Fuel Requirements For The Es350

[amf1932]

[steviej]

that's the exact wording of my 02, then they flipped the wording in 03 but didn't do a thing to the engine.

At over $3.25 for 93 octane (no 91 in the area), mine's getting 87 or 89 until I hear a ping or a knock.

steviej

[godfather18]

that's the exact wording of my 02, then they flipped the wording in 03 but didn't do a thing to the engine.

At over $3.25 for 93 octane (no 91 in the area), mine's getting 87 or 89 until I hear a ping or a knock.

steviej

SUNOCO has 91 octane and thats what I put in my 96 ES with 82,000 miles.

[ljdarby]

I have 2900 miles on my ES350 and have NEVER filled it with Premium fuel. The only time the engine has seen premium fuel was the full tank it received from the dealership when I picked it up.

To date, no performance issues nor any pinging, knocking, etc. Still exhibits great pickup and excellent passing ability, particularly in the 50-80 speed range.

[wwest]

Avoiding the infamous engine/transaxle downshift delay/hesitation.

Higher octane allows the engine to operate in a Taller gear ratio at a low(er) RPM without "lugging", knock/ping.

So with a higher octane when you initially re-apply pressure to the gas pedal shortly after/during the lift-throttle upshift the transaxle may (more often) remain, briefly, in the "taller" gear ratio since the ECU "knows" that will not result in a seriously detrimental level of Knock/Ping. The ECU would therefore allow the DBW system to immediately begin raising engine RPM, generating additional drive torque, as a result of the new, re-applied, gas pedal pressure.

So now the engine RPM is no longer at idle and should you continue to increase the pressure on the gas pedal such that a downshift is required to keep the engine in a proper, non-lugging, operating range there is now much more likelihood that there will be be enough ATF pump pressure/flow volume to accommodate the upcoming downshift.

The above might also be an indication that a fairly s..l...o....w re-application of pressure to the gas pedal after a FULL lift-throttle event might often alleviate the downshift delay/hesitation regardless of octane. Whereas a quick/fast/heavy re-application would almost always result in a serious level of knock/ping absent an immediate downshift.

Counter-intuitive, huh..??

Go SLOW, to GO QUICKLY...!!

Okay...??