Iowa330

I'd get a 2nd opinion. Sounds like this mechanic just wants to make a fast buck.

lexus114

your right about that mandy! it was like driving jeff gordon`s car when mine was in for service.

quantfutur

Mandyfig - good advice about getting second opinions. Just got a second and a third opinion and both said I don't need struts! I also only may need the right rear wheel bearing.. and can go maybe 5-10k more miles with it.. not urgent. So I may keep the car but find another mecahanic!

quantfutur

Is it true that the RX330 has the same engine as the Camry, or are there some important distinctions between them which could explain the different octane recommendations? My mechanic said that I should stick to at least 91 octane and that although the car may seem to run well on 87, I will likely experience sludge and serious engine damage in future.

Thoughts? Anyone have years of experience using 87 octane on the RX330 without ill effect? I have been using 91 octane from one gas station which sells it as Plus. Otherwise all stations around here (MA) seem to have 89 Plus, 93 Premium.

lexus114

your going to get a lot of mixed review`s on here re; fuel octane. some here use 87 all the time with supposedly no ill effects. i will tell you when i tried using the 87 in mine, and my 01 rx 300, they run okay. but that`s about all. the exhaust has a rotten egg smell on the 87, lack of power for passing on the hwy,simply runs out of power after 70mph on the highway. and forget when the a/c is on and pulling pa hill`s around here in 90 plus degrees. thats my personal experience. and it runs kinda strange on the 89 octane,cant really explain it. so i simply use premium fuel. rite now it come out to be around $4.00 more per tank using the 92-93 over the 87. so food for thought.

quantfutur

I owned the '99 RX300, which I took to 187k miles but as Lexus recommended '87, I never thought to use a higher octane. Traded it in with catalytic converter issues and rotten egg odors. Do you think 91 octane would be okay vs. the 93? I can get 91 as 'plus' at a local station.

lexus114

heck yeah! i would use 91 if i could get it here. that is what they recommend anyway. anything more is just wasted.

quantfutur

The local station is the only one I've found ('World Gas') with the 91 blend as their Plus product, but I stopped looking once I found it. So lexus 114, maybe if you look around or search company brands online you could find a local station with that blend. (Worked in the oil and gas industry for 15 yrs, and no real advantage to buying from the majors over the independents. More an issue relative to state ethanol % requirements than quality of product.)

Rainbird

In California we have 87, 89 and 91 octane only. Lexus requires premium fuel in the RX350 and that is what I use. BTW, premium here is priced at $3.99 per gallon and seems to increase every few days.

quantfutur

Yes. The industry dropped off the radar screen when the economy hit the skids, but now that things are improving ... it's up, up, up with the prices! There is much precedence for this pattern here in the U.S.

lexus114

the real problem is, we havent fully recovered from the recession. now this. it cant be good for our struggling economy.

quantfutur

No, not good for the economy. Article pg 3 in today's WSJ about FL consumers harmed by escalating gas prices. The industry tries to avoid this sort of publicity and we may see prices drop from here....

howdybob22

Yep, lots of Toyota share V6 engines (Camary, Highlander, Sienna, Solara, ES, RX etc.). As for gasoline for the RX330, I've used both the 87 and 92 octane (Mostly 87 (90% of the time) unless gas is cheap). Mine is running fine for 7 yrs now.

If you are worried about sludge (which I don't think is the issue with the newer (3.3 and 3.5), change the oil religiously at the 5k/6months mark and use synthetic for the extra insurance if you think that help. The gas and oil topics are always hotly debate issues that usually lead to nowhere - Use what you feel is right, or at the very least go with the manual. You had a RX300 that you took to 187k miles that pretty much answered your sludge problem

As for mechanics, half the time I don't listen to what they're saying unless the guy/gal is some sort of mastertech/experienced mech that use to work for Toyota/Lexus who really knows our car (really hard to find these guys/gals). Even than I still have to research a little more to verify.

RX330inFL

Perhaps time for a new thread if you want to continue discussing gas over the original topic which was about struts.