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Chevron, Shell, Exxon or whatever 7-Eleven or my grocery sells - any real difference in quality? Any impact on my car's engine if I buy the same grade anywhere?
I need mid-grade and it's getting pretty expensive at my regular Chevron. Tempted to go to the grocery that has gas.
As rule there is no difference in fuels as mandated by state laws. There are ,however, different mixes for the summer and winter seasons which is why folk's get such crappy MPG spring and fall as the seasonal switch over takes place.
Beware of super cheap gas since sometimes cut rate independents buy bottom of the barrel fuels cheap just before they go stale.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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It used to be that Costco, Sam's Club and Safeway lacked the injector-cleaning additives. My mechanic suggested that if you use cheap gas it's fine, just get name brand gas every 3rd or 4th tank.
Lately Costco has started using a good additive too and their price went up,
now more in line with Arco. Safeway and Sam's apparently still have lower quality gas and the best price around here is Sam's, a good 40 cents a gallon less than the name brands.
The gas is the same, it even could have come from the same refinery, only the additive package is different.
Just get the proper octane for your vehicle.
Potentially, there can be huge differences in what's sold at the pump by different brands.
The "state laws" only specify the minimum legal standards for a given fuel such as octane, RVP, etc.
But the marketing decisions of various retailers can exceed those standards according to many parameters. They include how much alcohol percentage is in the fuel, by how much a given octane fuel at the pump may exceed it's rating, what FI system additives may be in the fuel, the RVP (Reid Vapor Point) of the blend, and so forth.
Much depends upon the region of the country and EPA mandates for the fuels to be sold there. I've seen wide swings in fuel quality from all the retailers, some of which radically affected the performance of a lot of cars. For example, some blends in our area had a high RVP, and various cars would vapor lock or have difficulty starting on hot days. One problem I always had in my cars was that Conoco fuel was the lowest octane for it's rating at the pump, so I could buy "regular" there and get pinging in my cars while at other local brands (including the supermarket and Sam's Club fuel), I could buy regular gas and not have the problem. Still other fuels are sold with a significantly higher percentage of EPA mandated alcohol and are in excess of what the car was designed to accept; fuel system leaks, lower fuel economy, or a host of problems associated with the corrossive aspects of the fuel could show up.
Similarly, I've seen (for over 40 years) wide differences in the quality of diesel fuels at the pump, even though there is a minimum standard for low sulfur diesel fuel re cetane rating and other characteristics. I've gotten loads of diesel fuel in my pick-up trucks that vary hugely in ease of starting from cold, idle quality, injector plugging up running symptoms, and wide variations in fuel economy ... as much as a 20% loss of fuel mileage and a truck that runs like sh*t. Have had to add fuel system conditioner/cleaner/cetane booster to correct this problems; sometimes, it's taken a few miles to clear up the running symptoms (but not the lowered fuel economy), sometimes, it's taken hundreds of miles to clear up the symptoms from poorer quality diesel fuel.
Just because a local marketplace is served by one refinery supplying all of the fuel to an area, it does not equate to the final product at the pump being equal for a given grade/octane of fuel dispensed. Additive blends and percentages are proprietary to a given brand.
Bottom line: each marketer has their own proprietary formulation for the product that is sold at their pump. It can change from delivered load to the next, but some brands consistently deliver the lowest common denominator fuel legally possible to sell, while others choose to sell a better product. The swings in fuel quality are so big in my home area that I bought a gasoline test kit to check for moisture in fuel, contaminants, alcohol content, and RVP ... and could trace a fair number of running problems in my customer's cars back to the fuel that they were buying, especially if they consistently bought from one brand in the area.
SouthernBelle ... please note that I'm talking specifically about the fuels sold in our area of the country. I don't know what they sell in New England or the PNW where some of these posters are coming from, but I can assure you that I've seen the differences in fuel quality in our marketplace here in the Rocky Mountain region ... and I'm a pro in the auto biz with a 40+ year track record of servicing cars in this area. Even today, I call upon all the automotive shops in a multi-state region and I see the problems that they encounter with fuels and car performance issues. As it is, I've driven from CO or WY to SLC enough times per year over the last decades to have personal experience with everything from Maverik to Coastal to Bradley to all of the major brands sold in our marketplace as well as the discount market fuels ... and they vary hugely, despite the assertions of other posters.
Buy the appropriate octane rating for your car, but be particular about how you car starts, idles, runs and fuel economy for a given brand. You may find that changing brands at the pump will give you improvements in some areas, but only by trying one supplier for awhile and then changing to see the difference will you be able to tell.
FWIW, modern computerized FI systems don't always compensate well for fuels that gum up/varnish quickly compared to others, or fuels with alcohol content in excess of 12% (I've tested some that came in at 20% while supposed to be no more than 12%), or fuels that don't have a good additive pack and carbon up the intake tract of an engine. The fuels can make huge differences in this area.
PS: FWIW, I've gotten excellent fuel at Harmon's when I stopped in to get their 10cent/gallon discount for a minimum grocery store purchase while in the area. As well, at WalMart's fuel islands. Both represented a significant savings at the pump over major brands in the SLC area.
Every gas station adds different additives to their fuel at the pick up...before it's delivered to the gas stations. Different additives can delute it to be either more harmful or more beneficial than other. The truth is, some gas stations that charge more for their gas bc of their special "additives" actually have pretty bad gasoline (such as BP and Shell for example). There has been some researches done by group of automotive manufercurers to see which gas station provided best gasoline. I don't have the list on hand, but will look for it online and once I find, I'll post.
Point is, I used to believe all gasoline is same (87 at one gas station is same as 87 at another for example) but I've found proof that made me realise I was wrong. The funny thing is, its hard to tell which one is best. Some gasoline can be cheaper than other and be better, and some can be more expensive and yet better than the cheap one. Without testing the fuel its impossible to tell which one is better than the other.
I know for a fact the gas (such as BP and Shell for example). can be from the same refinery and the only difference is the additive package.
You see, for every station to be selling "their fuel" "from their " refinery we would need 3 to 4 times the refinery's we have now.
We have one refinery for our region it is a Murphy oil refinery. from there fuel flows to fuel depots, like shell BP, spur, flying-J etc etc it is at those depots that the additives are added.
OR they can pick up the fuel right from the Murphys' refinery with their Shell delivery tanker truck and the additives are added at this time.
Yes, in some areas there will be a conoco refinery, shell, and the other gas stations will be buying fuel from them.
And seeing as no one belives anyone around here hers is a couple of links to back up my position. http://api.org/
Can I tell which country or State the gasoline at my local station comes from?
For several reasons, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) cannot definitively say where gasoline at a given station originated:
EIA does not collect data on the source of the gasoline sold at retail outlets.
The name on the service station sign does not tell the whole story. The fact that you purchase gasoline from a given company does not necessarily mean that the gasoline was actually produced by that particular company's refineries. While gasoline is sold at about 162,000 retail outlets across the nation1, about one-third of these stations are “unbranded” dealers that may sell gasoline of any brand2. The remainder of the outlets are “branded” stations, but may not necessarily be selling gasoline produced at that company's refineries. This is because gasoline from different refineries is often combined for shipment by pipeline, and companies owning service stations in the same area may be purchasing gasoline at the same bulk terminal. In that case, the only difference between the gasoline at station X versus the gasoline at station Y may be the small amount of additives that those companies add to the gasoline before it gets to the pump.
Even if we knew at which company's refinery the gasoline was produced, the source of the crude oil used at that refinery may vary on a day-to-day basis. Most refiners use a mix of crude oils from various domestic and foreign sources. The mix of crude oils can change based on the relative cost and availability of crude oil from different sources.
The fact that you purchase gasoline from a given company does not necessarily mean that the gasoline was actually produced by that particular company’s refineries.http://www.gasandoil.com/news/n_amer...e655dd88abd162
Last edited by snofarmer; 02-23-2012 at 08:25 AM..
The gas is the same, it even could have come from the same refinery, only the additive package is different.
Just get the proper octane for your vehicle.
yep, the basic stock of fuel is all the same for your region. it all comes down the same pipelines from the refineries. at the tank farm is where the additive packages are added for each brand of fuel.
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