I just bought my '06 scion Xa. Is there any advantage to using 89 octane or higher for this vehicle? Also(survey), what are your favorite gas brands? I hear it is imperative that the station changes the gas filter every 3 months inside the pump. This gas station in Binghamton, NY has the gas filter on the hose where you can see it's been changed by the date marked on filter housing. I've heard that most stations only change theirs once-a-year, if that!

 

stay with 87 octane with todays prices you wanna try too keep you pocket book as heavy as you can

 

HI Flint Mica XA dude, As a certified auto mechanic and commercial truck driver, I can tell you that using 87 octane fuel in your new XA is exactly the correct thing to do. When a cars timing and compression ratio are set to be compatable with 87 octane fuel, then there is no advantage to be gained by using the 89 or 93 octane fuel. Just be sure to use a good brand that has a reputation for having a high detergent content to help keep your fuel injectors and intake valves clean. This will keep your XA at peek fuel economy and low emissions. In my area, my favorite fuels are Shell and BP. I have had consistant good quality from those two. I hope this has been helpful, and I hope you have alot of fun with your new XA. Welcome to SL.

 

Same as above. 89 and 93 don't do anything. I've even heard that it will drop your MPG. For the best MPG per buck, you'll want to stick with 87 anyways.

My current favorite is Shell. I was a long time BP gas user, but Shell has given me better MPG. So even a company as reputable as BP may not be as good as you expect. Check around. I'm actually doing some MPG checks with various stations. So we'll see...

 

Quoted for truth! You can check this site for the top tier gas companies to buy from. Four of the major car companies (Toyota included!) recommend them.

http://www.toptiergas.com/

 

The oil companies don't like you to know this, but most gas is very similar. The only difference is the additives they use...and a lot of R&D goes in to those. Gas is transported from refineries by pipelines, which are typically not owned by the oil companies. These flow to terminals where the trucks pick them up for final delivery to your local stations. When they place an order for gas, the company goes to the terminal and picks up gas the next day, or hour...whatever. Then they pump gas in to the pipeline and that gas probably won't arrive at the terminal for a couple of days.

Some regions have cleaner burner gas, but I don't know, to me this seems more like an excuse to hike up the price in those regions faster than others.

 

Just mke sure that you go to a fairly busy station...they will have fresher gas.

 

Just another quick note of reference: this month's issue of Sport Compact Car talks about myths of tuning. They've dedicated one whole page to the faulty notion that running a higher octane gets you more power in a car calling for 87 octane. I'm sure they're gonna get flamed, but it's good to see a so-called tuning authority at least put that out there!

This is only the cover of this month's issue:
http://sportcompactcarweb.com/toc/thismonth/

 

...and stay away from a station that is refilling it's tanks or just got refilled. Whatever deposits and dirt that were laying at the bottom of their tank gets churned up, and you don't want any of that in your own tank.
Stations with newer tanks are more appealing to me because of that just as much older stations are likely to have old rusty tanks and I steer clear of those most times, unless I know they've replaced the tanks.

 

The only time you may need to switch to a higher octane fuel is if you change the engines operating mechanicals/performance charastics...such as installing a supercharger, turbo charger or high compression pistions. In these cases the added cooling feature and the more effecient burn of the higher octane fuel will benefit the changes and help reduce the chance of knocking. Otherwise, stay with the "regular". Good luck!

 

10.5:1 is high compression.

The only reason they don't spark-knock (aka detonation) is because they have a knock sensor that 'hears' it before we do & retards the timing accordingly. Retarded timing = less horsepower.

Also, any flame front (when fuel detonates under extreme pressure/heat at any time or location OTHER than the 'firing' of the spark plug) is not good for your internals. A knock sensor can't catch it until after it happens. You can prevent it by running higher octane.

Run what you want. I will too. It's not the complete truth to say that these cars only need 87 octane, though. There's more to it than that.

 

On vacation, I often had a choice between 86, 88, and 90 octane. I chose 88, but wonder if 86 would have been a better choice.

 

I use 91 and 93 octane gas since the first day I got my tc. Will it hurt my car in any way?

 

not really... but you're wasting your money.

 

Would have to agree on this one.

The 1.5 liter motor in the xA & xB has a rather high 10.5:1 compression ratio - higher octane is warranted, and NOT a waste of money as some self-professed experts would like to tell you.

HOWEVER, the tC's 2.4 liter has a very moderate 9.6:1 compression ratio - unlike the high-compression xA & xB, you are in no danger of pre-ignition (detonation, spark-knocking...call it what you want) by using quality 87 octane fuel.