I have a 99 ES and I don't see what you mentioned in the manual.. where is it?

 

in many areas they "oxygenate" gas for the winter time. maybe that is causing your knock. maybe you could try a step cooler spark plug and see if that helps?

 

Sorry not toe be specific enough. "They" are the gas companies, and "they" add MBTE or some such acronym to our gas during the cold months. Similar to the ""oxygenating" that Tom refered too. I didn't mean to imply that there was some conspirocy theory going on.

Sage,

I read your whole post, but the thread was going in a slightly different direction, sorry.

Unless you have an MP3, your engine is PRECISELY the same as everyone else's whether it says "special edition" or not. Most "special editions" are just option packages applied to end-of-model-year cars.

So my opinion is your "better performance" is placeabo effect. Just my 2¢ though.

 

all gasoline sold in the state of California, by state law, is oxygenated, regardless of what the season is or what the temperature is.

(this law is supposed to be overturned by the end of 2003...assuming Gray Davis loses the election this year)

most gasoline stations use MTBE (which was found to be harmful to the environment) and a few places (i.e., ARCO) use ethanol, which is a byproduct of corn.

yes. corn.

There are actually a few places in California that do not sell oxygenated gasoline. One of them is South Lake Tahoe (the city council banned MTBE due to the contaminated water supply)...the other places are on military bases...which is on federal property.

Any protege (with the exception of the Mazdaspeed or MP3) will run optimally with 87 octane, that is, unless you add a turbo or other aftermarket goodies which affect fuel timing.

I used to own an 1989 BMW 325i and I added a Conforti chip to it...the Conforti needed 92 octane, but California's 91 octane with MTBE was sufficient...the engine never knocked or pinged at WOT.
BTW, the Conforti chip was 49-state legal...I did not know that it was not legal in California...only Dinan made a 50-state legal BMW chip.

 

Well thank-you everyone for your opinions but I know my car and I know that 93 has made a differece. And as far as my engine being the same... it most likely is- but it' odd that the manual would make an exception recomending >91 for special edition 2.0 engines. I'm actually suprised that NO ONE else has seen this before. In the next couple days I'm planning on borrowing my buddies digital camera (mine is only 640X480- not good for text) to take a picture of my manual and my vehicle info tag so you guys can see this. I'll probably start a new thread.

BTW My car WAS NOT an end-of-model-year car. AGAIN, it was one of the first 2001 models. They were still making a big deal about the move from the 1.8 in the 2000 ES to the 2.0 version in the 2001 ES.

 

I enjoy every aspect of the performance of this car. The way the engine growls when you stab the accelerator. It's never left me without enough power. I've never been outrun at a stoplight (ofcourse I know how to pick my battles). I think the engine is well-matched to the car. I love running it through its entire power band. It's not all about numbers. It feels right to me.
Besides, more power would mean less full-throttle fun to avoid tickets...

 

This is specifically to kc5zom and Sporin:
I am sage11's girlfriend and I didn't even know that he had changed from 87 octane to 93 octane. We were driving one day with the air-conditioning on and I mentioned that his car didn't seem to lag when taking off from a light. He said he had put 93 octane in the car to see if it really made a difference in the performance. I have not driven the car but I have been in it enough to know that the car is more peppy with the 93 octane. As for the placebo effect, try it and see if you notice a difference.

 

I use 95 unleaded, nothing but the best for my baby.

 

Yeah your supposed to use like 89 or better.

 

I currently do not understand the original purpose of this thread? Are you trying to find others to justify your purchase of more expense octane for your vehicle?

Why even post if you should use a higher octane when you have already made up your mind that the higher octane helps. I am sorry to bash your thread, but I find no real reason to go to a higher octane if the manual does not require it. The only time that I see a higher octane is needed is if you change the ECU to change the HP rating, change the rods/pistons to a higher quality or put in a Turbo.

So please do not take this post as being offensive. I just find it hard to swallow why so many people want to use a higher octane when they do not need it.

 

It basically depends of you want to have your car to run better or how cheap you are.

 

95 is definately not the best if it is THE WRONG OCTANE for your baby.

 

The manual says it should be 93 or higher, unleaded...she seems to like it

 

Let me put this simply. I have never heard of or seen a 2.0L special edition until this thread came up. For the rest of us using US spec 2.0L engines (except for the MP3 and MazdaSpeed, and hell if I know about Venezuela) it is stupid to waste your money on higher octane fuels unless you are noticing knocking (at which point you should take the damn car back to the dealership and get the thing fixed). To put it simply:

Octane does not equal performance.

Octane measures a fuels resistance to ignition. Its used in vehicles with higher compression and such to avoid the fuel igniting before it is supposed to. So:

DO WHAT THE DAMN MANUAL SAYS!

 

Well, considering that filling up the tank costs me around 3$ US, I don't mind, and yes that's what it costs to fill the entire thing, about 50liter worth of 95 unleaded.

god I love this country