Premium grade gas for Mazda CX7

Andy K

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Jun 13, 2015, 9:25:22 PM6/13/15

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The Turbo

The two upscale trim levels of the CX-7, called the "s-Touring" and the "s-Grand Touring" come with a 2.3 L, 4-cylinder engine with direct fuel injection and a turbocharger. This engine puts out 244 horsepower and 258 lbs. per foot. of torque. It needs 91 octane fuel to achieve its best acceleration and fuel economy, but you may use a lower octane fuel if necessary.

Read more : http://www.ehow.com/list_6915064_fuel-requirements-mazda-cx_7.html

I just bought a 2009 Mazda CX-7.

The mid grade gas is 89 octane.

Could I use it without any problems ?

The premium grade is 20 cents a gallon higher and that is gonna add up fast.

Andy

Kevin Bottorff

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Jun 14, 2015, 8:17:50 AM6/14/15

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Andy K <andrewke...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:21c58c81-8f31-496d...@googlegroups.com:

As long as your doing normal driving the 89 will be fine, If you like to
feel the floor under your accel foot, then not so much. KB

dsi1

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Jun 14, 2015, 10:27:54 PM6/14/15

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On 6/13/2015 3:25 PM, Andy K wrote:
> The Turbo
>
> The two upscale trim levels of the CX-7, called the "s-Touring" and the "s-Grand Touring" come with a 2.3 L, 4-cylinder engine with direct fuel injection and a turbocharger. This engine puts out 244 horsepower and 258 lbs. per foot. of torque. It needs 91 octane fuel to achieve its best acceleration and fuel economy, but you may use a lower octane fuel if necessary.
>
> Read more : http://www.ehow.com/list_6915064_fuel-requirements-mazda-cx_7.html
>
> I just bought a 2009 Mazda CX-7.
>
> The mid grade gas is 89 octane.
>
> Could I use it without any problems ?

Your best bet is to try it and see. A higher octane number will
generally be more resistant to engine knock and allow a more advanced
timing for the engine spark plugs. A lower octane number may reduce
power in an engine by reducing spark advance. OTOH, if you drive with a
light foot on the pedal, you might not notice any difference in power at
all between the grades. OTOH, if you hear any engine knock, go to a
higher octane gas.

Ashton Crusher

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Jun 15, 2015, 10:23:02 PM6/15/15

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Yes, you can use it without any problems IF the owners manual says you
can. Even if the owners manual doesn't say you can you can still
almost certainly use it without problems because all modern cars have
knock sensors to adjust the timing to handle any normally available
grade of gas. I forget the details but IIRC if the manufacturer rates
the power while using high octane then they have to rate the fuel
economy on high octane too. So if higher octane gives them enough
extra hp that they want to be able to advertise that higher hp they
are stuck with what will probably be lower gas mileage in their ads.
And also stuck with the lower gas mileage when calculating their CAFE.
So for cars that they sell jillions of they are likely to use low
octane and give up the extra 10 hp. But for a high performance car
they only sell a relatively small number of they may be willing to
bite the gas mileage bullet and specify high octane so they can get
that last bit of hp that they will then advertise.

So use the lowest octane fuel you care to as long as you don't hear
pinging or experience knocking (it's extremely unlikely you would
experience either, the knock sensors are so sensitive they hear any
pinging and adjust for it way before it's loud enough for you to hear.
The last car I had that would ping on low octane was a 1986 model with
the very early knock sensor. It took about a second for the computer
to adjust the timing and stop the pinging/knocking. Everything I've
had since then adjust so fast I've never heard a thing.

Why don't you try some different grades and report back what happened
and whether you could tell a difference in performance.

Andy K

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Jun 20, 2015, 6:20:41 AM6/20/15

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There has been no decrease in performance. I am easy on the gas pedal.

I will report back on my m.p.g. results of mid grade vs. Premium grade.

Andy K

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Jun 30, 2015, 8:30:28 PM6/30/15

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On Saturday, June 20, 2015 at 5:20:41 AM UTC-5, Andy K wrote:
> There has been no decrease in performance. I am easy on the gas pedal.
>
> I will report back on my m.p.g. results of mid grade vs. Premium grade.

I got 19 m.p.g. with regular gas. (combination of city and hwy driving)

Andy

dsi1

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Jun 30, 2015, 9:08:33 PM6/30/15

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I'm trying regular instead of premium in my Passat 1.8T. It feels a bit
ponderous. I'm not enjoying it too much. It might not be worth the
couple of bucks I save.