can a 215/45R17 be used to replace a 225/65-17 tire

Thanks for the information, which is what I was looking for.

If you read my original post, this is why I asked the question in the first place. I didn't know whether this was a real risk, or just a generic recommendation that really didn't matter.

I have often wondered how much of a real drop in mpg this would cause, and whether or not this was in part an 'urban legend.' Hence my post asking for facts and information - I certainly didn't expect to be called "dumb" and "odd" gathering data before making a decision.

Not that it's your business, or relevant to the questions I asked, but I bought the car 2 years ago, and have since semi-retired, with a substantial drop in income. I'm just looking at a variety of means of cutting down expenses, and wanted to know if this was possible here without sacrificing anything else. If it turned out that performance wouldn't suffer significantly, and there was no potential for engine or other damage, then why throw away money needlessly? Small expenses add up over time.

Sheesh, pretty judgmental group; I was just looking to gather a few facts.

Why is it that people have to be so judgmental, when somebody asks a question, trying to gather a bit of hard data?

I have often wondered how much one really loses in terms of MPG, and whether or not this offsets the cost difference. There are certainly plenty of "urban legends" where people assume such and such to be the case, when the facts would prove otherwise. Not knowing the answer myself, I figured I'd ask here to see if there was hard data and information available on this subject to help me in making a decision.

As I replied to a similarly confrontational response from Steve T:

"Not that it's your business, or relevant to the questions I asked, but I bought the car 2 years ago, and have since semi-retired, with a substantial drop in income. I'm just looking at a variety of means of cutting down expenses, and wanted to know if this was possible here without sacrificing anything else. If it turned out that performance wouldn't suffer significantly, and there was no potential for engine or other damage, then why throw away money needlessly? Small expenses add up over time.

Sheesh, pretty judgmental group; I was just looking to gather a few facts."

I appreciate the civil response, Tom.

Has anybody ever done any reasonably controlled studies to demonstrate how much actual drop in MPG there is going from premium to regular? That was one reason I posted, as I have often wondered about this. Is it a few tenths of an mpg, or 4 mpg, or what? I recall the subject coming up many years ago on "Car Talk" and if I recall correctly, they concluded that the increase in MPG using premium did not offset the added cost (a slightly different situation than mine, in a vehicle not specifically recommending Premium to begin with).

Best,

Can some one give me an idea the cost for dealer to replace the coils and plugs on a 2K Maxima please, Thanks

My 95 Maxima misses badly when you stomp on it. It seems to run fine otherwise. The check engine light is on and is giving a PO340 code. The car has been in a Nissan repair shop to try to correct the problem. They replaced the cam position sensor. Inspected wiring from sensor to pcm. Ran new wire from sensor to pcm. Changed pcm (installed used one temporarily) Nothing has helped the problem.

Here is the kicker! The car was in a different shop, (not a Nissan shop) about 5 weeks ago to have the water pump replaced. My wife drives the car most of the time and she didn't notice a problem at first. She cannot positively remember if it ever missed before the water pump replacement.

I made the Nissan service manager aware of the water pump replacement and my suspicion of a possible connection to the miss when I first took it in. At this point they say It could be the timing or a chip in a tooth or gear and that the next step would to pull the engine to check as they cannot eliminate the timing issue completely with the engine in the car.

Any suggestion or comments appreciated.

Thanks

My recommendations are as follows, and just went through this in the BMW news group too.

1. Check your tire pressure weekly. 3 PSI off on one or more tires and what you saved in gas cost just got burned up in Road resistance.
2. Maximize your systems capability to produce the best gas mileage possible by using the cruise control as much and often as you can. The cruise can maintain a steadier speed far more accurately than your foot.
3. Lower Octane gas can lead to Engine Ping or pre-detonation. The ECU will retard the timing to prevent this from happening. Retarded timing will lead to a richer air-fuel mixture. This means that the engine will not be burning as cleanly as possible. There will be a build-up of carbon in the exhaust and the emissions into the environment will not be as clean as they could be. If you use fuel that has a high sulphur content, then the unburned constituents will more heavily contaminate the catalytic converter and that may lead to reduced lifespan.
4. Because the engine is not running optimally, your gas mileage will go down and you will probably be consuming any savings that you thought you had achieved by purchasing a cheaper fuel. This you can easily test for yourself and prove. Do two tanks of high octane and two tanks of low octane and keep a record of mileage and cost. Then do the math. By the way, you should probably reset the ECU between tests, as it will learn specific settings for one fuel grade versus the other and that may have an adverse influence upon your test results.

rtt

I remember that article in one of the car mags. Most of the cars tested weren't even programmed to handle super unleaded. So it was a losing battle for super un-leaded even before the test began, but the point they were making was how wasteful people are to put super in a car not even designed to use it.

CD

Because this question is asked so regularly, did you do a google search on this group first?

You'll probably see a 2-3 MPG+ loss on this car. And yes it does damage the engine over time.

The "facts" were done testing cars not designed to use premium fuel. Just do a search on "knock sensor" "Maxima" and see all the people complaining about poor MPG and poor performance. That's what occures when you use cheap gas as well.

Actually it is relevant. As I said, it seems odd someone would buy a high end performance car and then want to use cheap gas in it. Your explaination makes sense but doubt it's a comon one. Most people who are fighting a major loss of income would sell the high end car and buy something cheaper to insure, operate and make the payments on.

Maybe if you had explained WHY you need to save money, no one would have questioned it? Like I said most people who can afford a $30,000+ car, the taxes involved etc can spring for the $0.20 a gallon premium costs unless they are just being a cheap.

Who tuned the car last? Have the plugs ever been replaced with the -wrong- ones?

The car has 127,000 miles and plugs were changed at about 90,000 miles. I don't know what kind of plugs were put in but it didn't miss until recently.

I have a 1992 Nissan Maxima SE. There's something wrong with the engine. Like the engine dies sometimes when you drive it and soemtimes it acts like it's going to die, but than kicks back on. It dies alot, but I could drive it pretty steady sometimes, but if I go to slow it dies and if acclerated alot or drive too fast it dies, and even when I'm not in the car and I leave the car running the engine soemtimes dies. Theres no prombnlem starting the car, and when it dies I turn off the car all the way off and start it agian, it starts right back up. Alot peopole had differnt ideas about it like maybe the sensors on the engine like Cam sensor or Crank sensor, and the battery got messed up and I replaced that, but I think thats a sepreate promblem, and it needs an oil change, but of course all get that done soon, and it didn't pass the inspection becuase it has an exuast leek so I'm having that fixed, but I don't think it will fix the promblem. The engine sounds ok, I guess, but it kind of sounds a little funny sometimes. The check engine light isn't on and I scan the computer and it didn't say what as wrong with my car. The engine is mostly clean it dosn't smoke or have any obvisoe damage to it. So I don't know whats wrong with it, and I dopn't feel safe driving it when it dies in the middle of the rd, so I hope someone can help me fix it I was thinking about sell it if I can't fix it. Tahnx

I have a Nissan Maxima and there'something wrong with the enigne becasue it dies sometimes, but the check engine light dosne't come on and I scan the computer anyways, but it didn't pop-up codes, so I don't know whats wrong with it. I wish the check engine light did pop up on my car, so I think it's would be totaly worth it for you to scan the computer or whatever to see what's wrong with it.

I don't think it coast too much, I herd that AutoZone does some test for free. And there's a guy around my area that doess it for liek $35, but it should cost like $50 at the most to check it. And to fix it it probaly wont coast that much beacsaue I looked at alot of parts to get for my car to see if it helps to replace them and there's all these parts I could get for like only $100 each, which I could buy a couple, but it's not worth it for me to buy all of them to test it, I wish I knew what was wrong so I could buy one of those for sure.

Steve,

Actually I did, but didn't find anything specific to the Maxima with the search criteria I used. I always do this before posting.

That pretty much answers it there.

That's the kind of info I was looking for.

I'm not in a financial crisis, just looking at various recurring expenses in a variety of areas, to determine where some savings could be achieved without any significant downside. Clearly, switching to regular gas is not a viable option.

I understand where you're coming from, but I thought a straightforward question looking for some facts while I was in the decision making process didn't need much further elaboration.

In any case, I appreciate the information I was able to gather here, from you and the others.

Best,

Don Photo Website at:

Hi Richard,

This detailed information is greatly appreciated. Between this and the other posts, it's pretty clear that regular gas is not a viable option. Thanks for the other tips as well.

Best,

Makes sense; thanks for the clarification.

maybe motor control relay? fixed my daughter's car from intermittent dieing. cheap too.

(thanx nisstech!)

Carl

Bryan32005 wrote:

Lovely images. They'd love you at alt.photography if you posted your URL.

Does anyone know when the next generation Maxima is scheduled to go into production?