[ember1205]

Originally Posted by TXCSSU

That's what I expect someone that works for the "Big 3" to say. :P


Branded need to justify the extra costs, but as someone else has mentioned there isn't much of a difference. Hell, I used Shell Premium exclusively in one of my cars and then switched to Costco gas and didn't see any marked difference.

One big factor is the gas station itself. Some shady stations will use water, some use a higher concentration of ethanol (not E85 but E15-E20, etc.) Those are sometimes lower, but will definitely show lower performance. I used to go to a Bucee's that was about 30 miles away to fill up with pure gas (no ethanol) and didn't see a difference there either, which was a little disappointing. I did decide to use the pure gas for all my lawn equipment though, as that stupid Ethanol tears through older lawn equipment gas lines like a Mustang through a crowd at a C&C meet.

I would doubt that individual stations are paying to add Ethanol to fuel in their tanks (whether prior to delivery or after) as that will only raise their costs. And no one is purposefully adding water to the tanks as it doesn't actually mix with the gasoline and will separate out. Then you have a situation where what's being pumped is -mostly- water and can easily be traced back to the station and they are then on the hook for repairs to all affected vehicles. Water seeping into the underground tanks is a bigger overall risk, I would think, but that seems to mostly be becoming less likely with so many stations now having plastic underground tanks since their last required tank replacement process.

Ethanol will generally cause a decrease in MPG, but the amounts put into most fuels doesn't result in a significant enough drop to really be overly appreciated. Our cars generally don't suffer from issues from it because the fuel doesn't sit in the tanks long enough to degrade like it does in small engine equipment that is used seasonally. For those that store their cars, it will generally run at a lower level of performance for a tank or two until the degraded fuel gets pushed out of the system. I usually store the car with whatever is in the tank (I don't fill it first). When it comes out onto the road for the season, I will not fill the tank until it's at/under half full. Then I'll run that tank as close to empty as I reasonably can and don't look back from there...

[SS_Don]

Anyone try Sam’s Club gas?


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[UnknownJinX]

I think folks would basically want something like this when it comes to power:



Someone in my neck of woods actually tried to put different gas in a car and was running dyno sessions with it. He was logging WHP and WTQ, as well as ignition timing correction. No "it feels faster", just cold hard numbers. It proves that, as of now, Shell 93 gas is better than Chevron 94 in my area.

He actually did another video a while before where he proved the opposite(Chevron 94 is better than Shell 91; Shell 93 only recently came to my area), but when he did the second video, he started a GoFundMe campaign as he explained that these dyno tests get expensive and most people get to use the results for free, so he wanted people to pitch in for the gas while he is fine with paying for the dyno and do the video work. It made sense to me so I pitched in $20. Eventually, he came out with the video above. I have posted it for reference and entertainment since it won't necessarily apply to your area unless you living in Greater Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Shell and Chevron are generally my go-to. Shell wins out for now, especially given the Air Miles rewards. Also, for us Canadians, Shell has an app while Chevron doesn't. I heard the Chevron app is also less polished than Shell from my friend who used it in the States. The Shell app basically allows me to do the payment on the phone so I just need to select the gas grade and fuel. Chevron has Journie rewards, which gives me some small snacks from time to time, but meh, I don't particularly care for that.

As for Costco, it is Top Tier, and folks in the States seem to be happy with it, but it is meh from what I heard here in Canada.

Gas mileage will be a lot harder to test since that requires you not to have any variation in traffic... Impossible unless you are simulating it on a closed track.

BTW, E10 will be about 3% worse on gas than E0. Not that big of a difference, but if you are 1 MPG off then it could be that.

Originally Posted by ember1205

The in-dash numbers are pretty meaningless. The only way to track MPG is manual calculation. The "drift" from my in-dash display and calculated numbers is never consistent by a fixed number OR a percentage. It's a crap system that doesn't work properly in any vehicle on the road.

My Camaro's estimated gas mileage is about 10% more optimistic than it really is with my Fuelly/aCar calculations, so basically 10% less L/100km or 10% more MPG.

I actually drove a friend's 18 Mazda6 GT with the 2.5T engine for a while and I found that estimate to be much better. Occasionally it is actually spot on, while it usually doesn't swing 5% either way. Yes, it can even give out more pessimistic estimates than my calculation.

Originally Posted by shaffe

I am shocked to see that BP/Amoco is not in the top tier list anymore

Top Tier actually requires the gas company to pay a fee to them annually, on top of having to meet their requirements.

Petro-Canada is the same, they lost the Top Tier logo a while ago. I doubt that they changed their formula or detergent amount so much that they don't meet Top Tier standards anymore, they probably don't just want to pay the fee. Some people speculate that they want to focus more on patriotic marketing like Tim Hortons, LOL. I can totally see that.

I used to use Petro-Canada with my RX-8 and my Camaro as well when I lived in Alberta. No issues for daily driving AFAIK.

[ST1LE]

Originally Posted by TXCSSU

That's what I expect someone that works for the "Big 3" to say. :P


Branded need to justify the extra costs, but as someone else has mentioned there isn't much of a difference. Hell, I used Shell Premium exclusively in one of my cars and then switched to Costco gas and didn't see any marked difference.

One big factor is the gas station itself. Some shady stations will use water, while some have some very old gas tanks (I heard about a guy pumping rusty looking gas because of how old the tank was) some use a higher concentration of ethanol (not E85 but E15-E20, etc.) Those are sometimes lower cost, but will definitely show lower performance. I used to go to a Bucee's that was about 30 miles away to fill up with pure gas (no ethanol) and didn't see a difference there either, which was a little disappointing. I did decide to use the pure gas for all my lawn equipment though, as that stupid Ethanol tears through older lawn equipment gas lines like a Mustang through a crowd at a C&C meet.

Branded or not there is a high chance we supplied the fuel you bought. Thank you for your business, brother!

[FlukeSS]

Not sure if it matters, but I am getting consistent gas mileage now since switching back to Shell V-Power 93.



I filled up Monday. And have enough gas to make it work, but maybe not home.

Clearly the gas mileage thing is not right, because I figure I'm averaging 400+ miles per tank, which comes to about 21+ mpg. If I run the tank out I figure probably closer to 450 miles per tank. Before I switched back, I was getting 22mpg according to the gauge which means in reality I was probably getting 18mpg. I was using 1/2 a tank per day of gas before switching back.

Even today I had an issue when the weather hit 65 degrees here, my gas pedal got stuck a few times. Had to slam it with my foot to fix it.

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by FlukeSS

Even today I had an issue when the weather hit 65 degrees here, my gas pedal got stuck a few times. Had to slam it with my foot to fix it.

I know what it is, that darn magnet in the floor that keeps SUCKING DOWN the pedal, you really have to pump it hard several times to bring it back up

[synolimit]

why blame the gas? you drive a ton of miles and have an older and older car every day. maybe check the maintenance of everything. when was the last time anything was serviced? oil? air filter? plugs? tire pressure? alignment? do you have a catch can? they more you drive the more oil you're clogging into the manifold and possibly the intake valves etc etc.

[FlukeSS]

Originally Posted by synolimit

why blame the gas? you drive a ton of miles and have an older and older car every day. maybe check the maintenance of everything. when was the last time anything was serviced? oil? air filter? plugs? tire pressure? alignment? do you have a catch can? they more you drive the more oil you're clogging into the manifold and possibly the intake valves etc etc.

I plan to replace the IM anyways so not concerned about a catch can right now.

The CAI filter is less than 9 months old.

Plugs not sure, car hasn't even hit its first maintenance cycle yet.

I posted the tire pressure on the first page already. 35-38 psi depending on heat, I actually just reduced the air pressure on the tires since the recent warmup this week.

Nothing wrong with alignment at least not that I'm aware of.

The only thing that changed was an oil change and where I was filling my tank up.

Regardless after switching back to Shell V-Power 93, everything went back to normal.

So all signs point to bad gas.

Filled up today, but ran 381 miles on 7/8ths of a tank if you believe the Fuel gauge being accurate. Comes to 22.9 mpg despite my mpg gauge saying 25.4 mpg, I put in 16.xxx gallons of gas in the car.

Before I posted this thread though my gauge was saying 22 mpg. So I figure I was actually averaging close to 18mpg before I switched back to the normal gas I usually get.

[snekk]

I run Shell 93 on the street and Sunoco 93 race gas on the track if its available. No complaints or major issues. Street mileage is high 20's on longer drives with AFM, track mileage is about 2-3mpg.

[Bad 1LE]

I have a Shell station up the street from me and have noticed a difference in the gas there vs some of the others. It does seem like its a slighly better quality fuel. It seems to keep DI injectors slighly cleaner over time. We were using Mobil pretty much exclusively but after switching to Shell I did notice a difference.

[Crushin_LT1]

Originally Posted by SS_Don

Anyone try Sam’s Club gas?


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I used Sam's Club gas for a year, no real difference to any other. My MPG was actually a bit better using Sams in NWFL than when I lived in NOVA/DC using Shell/BP/Exxon.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by Crushin_LT1

I used Sam's Club gas for a year, no real difference to any other. My MPG was actually a bit better using Sams in NWFL than when I lived in NOVA/DC using Shell/BP/Exxon.

Does the fuel in FL turn over between winter blended (lower MPG) and summer blended (higher MPG) like it would in the NOVA area? I see about a 10-15% drop in MPG in all of my vehicles when burning the winter blended fuel. It's formulated to be more volatile so that it burns more easily in cold temps but the offset is a loss of efficiency. If you can run summer blended fuel year round, your MPG should remain fairly consistent.

[Crushin_LT1]

Originally Posted by ember1205

Does the fuel in FL turn over between winter blended (lower MPG) and summer blended (higher MPG) like it would in the NOVA area? I see about a 10-15% drop in MPG in all of my vehicles when burning the winter blended fuel. It's formulated to be more volatile so that it burns more easily in cold temps but the offset is a loss of efficiency. If you can run summer blended fuel year round, your MPG should remain fairly consistent.

I am not sure, it does reach 40* down there, but its definitely consistently warmer and rarely below 0*. I only did a year so I can't say for sure, no one mentioned it though and most of my coworkers ran summer tires year round.

VA gas definitely goes to winter blend.