[maddy42]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Not really answering your question - but I had the same query. This is to the folks on the forum - WRT the large number of gas station (companies) in the US, does the fuel quality differ wrt to the different brands?

Not really sure but curious on the response you receive.

Just an update: Car went to the dealer who detected the issue to be a faulty Oxygen sensor wire. It was cleaned and fixed back with the instruction to return if i get a check engine light again.

The fuel may not be the issue.

Maddy

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by maddy42

.

Is this a common occurence of below standard fuel? What to do when you are in such a situation? As we speak, i have a appointment at the dealer to check this issue.

It is extremely unlikely that below standard fuel would cause CEL. Also, I would think it is unlikely these days you would get below standard fuel in the USA.

If your CEL pops not to worry. Remember the CEL is part of the emission control/check system. It is a yellow light, which means a caution.

You are fine driving onwards and having it seen to in due course. Unless you are extremely concerned about the environment, because the CEL is most likely to mean your engine is spilling out higher emission then supposed so. That in itself is unlikely to damage your car any time soon.

In fact there are million of drivers out there who will never respond to a CEL and just drive on towards the next service and or MOT.

If you get other warnings (especially any red lights) you need to stop immediately and have it seen to before moving on. A modern car has plenty of other safeguards that will kick in if anything is happening to your engine and or car and will warn you accordingly.

So don't worry to much about a CEL. Just get it seen to in due course.

Jeroen

[amitoj]

I try to stick to name brand gas stations as much as possible. I am running a 93 Octane tune anyway so I stick to Shell's V-Power for 99% of the time. If i have to go some place where it is suspect that I wont get 93 Octane, I reset the car to factory tune.

Originally Posted by maddy42

Just an update: Car went to the dealer who detected the issue to be a faulty Oxygen sensor wire. It was cleaned and fixed back with the instruction to return if i get a check engine light again.

The fuel may not be the issue.

Maddy

Doesn't that actually mean that it could be a fuel issue?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by amitoj

I try to stick to name brand gas stations as much as possible. I am running a 93 Octane tune anyway so I stick to Shell's V-Power for 99% of the time. If i have to go some place where it is suspect that I wont get 93 Octane, I reset the car to factory tune.



Doesn't that actually mean that it could be a fuel issue?

What do you mean you reset the car to factory tune?
A sensor wire is definitely not a fuel issue, but a wire issue.

Jeroen

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

What do you mean you reset the car to factory tune?
A sensor wire is definitely not a fuel issue, but a wire issue.

Jeroen

I use a canned high performance tune on my car from Diablosport.

As for the sensor wire, seems more like a guesswork from the dealer than an actual diagnosis.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by amitoj

I use a canned high performance tune on my car from Diablosport.

As for the sensor wire, seems more like a guesswork from the dealer than an actual diagnosis.

So can you just throw a switch. An oxygen sensor wire should actually show up as a possible fault if you hook up an OBD analyser. That would take all the guessing out of the equation

Jeroen

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

So can you just throw a switch.

Not exactly. Although that would be super neat
I have to plug a handheld device into the OBD II port and then go through some menu options.

The reason I was still suspecting bad fuel to be the problem was that the O2 sensor monitors the exhaust gases and low quality fuel would not burn so well, leading to more unburnt oxygen in the gases. Thus tripping the sensor. But if a dirty O2 wire has its own error code which was caught by the analyser, then I agree with you. There is no guesswork left.

What would "cleaning" an oxygen sensor wire entail?

[maddy42]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Jeroen

Thanks as that was quite an explanation. So the check engine light can literally mean anything? On a side note i tried Jeremy clarkson style of banging around the engine bay to fix this issue! It worked after a couple of hours

Originally Posted by amitoj

What would "cleaning" an oxygen sensor wire entail?

I am not sure Amit. I am picturing a mechanic in a torn vest removing the sensor, blowing it, wiping it against his shirt and fixing it back in.

Also when the car went into the shop the light was off. So he literally could do what Clarkson did. I will keep a look out for this light again.

If anybody visits Colorado, please take the Imogene pass jeep tour. Amazing offroad experience!

Maddy

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Thanks as that was quite an explanation. So the check engine light can literally mean anything?

Well not anything, but there are hundreds of different error codes each pertaining to a specific problem.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by amitoj

I try to stick to name brand gas stations as much as possible. I am running a 93 Octane tune anyway so I stick to Shell's V-Power for 99% of the time. If i have to go some place where it is suspect that I wont get 93 Octane, I reset the car to factory tune.

Back in India, it's the dealer/pump that is to be worried about than the fuel company (I'm generalizing for diesel and petrol, for petrol, Shell is considered better).

But out here I'm confused; lets say for a specific octane level - how does one evaluate a Shell vs Citgo vs Sheetz and so on? Do we need to?

I have tried to estimate fuel average (disclaimer: not done a thorough excercise) using different brands, I haven't really got any proper answer.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Back in India, it's the dealer/pump that is to be worried about than the fuel company (I'm generalizing for diesel and petrol, for petrol, Shell is considered better).

But out here I'm confused; lets say for a specific octane level - how does one evaluate a Shell vs Citgo vs Sheetz and so on? Do we need to?

I have tried to estimate fuel average (disclaimer: not done a thorough excercise) using different brands, I haven't really got any proper answer.

The short answer is, you cant evaluate this yourself. Obviously, you can get data using one fuel over the other, but I seriously doubt it would be a very meaningful exercise. The various brand claim certain superiority in their products over one another. Usually in the area's of burning cleaner and or fuel economy.

On the burning cleaner, unless you run several cars for many thousands of miles in an identical fashion, strip the engines and compare you cant really say anything about this.

On the fuel economy the same really. Truth is these manufacturer claims are small improvements anyway, and their test are done under laboratory conditions. So it remains to be seen in the first place what the correlation is between their lab controlled testing and the real world usage of a car. Now, where was that an issue recently as well?????

Jeroen

[vasoo]

Most Gas stations which are not branded by big names like Shell, Mobil or Chevron are just retail outlets and they too source the supplies from these biggies. The quality of fuel is typically determined by the refining process and these are mostly owned by large corporations. So technically there is nothing to worry about the quality of gas in smaller outlets. Just keep sure that you use the right grade recommended for your car.

[VIPER_SRT]

Originally Posted by vasoo

The quality of fuel is typically determined by the refining process and these are mostly owned by large corporations. So technically there is nothing to worry about the quality of gas in smaller outlets.

+1

Originally Posted by vasoo

Just keep sure that you use the right grade recommended for your car.

A branded gas station doesn't necessarily have the brand fuel. I'll give an example of a "Gulf" gas station owned by an Indian in NJ. If the gas station has few 20000 and 12000 gallon fuel tanks, usually there's a need of around 5+ tankers per month depending on the traffic in that area. To maintain the 'Gulf" franchisee the owner would order around 1-2 tankers of fuel/Month and the rest comes from a local unbranded supplier which is cheaper.

Grade? Gas stations have larger 20000 Gallon tank for 87 grade and smaller 12000 for premium (91 or 93). For a $20 tip, the driver of this local tanker will fill the 12000 gallon tank with 60% regular and 40% premium. The percentage varies depending on the tip. This owner has around 15+ gas stations and I can imagine this happening in every one of them.

Source was a Indian student working at this gas stations for more than a year and tips and tank fillings were personally handled by him in the nights. Unfortunate!!

[VIPER_SRT]

I moved to PA last week and my neighbor had the local Porsche dealer get this 2016 911 Targa 4S for a test drive. This is first time me driving a 911. Tight Steering, road hugging, amazing sound. PDK was awesome. This one was equipped with sport exhaust and Sport Chrono package at 163K MSRP. That could be a collector's car with so many Porsche design exclusives!

[GullwingGT]

Hi guys, took delivery of my car 2016 Mazda 6 Touring. Will put up a detailed ownership review in few weeks.