kaldES98

Is it bad if I have been getting 280-300 miles off a tank of gas(300 if I try REALLY hard to be easy on the gas)...



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I keep up with my tire pressure and any maintenance etc..

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

^^ It's certainly not 'good'.

I can get just under 400 miles mixed city/hwy with 115k on it.

avascon1

what a higher octane fuel will do is treat your engine better since its more knock resistant and explodes in a more controlled manor. plus believe it or not the gas does increase your performance, though it may be minuet. personally i'm gonna shell out the extra cash for the little benefits and the solace that my car might go more miles with then if i used 87.
besides, if your driving a Lexus shouldn't you want to do the best for it?

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

I would have to try to get 300 before....by driving ridiculously aggressively, or in the winter with snow tires. With 143k miles i get to 370-390 before the light comes on during the non winter months, that averages to about 23-24 mpg.

Bedore

Since the manual states that it's OK to run 87, I will assume that the engine is designed to run on 87 octane fuel. There is no benefit if the octane is higher than what the engine needs. Also, thanks to electronic knock sensors the chances of engine knock are lowered significantly. Therefore, you will see very little to no improvement when using 91 octane fuel. When I switched to 91, I knew the ECM needed a learning curve and I expected it to modify the engine operations to run on 91, and I hoped for a performance increase and while im sure it did do what it was supposed to do, I personally did not notice any differences. I switched back to 87 and have since noticed no changes. And as we all know, there is a price difference between the two. Paying extra for premium is like tossing quarters into a wishing well.

The American Petroleum Institute says if you find that your car runs fine on a lower grade, there is no sense switching to premium. Even manufacturers say thats it's more of a suggestion to run higher octane fuels, and not really needed.

Bottom line is as long as your engine doesn't knock on 87 octane fuel, running a higher octane fuel is a waste.

PlatES300

iTrader: (1)

300 miles while emptying out the entire tank? I usually get 330 miles and thats right where the 1/4 tank mark is.

JTS06Z06

Well you are a bit misinformed about fuels because premium fuels will not treat your engine better. There are engines designed to run on premium and there are engines designed to run on regular. Just because the name is "premium" fools a lot of people in thinking its better for your car when in reality it has nothing to do with that. Octane rating is nothing more than the fuels resistance to burning. The higher the octane rating the higher temperature required to burn that fuel. If the Lexus engineers designed this motor to run on regular gas, and everyone already determined there is minimal to no fuel mileage increase with premium, so running premium does absolutely nothing beneficial for your motor and simply costs you more money.

JTS06Z06

That does seem a bit low, but it really depends on how and where you drive your car. If you drive nothing more than tough city driving, accelerate harder than normal, and do lots of short drives that dont allow your car to reach full operating temperature, you are going to get significantly lower miles.

My 00 ES usually gets about 240 miles to a half tank and around 400 when the low fuel light comes on. My mileage consist of far suburban driving. Not stop and go, but not highway either.

James

mooseboy84

You must drive slow as hell to get 400 miles per tank, lol.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

^if you feather the throttle and not punch it or drive like someone out of fast & furious actor then 400/tank is very much attainable!

kaldES98

Well.. if I go any softer on the throttle than I am now when I'm trying to conserve people are going to get pissed at me for accelerating so slow.

JTS06Z06

Just for reference I took this picture yesterday showing where my particular 00 ES300 108,000 miles is at about half tank.
This tank is 87 octane far suburban driving, tank was filled and stopped at the first click at the pump. Climate control left on auto about 50% of the time. Outside temps 50-70 degree range. Just normal driving no fast and furious or hot doggin it.
Approximately 250 miles to a half tank. I usually hit E right around 400 miles.

kaldES98

what rpms do you let your car shift at normally?

BDSL

Gas tank might not be symmetrical. You shouldn't use that method to calculate fuel consumption.

JTS06Z06

^^^ Who said I use that method to calculate fuel consumption? I do all the math to determine that. My car averages 23.5-25 mpgs on average. I simply took that pic as reference for others to compare to see how many miles they get to a half tank approximately.

James