Is Premium Fuel Necessary in a Toyota Sienna???

[FinanceDude]

Still looking at Honda and Toyota. Why does th Sienna need premium fuel? I understand a Corvette or fancy Lexus needing it, but a minivan??

COuld I run 87 octane in one without damage?? :P

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Usually something to do with compression ratio's or engine timing.

Most motors calling for premium will simply retard the engine timing automatically, reducing your gas mileage and engine power accordingly.

If they cant do that, you'll probably just get detonation, perhaps undetected. That'll lead to piston and valve damage.

In short, put the gas into your car that the manufacturer specifies. Theres no free lunch.

[SecondCor521]

I'd look at the owner's manual and see what it says. My ex's 2000 Honda Odyssey runs on 87 octane.

2Cor521

[FinanceDude]

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny

Usually something to do with compression ratio's or engine timing.

Most motors calling for premium will simply retard the engine timing automatically, reducing your gas mileage and engine power accordingly.

If they cant do that, you'll probably just get detonation, perhaps undetected. That'll lead to piston and valve damage.

In short, put the gas into your car that the manufacturer specifies. Theres no free lunch.

My LBYM's wiring is getting in the way........... The Honda Odyssey has th same horsepower, and uses regular gas..............

[youbet]

The manual for my son's (bought by me) 2005 Sienna calls for 87 octane "regular fuel." Where did you see that it calls for premium fuel?

[Telly]

A bunch of Japanese cars, and some European, require Premium fuel these days. Why? Because a cheap (for the manufacturer) way of boosting horsepower output from a given engine size is to increase the compression ratio. Which then requires the owner to buy more expensive gas to avoid knock. Many of them have a knock sensor, so if you run a too low of octane gas, the engine control computer will dial back the spark timing. So if you run lower octane gas, you won't get the performance specified.

Higher octane gas slows flame travel in the cylinder. The energy content of Premium gas is not higher than Regular gas.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The energy content of premium gas is actually somewhat LOWER. The only thing 'premium' about it is that the higher octane reduces chances of preignition and resulting detonation.

In other words, you're paying more for less.

[bright eyed]

seen articles from edmunds and others saying it's not really that necessary in many cases - check the manual to see if it is a "recommendation" or "required"

i put 87 in my lexo (when i had one) all the time and it was fine...


that said, i do think some brands of gas are sketchy so i'd moniter if certain brands do seem to affect your driving or not...

[lazygood4nothinbum]

the old engine technology, 300-hp stang does 0-60 about 40% faster on regular than the 287-hp t-bird new tech engine ran on high test. also my gas mileage seems better now, the t-bird ran about 19 highway mpg while the stang just got 22.7 mpg on my ride down to key west. (80 mph on i-95, average 50 mph on u.s.1, top down on way down & top up/ac cranked on way home.) and that with gunning it quite a few times to pass on u.s.1.