We have a '99 Taurus SE wagon with the 3.0L 6-cyl Duratec engine. Used to put 89 or higher octane gas in it before prices went crazy.Manual says 87 is fine and we've been filling it with 87 for the past year. I'm now noticing "pinging" when accelerating up hills. Do I need to go back to 89 or higher?

Thanks!

 

Some cars will ping lightly when going uphill. Try running some sort of fuel system cleaner(STP, Gumout, Techron, etc.) to your gas for the next two tanks. That should help, andkeep running 87 gas.
If it does clear up try repacing the fuel filter(probably not a bad idea anyway), and cleaning the MAF senor. I wouldn't run 89 unless the ping was presentunderother condtions as well.

 

Thanks for your reply. Replacing the fuel filter & cleaning the MAF sensor: are these things thatI can do myself? I'm pretty handy (although you'd never know it).

Thanks again.

 

Yes, the fuel filter will probably take ten minutes to figure out and complete the first time, some gas will come out when you dicsonnect the fuel line, so get out of the way. The MAF senor is held in place with 2 tamper proof screws, with the proper bit, remove it genty and use rubbing alcohol and a q-tip to gently clean the two senor filaments on the bottom of the senor, let it dry and replace it.

Sidenote: clean out the throttle body w/ a T.B safe cleaner like CRC Intake cleaner. Just spray the blade and bore and wipe all the junk out with a paper towel or something.