Is there a recommended gas for Prius?

87 Octane regular. For the most part gasoline is gasoline as long as it is clean and does not conain excess moisture.

JeffD

 

Above 4500 feet, 85 Octane is fine.

 

as they say, regular is fine.

If you are mid-west avoid stations selling E85 and if you have to, do not buy 87, go with lower grade (it is usually more expensive then 87). The 87 is delivered by mixing E85 with regular, and quite often contains way more then 10% of alcohol.

 

I stick with Top Tier gas due to past problems with deposit buildup in my GM vehicles. I almost exclusively buy Shell.

Top Tier Gasoline

 

You may not want to be using Shell gasoline in your GM vehicles... It is a known problem on certain GM trucks/cars that using Shell gasoline corrodes the little fingers on the fuel probes causing you to lose the ability to read your fuel level. I changed a fuel pump in a friends Trailblazer because of this, and have seen various complaints around the internet for it. I mainly stick with Chevron w/Techron. I also put in a bottle of the Techron attitive you can buy at oil change time. Here is a link below describing why Shell gas and some others do this, and like I said more searching will dig up more articles. I have had quite a few GM vehicles (and used Shell gas occassionally), but after I changed that fuel pump in the Trailblazer and they exlcusively used Shell gas I quit going there altogether. It shouldn't affect your Toyota though, and I am really unsure if it affects new GM vehicles. I just like to let other people know so they can save themselves the $500-$600 repair bill at the dealer if that is the case.

Fuel Gauge Problems Caused by Shell(and other) Gasoline - GM Forum - Buick, Cadillac, Chev, Olds, GMC & Pontiac chat

 

I usually stick with a "top tier" brand in "my" G3 for two reasons:
1. It's a fleet car, and I don't pay for the gas so price isn't my overarching concern.
2. The bigs usually have cleaner facilities and I suspect that they're also more consistent with pump filter and tank maintenance.

For my personal vehicles (including my 2 motorcycles) I usually get gas when I shop at the big box store, or I pick a clean top tier station. Since the price delta is usually less than $1 per fill-up I don't arrange my life around stops at a particular station.
As stated above, any clean low moisture 87 octane gas is just fine for the G3.

YMMV.

 

Very interesting. I never kept my GM vehicles for more than about 70K miles, so that could be why I never experienced this. I doubt I'll be buying any GM vehicles in the near future, unless I decide to get a mid-90s C/K pickup for a winter beater.

 

The information seems a bit dated to me. That post, along with the all of its commentary, occurred way back in 2004.

 

How about Costco 87 gas ?
Would this be considered as Top Tier?

 

I use Costco reg 87 octane gas most of the time. Here in Oregon
10% Ethanol is required by law all year long.

It runs fine with it and the last tank was over 54 mpg calculated.
Also the price is anywhere from 5-20 cents a gallon less than
other gas vendors.

alfon

 

Costco gas will be whatever they get that week, but the worry of water and sediment goes down as they move lots of product. Water and sediment should be greatest in a slow selling locale.

 

Just said it was a source. There are plenty more out there. By now I am sure GM has most likely redesigned the part. Just like the faulty gauge solenoids on our Trailblazer. They redesigned those in 2006, but all cars prior to that they eventually fail. Looks to me like they came out with a TSB for the fuel issue in 2005 by putting in some special GM fuel system cleaner. Says all 2006 & prior cars are affected so guess if it is after that you are fine. Not trying to alarm people or anything, but just trying to give heads up. I use the Chevron with Techron additive every oil change and don't have issues, and has seemed to solve a lot of other peoples problems as well.

As far as top tier gasoline goes. To my knowledge all gasoline that comes out of the trucks is 100% the same.. Once it gets to the gas station each individual stations puts whatever their secret sauce is in (BP's Invigorate, Chevron's Techron, etc)... So technically it does not matter where you buy gas from. Just if your like me, and you like the Chevron stuff just pop a bottle of that in with the tank and you are good to go. Really do not worry about it though. Just put in a bottle every 5,000 miles or so to help keep the engine clean.

 

Top Tier is just a marketing ploy that means the gas has a few parts per million more detergent than the government requires. And that is only if the driver of the tanker adds a couple oz. to the tank when he starts filling from the nurse tank.

There are additives that put into the tank once or twice a year that will do the same job.

 

We use to use Chevron almost exclusively. Then about 3 years ago we switched to Costco for our 3 cars (Prius, Jeep, BMW) because of the significant lower price per gallon.

No problems at all with the Costco gas.

Keith

 

I may have to give Costco gas a shot again I guess since a lot of you guys are using it with no issue. I used it years ago, but had issues with a turbo Eclipse I owned at the time (started having detonation).. I guess with the Prius it really isn't an issue since it is supposed to take 87 anyway. I have been running ethanol free gas the last 2 tanks though with some great results.

 

We don't have a Cosco in this neck of the woods, but I use Sams's Club gas regularly with good results. On the road I buy whatever is cheap.

Tom

 

it is kinda funny to hear how people argue about different brands of gas, which one is better?

truth is that many oil companies share terminal, so brand A and brand B start with the same base, and many small/independents buy additives from big suppliers.. BJ gas uses Exxon additives for example.

 

Have driven my gen 3 Prius for two years / 20,000 miles now and have experimented with multiple tanks of all the gasoline blends avalible to me to find what gives the best fuel economy.

Have run 87 octane regular, 89-90 octane E10 and 91 octane premium, hands down, my best mpg (53 average) has been with a good quality E10.
My favorite brand (Cenex) has local blender pumps, so they blend their good quality 87 octane regular with 10% ethanol to produce the 90 octane stuff without resorting to excess ethanol to get the Octane number.

I hear some others start with a very poor grade gasoline stock and add excess Ethanol to get the required octane number.

As it is, my Prius Atkinson cycle , 13/1 CR engine appears to gain more efficiency from 3 points higher octane than it loses from the 3% less BTU's of E10.