Engine Ping

[Hillbilly]

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?

[lenore]

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.

[KBRX330]

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.

[sgkohler]

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

[mburnickas]

with "corn" in the fuel, this is nothing new.

[tmastres]

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.

[mburnickas]

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

[mikey00]

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.

[tmastres]

...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?

[mburnickas]

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

[KBRX330]

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.

[JSmith]

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.

[pauljcl]

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