As we all know the fuel price is going to be skyrocket this summer. If we reach $2.5/gallon it will cost us $50+/fill up. Yes, I know we all own $50K+ MB but personally it still hurts when I fill up the tank. Do we really need 92+ octane premium fuel? I'm sure it helps in performance but just wonder will it hurts the engine or anything else if I use >90 lower octance fuel?

Thanks!

 

Well, in CA, its 91, and it has been costing me $50 for a long time :/

As far as hurting your engine, no. You will be fine. However, you will probably make less power under hard acceleration. This isnt because of the gas directly, its because of CPU retarding the timing to prevent detonation. I almost always use Chevron Premium because of the techron BS.. they put some stuff in that keeps your engine cleaner. You will be fine, just dont use Arco

 

Long debated topic on many forums. I think it's safe to say that if the maunfacturer's specs call for premium octane than you should do so. Would $3-5 diffence really make or break you?
As for performance, yes the car will probably suffer but how noticable with power output and fuel ecomony I don't know.
Jay

 

There are lots of ways to save a few bucks. You can use recycled oil, use Fram filters, use WalMart tires, use no name batteries, use Jiffy Lube service, use high sulfur gasoline from discount outlets like CostCo.

Now stop to think about what you might save in comparison to what the cost of money and depreciation is costing you. It's peanuts.

The best thing you can do is treat the car with TLC and plan to drive it into the ground. Don't even think about a new car any time soon

 

Are you sure about this Bud?? I always buy 91 octane (which is the highest you can buy at this altitude), but the last time I filled up at Costco I thought it was funny that the tanker truck had just come from the Conoco gas station around the corner. I filled up well before the truck stated to fill up, since that is a myth I still live by. The way that fuel gets distributed here in this part of the US, it is all from the same place. Some stations might have additives, but I don't think it would be possible to have different sulfur contents.

Now, if you were in the Florida Keys, you would get very high sulfur fuel if you used Shell gas. They got in a lot of trouble!

Steve

 

You lot are . It costs me $134 to fill my bloody car up and that really hurts. I then come over to the US and can't believe how cheap the fuel is. I know it's gone up a lot recently for you guys but it is still very cheap compared to most countries.

BTW we have 97-99 octane fuel in England. I didn't think modern cars would run on 91 octane.

 

Yes and no. They way it actually works is when the tankers come into port there are lines of trucks waiting to off load them. The tankers fuel load is not the same from top to bottom. The top of the tanker is lighter cleaner fuel while the base is heavier dirtier fuel. The first trucks get the top of the holding tank which is the lighter cleaner fuel which costs a few pennies more by the bottom of the tanker the discount buyers show up and get a few pennies off a gallon because it is not as clean as the top stuff.

The only reason I know this is because a friend of mine use to pick up and deliver for the small mom and pop gas stations around here and it was the only way they could compete with the Mobil's etc. Now with good filters I suppose it doesn't make a huge difference but who knows.

 

It depends on where you live. I live in the Phoenix area so we all get the same gas and additives are added at the tank farm. There are places in the US that have fuel from South American oil. This crude is very high in sulfur and it costs too much to get rid of it. Consequently, the fuel is generally sold at discount outlets that have lower prices.

I can't say that CostCo has this fuel but it's generally sold at the so-called *supermarket* outlets that have lower prices.

This is the stuff that did in the BMW engines with Nikasil-lined blocks. It caused etching of the nickel in the cylinder walls.

BMW tested with the high quality fuel available on the Contenent and never caught the potential problem. It showed up in England and the U.S.

I don't buy fuel from places like CostCo but that's just my choice. Even if the fuel is essentially the same when it arrives in the Valley, I seriously doubt that CostCo customers get the same additives as Chevron customers.

 

haha..

 

I'm sure it's been discussed many times in other posts, but here's my contribution...
For many East Coast customers, oil arrives via ship at the port of Houston and is refined in Houston. From there, a company called Colonial Pipeline distributes the diesel, kerosene, and gasoline to regional tank farms from the gulf states all the way to New Jersey. The local tank farms all communicate their fuel needs to the Colonial main office in Atlanta, who then distribute the product hundreds of miles via massive pumps and large diameter pipelines. At each tank farm, trucks from Chevron, Shell, Mobil, BP, independents, etc., arrive to transport fuel to the retail gas stations. The only difference between the brands is the 1 gallon of additives the truck driver manually pours in to the tank while he's filling up at the tank farm. The source refined fuel is all the same.
I'm not exactly sure how it's done on the West coast in terms of an elaborate pipeline system like Colonial's, or instead individual pipelines, such as LA to Phoenix. I think most of California's retail fuel is trucked from Bay Area and LA refineries to the retail gas stations. For more information, check out Colonial Pipelines's website www.colpipe.com .

 

Octane in Europe is calculated differently from here in the States. Your 97-99 is about the equivalent of our 91-93, if I remember correctly.

GGM

 

This is exactly was I thought and what was said on the History channel. Here in Colorado the fuel comes from Texas via a pipeline and it all arrives to Commerce City (an industrial area East of Denver). This means that all the fuel is indistinguishable from one brand to another. So I don't really value the additives that are put by the truck driver too much. It is called Marketing, if you truly believe those additives are better, then good for you.

However, there is NO WAY that this fuel distribution system (pipeline) would cause one brand to have more sulfur than another. But like BudC said, in areas where the fuel comes from South America (Venezuela) there can be a higher amount of sulfur. This happened to fuel delivered by tankers to the Keys and it really was only Shell that had the problem. Last time I checked, Shell is supposed to be a premium brand and they are in trouble because they consciously delivered high-sulfur fuel and caused millions of dollars of damage to cars in the area. My friend's catalytic converter and fuel level sending unit were destroyed by Shell fuel in Key largo!!! Needless to say, he is not loyal to Shell, but they did pay for his repairs.

I make sure that I know that the gas station is a well-maintained station and that there is not water or other junk in the fuel. It is hard to do, but I only use about 3 different gas stations in town. One is a total dump, but has top quality fuel. When I lived in Florida, I also had to make sure I would not get carjacked, but lucky that is not a problem in Longmont. Costco out here in Colorado does a very good job and uses the exact same fuel as Conoco that is $.40/gallon more expensive. However, Longmont has very cheap fuel. Today, it was $1.97 for 91 octane, that is not bad and usually beats the Costco price 14 miles away.

Europe does have a different Octane calculation, but their fuel is still a bit better. However, I don't think that it is good enough to warrant paying their prices!!!

I know I have said this a million times, but My Audi with 262,000+ miles on it has never had fuel problems. I always have gotten gas from this one station in town that is a dump (but has good fuel) and I have fueled at Costco when it was worth it. My 300E also never had issues in its 130,000 + miles of life.

This said, if I am in a town that I am not familiar with, I will gas up at a name brand station and pay a premium since I am usually on a trip and I don't want to drive across the country with bad gas in the tank.

Steve

 

You'll have to do the math as to how cost effective it is, but if you want to whip up your own octane improvers for use with cheaper gasoline, there's not much to it.

You can find a few different homebrew formulae at this site.