Surprising Difference with Discount Gas
- Thread starter PaulSula
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
Jeff Kleb
New member
Northof49 said:
Yep....that's true; especially when all gasoline sold at the retail level must meet certain EPA standards anyway.
Exxon, Shell, BP/Amoco and other companies typically use the same pipeline system. One will pump XXX million gallons through for a certain amount of time and then another company will send a similar amount through afterward. In between, the 'mixture' of one company's gas with another will be sold as "off brand" (Wawa, East Coast, Kwik-Stop, FasMart, Quarles, etc.) fuel. You're getting name-brand gasoline -- just more than one type at a time.
Think about it, folks. We have twenty or more different major oil companies, but no cities I know of have twenty different pipelines and tank farms to accommodate each one.
I have found no difference in name-brand fuel versus the oddball stuff. I think it is probably best to fuel up somewhere that sells quite a bit of fuel - so as not to get sediment in your tank. A Wawa station that gets two tanker trucks daily is probably better for a fuel stop than the corner BP/Amoco station that may get fuel delivered once every two weeks.
Gasoline is gasoline.....although the additives might vary slightly from one company to another. A single bottle of fuel-injection treatment every oil change should be enough to keep the gunk out of your engine; as well as trying to avoid letting your tank run down to nearly being empty (where the fuel pump might tend to suck up more debris or sediment).
http://www.wawa.com (very common convenience store in VA)
Last edited:
PaulSula
New member
well there must be some other myseterious forces at work here. I have made the trip from wichita to dallas twice now, filling up at loves on the way there (around 14-15 mpg) and then shell/ texico on the way home (19-20 mpg) and I even used the different gases on oposite sides of the trip. don't know what it could be. maybe just a coincidence.
Light_Mania
New member
My guess is that your poor mileage came with a headwind, while the good mileage came with a tailwind.
It really can make that much of a difference.
It really can make that much of a difference.
PaulSula said:
Could indeed by wind or incline... headwinds vs tailwinds can make a 2-3mpg difference in my experience. Even sidewinds vs. tailwinds can make a difference with such a large, non-aerodynamic vehicle.
Most gas in a region often comes from the same refinery... the difference is what is added to the tanker trucks. Top tier gas companies (Chevron, Shell, Unocal/76, Texaco) add decent detergent additives. The cheapies either add nothing or their additives are not as highly rated (that includes Arco/BP evidently).
That's why I only use brand name gas.
Pirate VI
New member
pipspeak said:
Top Tier is a name of a detergent standard it is not an official rating, while it may be the best thing out there it seems many people think it is a ranking. All gas no matter the top brand or a no name discount stuff it all has to have detergent, and a decent detergent at that. I also don't believe for a second Shells new marketing thing about discount gas, that is probably a comparison between their gas and gas that has no detergent, although all gas in the US does have good detergents in it.
My family has been running only Hess gas for the last 35 years (where we are is the Hess Oil refinery and there are no brand name gas stations only local stations selling Hess Gas) We have never had a problem with any of our cars. No car we ever owned with the exception of my dads Explorer has ever even seen the inside of a shop except for tires. We have had 80 and 82 mercedes, 85 subaru for 10 years, 86 subaru for 15 years, we have a 9 year old rav4 and a 8 year old 4Runner, they all get rated gas mileage on non top tier gas and have no engine problems.
I still run Hess gas in Florida but only because in my area they are always the cheapest by about 2 cents, and I have no worries even though it is not on of the "top tier" brands.
I think the differences in the mileage the original poster stated must be caused by something else, even if the gas was bad for some reason your check engine light would come on before you witnessed such horrible mileage.
Koz
New member
There is a difference between Top Tier and non-Top Tier gas. It is the additive package. Does it make a difference in gas mileage? My personal opinion is that over time it will improve mileage in a vehicle that was not using Top Tier and it will help maintain peak mileage in a vehicle that has been using it. It can't produce 25% more mileage. I think the difference PaulSula experienced was caused by a combination of all the other variables and possibly some bad discount gas or he is bad with math:biggrin2:.
Koz
Koz
I don't know guys...
Sounds like everyone is leaning towards it all being the same, but I believe it isn't.
I have heard multiple times about discount gasoline retailers (ie. grocery stores, discount food warehouses) selling gasoline with alot of water in it. How does it get there? Bad tanks underground, accumulating moisture during transport in bad trucks, cheaper or no additives. All ways to save the retailer money...
Sounds like everyone is leaning towards it all being the same, but I believe it isn't.
I have heard multiple times about discount gasoline retailers (ie. grocery stores, discount food warehouses) selling gasoline with alot of water in it. How does it get there? Bad tanks underground, accumulating moisture during transport in bad trucks, cheaper or no additives. All ways to save the retailer money...
OUTRNNR said:
The only time my family has ever had problems with gas is when we purchased gas on a military base at the local PX/garage. It was in the 80's with a Celica we bought new. The thing had no power and had a serious hesitation issue. We pulled the filter and out came the milky stream that is common to water in the line. It seems other people had problems too, especially when it screwed up a few Euro built fuel injectors. They blamed it on the old tanks in the ground at the station.
I personally buy gas at Costco because it is usually cheaper by 10-20 cents. I never had any problems or issues with Costco gas, but that is just my 1 experience. I would probably be more worried about the Sunoco gas down the road since that station has been there much longer than the Costco store. I have no idea how long their tanks have been in the ground. Also the amount of traffic Costco gets at thier station would have to present a problem if people had issues with their gas.
I was told by a friend who worked at a station in high school to never fill up when you see the tanker truck there. He said you would not beleive what is at the bottom of the tanks. He had to check the fill level with a wooden pole and said there was some nasty stuff that would stick to the pole when he put it all the way down. Really, I trust my friend, but that has never stopped me from a fill-up at a station.
toytrukn78
New member
I've always used Chevron and I'm convinced their Techron additive makes a difference in performance and cleanliness of your engine.
Northof49
New member
I can't speak for all of them, but I own a discount-type station and will vouch that our gas is absolutely identical to Esso's....trucks come straight from the Imperial Oil depot, invoices say "Imperial Oil" for the fuel brand, as do all of the other discount stations in our area.OUTRNNR said:
There are very strict environmental regs about dipping your tanks for water everyday when your meter the fuel level. Anymore than a specified amount and you have to get the water out, any less and you are allowed to let it slide....it sits on the bottom anyways, and should a delivery stir it up briefly, the pumps have water-seperating filters right before it enters the hose. Of course, the tanks don't suck from the bottom for this and other reasons.
"Watering down" gas just doesn't work, the water gets in there with old tanks (regulations on that), but most likely with slow turn-over rates. In our case, we go through gas and diesel faster than anyone else in town, and have 0cms (not even a trace) of water at the bottom of any tanks. Other "name brand" stations in town definetly do have some water in tanks tho, so your statements apply to all stations, not just discount ones in particular.
Additives are another question, some are good, some are bad....most fuels don't have enough of anything in them to make 2 shits of difference anyways. In the end, there's nothing substantially better than straight fuel, and in most cases that's all your getting anyways.
My advice (if you are concerned about this subject), is to get to know a station that has high turnover rates and new-ish pumps (should have good filtering system). If a pump is running slow, that likely means the filter is getting old.
Good info. I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't insinuating that discount fuel retailers are adding water to their fuel to "water-down" the gas to save money. Water can be introduced to fuel inadverdantly at many different points from the refinery to the gas station tanks.Northof49 said:
Northof49
New member
I'll add:
The only reason we wind up any cheaper than others in town is because of the pay system....not cost cutting on anything that would jeopardized fuel qualities. I get a commishin %'age on the number of liters sold, whereas most "name brand" stations own their gas and base their prices off margin. All I have to worry about it volume....cheaper gas = more gas pumped = more commishin and more people in the store to buy stuff.
Might be harder to find this info out from any given station, but hopefully it gives a picture of how things work.
The only reason we wind up any cheaper than others in town is because of the pay system....not cost cutting on anything that would jeopardized fuel qualities. I get a commishin %'age on the number of liters sold, whereas most "name brand" stations own their gas and base their prices off margin. All I have to worry about it volume....cheaper gas = more gas pumped = more commishin and more people in the store to buy stuff.
Might be harder to find this info out from any given station, but hopefully it gives a picture of how things work.
