter if you haven't done so in the last 30K miles. Helped my car get 23-24 mpg vs 20 mpg before.
Having said that, there are breathing and other engine mods, at least to less perfect engines, that improve engine performance while reducing consumption (because mixture is swirling, igniting more consistently, or reasons like that).
Last edited by Toronto; 10-31-07 at 08:09 AM.
11-12-07, 07:46 PM
#89
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Been using Premium for quite some time now and did notice a little better gas mileage. Not much though. She does really well for a 2000 ES with 130K on it 
Here's a pic I took while on a road trip to Myrtle Beach this past weekend. This was at a little under half a tank.
Here's a pic I took while on a road trip to Myrtle Beach this past weekend. This was at a little under half a tank.
