regular, midgrade, or premium?

[changedman]

the MP3 manual suggests 91 octane or higher (premium). What does everyone put in their MP3 and does it knock? I'm wondering if its really necessary to put premuim in an MP3.
(87 being regular, 89 midgrade, 92/93 premium)

 

[Logan]

You should always use what the documentation says.
It's there for a reason.

 

[Logan]

If you want to try stepping down, fill up with 91, and when it's half empty, fill it again with 89 or whatever the next step down from 91 is where you are.
then you're running around 90.
see how it runs.
if it runs fine, fill up with 89 on your next fill up, see what happens, repeat for 87 if you really want to see what happens....

 

[PaulMP3]

i have always ran 93 octane in mine, sometimes even 94 if i got a wad full of cash. one time my dad was driving my car and thought he did me a favor by filling up my tank, but he put 87 in it. I flipped, then appoligized, he was just tryin to be nice. anyways i had no problems when i ran it with 87. but then again it was only one tank.

 

[Adam3482P]

93 every single damn time

 

[bd4awgn]

s*** with the gas prices....forget running that high number s***...87 all the way

 

[sttl013]

Mazda recommends 91 octane because part of the MP3 upgrade over the regular Protege is 10 more HP. Part of this comes from an advanced timing setup, and that is why they recommend 91 octane.

If you use lower grades, I was told (and also read on this site) that the computer recognizes this (probably some kind of knock sensor?) and retards the timing. So you will lose some HP by going with 87.

 

[MikeBlueP5]

ha speaking of gas what are all you guys paying and where?
GA about $1.43 87, $1.53 89, $1.63 93
Mike

 

[Vicocola]

oooooooomyyyyyyyyyygooooooodddddd 87: 2.15 89:2.25 91:2.35 in california... time to consider moving to somewhere with cheap gas :bs:

 

[MikeBlueP5]

lol yeah atlantans/georgians supposedly have the cheapest prices. Man I couldnt live in CA, I would have to live in the P5. LOL man 2$ for a gallon of gas, I think I would start making my own or some s***.
Mike

 

[dan00k]

i can get 87 for 1.35; 89 for 1.45 and 93 for 1.55 at tom thumb...got to use ur tom thumb card to get like a 6 cent cut on each gallon...worth it when you need gas all the time tho

 

[MP3N.Y.C]

93 all the time...and sometimes 94 if its a good price. I always put 93 in every car I have ever owned.
Pete

(bluemp3) #478
mods:
polished intake with K&N
kartboy shifter,bushings and knob
silver rota tarmacs 17's

 

[twilightprotege]

hey

i just have to have a little giggle about this. here downunder (australia). our regular unleaded is 92ron, premium 95ron...and what i get....ultra premium 98ron. gotta love 98ron. i only ever get that. here it's about A$0.93 per litre....US$0.56 per litre...i have no idea how many gallons per litre. there are even rumours going around that we'll be getting 100ron unleaded in the near future available at all gas stops. 98ron is available in about 60%, 95ron at all.

later

 

[LinuxRacr]

Well a liter is 0.264 Gallons. Someone do the math...I'm too lazy tonight.

 

[cjstringer]

That's over $2/gal. A little steep. Here in Indy it's about 1.799 for 93 at Shell/Amoco. I may run Sunoco 94 from time to time, but it's about 1.959 right now. Never run the speedway or other fuels. They use methanol, which doesn't burn as pure and clogs everything up quicker.

 

[MrMp3]

Here it is 1.98 for premium

 

[oliver2000]

4 litres for a US Gallon and 4.5 for a cdn gallon

 

[PA_MP3_Man]

hmm I've always been running 87 i my car. Don't really think it's hurting too much. I dont know though. I've been thinking I will start using 93 to see if it makes a difference. I get 87 for $1.59 and 93 for $1.69. So it's not too much difference.

 

[scott42]

Ifeel a definite difference between 93 and 89...(no in between grade that I know of in PA) Was having some hesitation problems in the extreme cold weather, so the dealer said to knock it down a notch, he said all you'll do is lose a little punch, but the hesitation should subside. It did, and losing the punch doesn't hurt too much when you have your snow tires on
Oh yeah...$1.85+ for 93oct

 

[changedman]

i've wanted to go down a grade or two, being a college student that commutes 40miles to school twice a week, and being gas prices the way they are (177, 187, 197) I'm looking for different ways to cheapen up good thing my MP3 gets BETTER gas mileage than my old 1990 Nissan Sentra (I swear i got no more than 15 miles a gallon, plus it was burning so much oil, I had to put a quart in every fill up :mad: )