Hillbilly Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 1999 RX 300 AWD runs great and gets about 18mpg city driving, however, engine demands 93 octane or it will ping under hard acceleration. Owner's manual says it only needs 89 octane. Is this normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenore Posted April 26, 2008 Share Posted April 26, 2008 No, I run 91 octane and my car has never pinged..... You may have something else going on... pinging can be caused by 1. incorrect fuel grade 2. fault in engine management system 3. fuel injection fault 4. improper or damaged spark plugs 5. vacuum leak 6. defective knock sensor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBRX330 Posted April 26, 2008 Share Posted April 26, 2008 Before you do anything run a bottle of Redline s-1 OR gumout with regane fuel system cleaner throuh the system with a full tank of fuel and see if you have dirty fuel injectors. If you have over 100,000 miles on your spark plugs then they probably need changing and you should remove the throttle body and clean it thoroughly with TB cleaner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgkohler Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 If you go to edmunds.com/maintenance/vehicle.do you can see all the recalls and technical bulletins regarding any vehicles you may own. For many RX300/30's there is a known pinging noise problem: Component Description: 17. ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE Bulletin Number: 00505 Bulletin Date: MAR 2005 Vehicle: 2005 Lexus RX 330 Summary: FUEL INJECTOR TICKING NOISE. ( NHTSA ITEM NUMBER - 10015498 ) Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mburnickas Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 with "corn" in the fuel, this is nothing new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmastres Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 1999 RX 300 AWD runs great and gets about 18mpg city driving, however, engine demands 93 octane or it will ping under hard acceleration. Owner's manual says it only needs 89 octane. Is this normal? In comparison with my 00 I'd say it isnt. I run 87 all the time and notice no pinging or other problems. I feel for those filling up with 91/93 these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mburnickas Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 1999 RX 300 AWD runs great and gets about 18mpg city driving, however, engine demands 93 octane or it will ping under hard acceleration. Owner's manual says it only needs 89 octane. Is this normal? In comparison with my 00 I'd say it isnt. I run 87 all the time and notice no pinging or other problems. I feel for those filling up with 91/93 these days. ...but why the 91/93? I do not feel for them. Using 87 and FP+ will get more BTU' per gallon. YMMV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey00 Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 1999 RX 300 AWD runs great and gets about 18mpg city driving, however, engine demands 93 octane or it will ping under hard acceleration. Owner's manual says it only needs 89 octane. Is this normal? In comparison with my 00 I'd say it isnt. I run 87 all the time and notice no pinging or other problems. I feel for those filling up with 91/93 these days. I ran nothing but 87 octane in my 00 and now in my 01 with no pinging or other problems. I have to agree something else is going on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmastres Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 ...but why the 91/93? I do not feel for them. Using 87 and FP+ will get more BTU' per gallon. YMMV Yes, I remember a discussion where FP plus came up previously and I meant to research it. Good Stuff? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mburnickas Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Yes, I remember a discussion where FP plus came up previously and I meant to research it. Good Stuff? Samething happened on my GSXR bike, using FP+ all gone. YMMV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBRX330 Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 1999 RX 300 AWD runs great and gets about 18mpg city driving, however, engine demands 93 octane or it will ping under hard acceleration. Owner's manual says it only needs 89 octane. Is this normal? In comparison with my 00 I'd say it isnt. I run 87 all the time and notice no pinging or other problems. I feel for those filling up with 91/93 these days. Same here. But I keep the fuel system cleaned about every 20-30,000 miles. Changed the plugs at 140k and they still looked Ok. Some deposits but not much. I have been using redline, gumout regane or techron cleaner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSmith Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 1999 RX 300 AWD runs great and gets about 18mpg city driving, however, engine demands 93 octane or it will ping under hard acceleration. Owner's manual says it only needs 89 octane. Is this normal? I had a 2001 RX300 with engine ping. Turned out to be a sludged engine. Have the valve covers pulled and inspect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauljcl Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 1999 RX 300 AWD runs great and gets about 18mpg city driving, however, engine demands 93 octane or it will ping under hard acceleration. Owner's manual says it only needs 89 octane. Is this normal? I too have a '99 RX300 AWD and run it on regular gas. It does not 'ping' except if under heavy load, where it may make the odd 'ping' very slightly. I have 66K miles, and I would expect that, like in cars of old, as carbon deposits accumulate in the cylinders, the effective compression ratio increases and the chance of 'ping' increases. If you have a lot of miles on your RX, you may need to move to intermediate octane gas. The knock sensor prevents 'ping' at the expense of performance and FE, but, depending on your sensitivity, you may still hear some very slight 'ping' or not. pauljcl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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