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Maintenance & Repair Fuel and Oil Additives
1246 messages, Last post on Sep 28, 2009 at 7:37 AM
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Yes, all gas has to meet "mininum" standards as does food, vitamins, and food quality. however we all know that doesnt mean much except the standards may be way too low. better gasolines have added detergents and lower sulfur content which i was told makes a difference. people like to think that cheap gasoline is good for their car, but they may not notice the consequences such as poor gas mileage or performance until it's too late. besides, whos to know if the gas stations add this or that in their tanks to reduce the amount of fuel they have to buy from the refinery,
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Replying to: ex_tdier (Aug 13, 2008 7:54 pm) Do you have any support to that concept other than advertising? E.g., Shell may advertise that their superhotrodpremiumluxurycargasfor wealthyspenders has more detergents. Is there any benefit to more detergents? The minimum has been mandated for all fuels since some day in the past when it was determined fuel injectors and other things were affected by deposits. Is there a benefit to the additives or is it like vitamines in cereals? I asked some stations about additives in various grades in the past. One manager checked his delivery sheets and showed that the same detergent additive package was added to all three grades. >lower sulfur content Again do you have support for this? It's my understanding that all fuels have the same base stock. Additional chemicals are added to control the burning properties under compression and temperatures in the combustion chamber. The higher octane rating on the pump does not mean the fuel contains more energy and will make you sporty gomobile run faster; rather the higher octane means the fuel burns slower. That slower burning reduces knock during the explosion process in the small number of cars that need it. The same base stock means the same sulfur content for that fuel delivered through the pipeline from some remote refinery. Indeed a few summers back when a couple of regions had problems with higher sulfur in fuels from certain stations, they didn't say it was premium or regular; it was just the fuel at some stations. Also it was at more than one brand's stations. That supports the idea that brands get their fuel from the same depot. Back in the 70s tankers pulled out of a depot in Northern Kentucky and they had all kinds of brands on the tankers as well as no names on many taking fuel from the depot for delivery. More recently a delivery driver would call in to an auto repair show. He said now the difference is in the alcohol content. I do not know if that's mixed at the depots or at the refinery before it goes into the pipes. He was naming that a few stations still sold 100% gasoline and they were a name brand in a higher quality area. The other deliveries for the brand that he delivered all contained alcohol. He also talked about the additive package for a particular grade that was dumped into the tank in the truck that mixed as he put the fuel in and drove to the station.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 14, 2008 4:07 am) "Do you have any support to that concept other than advertising?" Have you looked around the Top Tier web site? Seems like they do require more than the base level of detergents, after discussions with a number of car manufacturers.
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Replying to: texases (Aug 17, 2008 8:42 pm) The only Top Tier gas company that operates in my area is Shell under the Texaco name. They only have a handful of stations here. I guess BMW and Honda should stop selling cars in the York (PA) since there is no gas in this area that can run their cars. Oh wait, Turkey Hill does operate here.
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Replying to: dtownfb (Aug 20, 2008 5:26 pm) I like the idea that someone is aware of fuel quality, but I view the group as something like the car dealers with their gold star dealer award--the only one in the state of Ohio. Of course the next dealer is a blue star dealer award winner. I have every belief that my Mobile at the local UDF store is as good as the BP and Shell even though it's not paying the membership fee to the top tier group.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 20, 2008 5:32 pm) I like your analogy. I don't buy it either. I have an Oldsmobile Intrigue (GM product; one of the founders of the Top Tier gas group) with 164k miles, still averaging between 24-26 mpg. All I use is "cheap" gas.
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Replying to: dtownfb (Aug 20, 2008 5:44 pm) |
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This sounds like the "Flat Earth Society: Automotive Division". 
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The whole fuel additive topic seems to be "hot" right now. For those that are believers in the benefits of fuel additives, I have a question. I typically dump in a bottle of Techron after each oil change (typically at 4-5000 mile intervals). I have read that premium gas contains more additives, detergents, etc. If that is true, would running a tank or two of premium once in a while have the same effect as a bottle of injector cleaner? The car is a Camry SE-V6 with 3.3 liter engine. Have the same engine in the wife's Highlander.
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Replying to: lmacmil (Jan 11, 2009 8:55 am) Your Camry, your Highlander, and virtually every other late model car on the road is designed from the outset to run on the additives that are already included in the recommended fuel, and as such, you can expect an easy quarter of a million miles from your fuel system with little or no remedial maintenance WITHOUT the use of extra additives. If you don't believe what I've said, hey, no problem, just look at your Owner's Manuals. If you don't believe them, call Toyota, they'll all tell you pretty much the same thing. Best regards, Shipo |
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