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Regular Unleaded For Es330?


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I've read on several reputable websites that the 2004 - 2006 ES330's require only regular unleaded fuel (compared to the 2002 & 2003's which require premium.....I know my old 2001 ES needed premium). Can anyone confirm this for me? How is it worded in the owners manual? :unsure:

:cheers:

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We have burned regular unleaded in my wife's 04 ES since new with absolutely no indications of problems whatsoever. Even under hard acceleration there is no preignition pinging at all, with the odometer turning 77 000 km (around 45 000 mi). My 90 300ZX is supposed to have premium fuel as well, but I use regular unleaded in it. It has the identical mileage as the Lexus (but is just a toy that gets maybe 2 000 km a year) and I have never heard any preignition under hard acceleration with it either. The performance fiends will tell you you need the premium fuel, the synthetic oil, the the poly bushings, etc., etc., but unless you drive the vehicle hard, or have decided you are going to put 600 000 miles on it before trading it, you are wasting your money. You must do regular oil changes and maintenance on any vehicle, but unless you can hear preignition pinging under hard acceleration, you can burn regular unleaded fuel with no worries. Our previous 97 ES had 269 000 km, all with regular unleaded fuel, with no difficulties either.

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We have burned regular unleaded in my wife's 04 ES since new with absolutely no indications of problems whatsoever. Even under hard acceleration there is no preignition pinging at all, with the odometer turning 77 000 km (around 45 000 mi). My 90 300ZX is supposed to have premium fuel as well, but I use regular unleaded in it. It has the identical mileage as the Lexus (but is just a toy that gets maybe 2 000 km a year) and I have never heard any preignition under hard acceleration with it either. The performance fiends will tell you you need the premium fuel, the synthetic oil, the the poly bushings, etc., etc., but unless you drive the vehicle hard, or have decided you are going to put 600 000 miles on it before trading it, you are wasting your money. You must do regular oil changes and maintenance on any vehicle, but unless you can hear preignition pinging under hard acceleration, you can burn regular unleaded fuel with no worries. Our previous 97 ES had 269 000 km, all with regular unleaded fuel, with no difficulties either.

Thanks gbhrps.....I've noticed (as mentioned) on several websites (including fueleconomy.gov) that the 2004 - 2006 ES 330's say only regular unleaded fuel is required.......was just looking for confirmation. What does your 2004 owners manual say about the subject & how many km's per tank are you getting on average?

Going to have to respectfully disagree with you however on the synthetic oil opinion. ;)

:cheers:

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Yeah you can run regular gas no problem. You can on the 02-03 too I just have always run premium.

It reads "Premium is reccomended for best performance, but unleaded gas with a minimum of 86 octane may be used" or something like that.

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Yeah you can run regular gas no problem. You can on the 02-03 too I just have always run premium.

It reads "Premium is reccomended for best performance, but unleaded gas with a minimum of 86 octane may be used" or something like that.

Thanks a bunch Steve! B)

:cheers:

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Lexusfreak,

We reset the trip meter at each refill and generally can get 600 km a tank with a mixture of town and highway driving. Highway driving, locked at 115 kmph, gets substantially more.

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Lexusfreak,

We reset the trip meter at each refill and generally can get 600 km a tank with a mixture of town and highway driving. Highway driving, locked at 115 kmph, gets substantially more.

Thanks gb. :)

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  • 11 years later...

Hi all, new to this. Christmas of 2018 I purchased a used 2206 ES330 for my Husband. Love the car - smooth. I have been reading some comments here and I think we are not getting the best mileage we could. In resetting the trip it reads that we will get 500 to empty. That seems a little low. I am spoiled though - I get between 1000-1150km's in my C-MAX Hybrid. I am also reading that we should run 90+ octane. Then I read, no regular octane is good. I am unable to source out where the accuracy is written. I have tried the on line owners manual and still unsure.We live in Canada and I am not up on octane levels in gas from the USA.

Could someone reply to me. TX Debby

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27 minutes ago, Debby1313 said:

Hi all, new to this. Christmas of 2018 I purchased a used 2206 ES330 for my Husband. Love the car - smooth. I have been reading some comments here and I think we are not getting the best mileage we could. In resetting the trip it reads that we will get 500 to empty. That seems a little low. I am spoiled though - I get between 1000-1150km's in my C-MAX Hybrid. I am also reading that we should run 90+ octane. Then I read, no regular octane is good. I am unable to source out where the accuracy is written. I have tried the on line owners manual and still unsure.We live in Canada and I am not up on octane levels in gas from the USA.

Could someone reply to me. TX Debby

There's really no difference in gasoline between the U.S. and Canada.  I've driven personally owned and rental vehicles from the U.S. into a number of Canadian provinces including B.C. on extended trips and there were no differences in how they performed on fuel in either county.

Regular fuel is fine for the typical Toyota/Lexus V6 engine but maybe not for some recent turbo charged V6 engines like the ones now used in the LS500.  I've always thought it funny that regular fuel has usually been recommended for Toyota V6 engines but that premium has sometimes been recommended for Lexus V6 engines.  I've checked the part numbers for the V6 engine and their associated engine control electronics used in Toyota brand and Lexus brand vehicles and found that they are the same.  Supposedly premium fuel will provide slightly more horsepower and perhaps slightly better fuel economy but it's a trade-off between results and cost.  

500 km to empty after the tank is filled does sound a bit low but the calculation is based on the fuel usage rate of the previous one or maybe two tank fulls.  Fuel usage is highly variable.  The tank average for our 2014 Toyota Sienna V6 can range from average of 17 mpg to 25 mpg (13.84 l/100km to 9.41 l/100km) depending on how it is driven.  If you are mainly tooling around Vancouver or Victoria on surface streets, you will get substantially poorer fuel economy that if you mainly drive on highways.

Now ... would you please have a bridge built to Vancouver Island so that we no longer have to take a ferry?  We used to have to take a ferry to P.E.I. but they finally built a bridge for us.  😁

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