Bad experience with Valero premium fuel

[QuikSilver]

I've got a 2015 Chevy sonic LTZ. Filled up for the second time since purchase using "top-tier" Valero gas. That was on Monday. Welp it's Thursday and I'm already down 3 bars on my fuel meter. When using gas from Speedway it was quite a while before I went down that far. Where do you all purchase your fuel??

 

[spacedout]

Sure you will see some differences between stations, but the route, weather and driving style have much more effect. I always try to fill at a high volume stations near the cross roads of major highways.

98% of the premium in my are is 91 octane no ethanol, which my cruze and now my sonic seem to hate. Car runs much better on the cheaper 93 octane 10% ethanol found at many other stations. I can fill up at BP, Shell, Mobil and only get 91 octane, drive 10 miles and get 93 octane from the same brands. Seems random which stations have 93 here.

We even have a few pumps here(mobil and shell brand) with two premium grades, 91E0 on one hose, 87E10,89E10 and 93E10 on another.

 

[QuikSilver]

So ethanol gas is better?

 

[spacedout]

Ethanol is used to increase octane and reduce knock, save the no ethanol gas for your lawn mower, boat or chain saw(any small engine).

 

[QuikSilver]

Sounds good..

 

[bluejay]

keep an eye on the % of ethanol in the gas, that matters too i i cant remember if more ethanol the better or worse mpg. maybe someone else can chime in . stations up here in ontario have 10-15 % in the top tier fuels

 

[spacedout]

Strangely in my 2012 cruze i seen about a 2mpg improvement with no ethanol premium(even though the car didn't run as well). My 2015 sonic seems to get the same MPG no matter if its 91E0 or 93E10. Typically the more ethanol the worse MPG you will see, not really an issue since these cars can't use anything more than 15% ethanol(E15) stock anyway.

To the OP, I suspect what your seeing is the difference in pump kick off, can be as much as a half gallon difference if you get a faster pump. Typically I get 90-110 miles for the first 3 lines(1/4 tank), but have seen as high as 125miles even though the DIC is indicating the same MPG. Only reason I can come up with that would be the case is I'm getting more fuel at some pumps.

 

[mja]

I always use Shell or Exxon, they always have pretty good gas and that covers a solid half of the stations in my city, and I save something like 2 cents a gallon if I get 90,000 gallons with the cards. I should read the fine print sometime.

 

[The Champ]

keep an eye on the % of ethanol in the gas, that matters too i i cant remember if more ethanol the better or worse mpg. maybe someone else can chime in . stations up here in ontario have 10-15 % in the top tier fuels

Ethanol contains about 33% less energy than gasoline. So E10 will reduce mileage by 3 - 4% - E15 will reduce mileage by 4 - 5%.

One of the reasons for putting ethanol in gas is that it burns "cleaner" - lowering emissions output.

Running fuel that is 100% gas should increase your fuel mileage over E10 - regardless of the octane rating (which has no effect on fuel mileage on a stock engine).

 

[wekam]

I've had the same experience with Valero, on three different cars, and for some unknown reason, it just seems to burn faster. I am currently using BP, which is a "top tier" gas, 10% ethanol, and it performs quite well..

 

[spacedout]

I can get E0, E10, or E15 in my area, driving habits have much more effect than ethanol at those % does on MPG.

 

[JesusTheAgnostic]

If you get three days out of 1/4 tank you must not drive very much, but you shouldn't measure how far your gas goes by days, you should measure it by miles. Usually the first three bars last 120 miles for me if I drive normally. I think the most I've gotten out of them is 160, but that was driving extremely conservatively.
Anyway don't worry too much about what those stupid bars say I've done the math based on different fill ups and it seems that every bar is about .88 gallons if I remember correctly so it's really just there to give you more of an idea of how much fuel you have.

I don't fill up at Valero stations because the only one near me is across the bridge where people drive like maniacs. I just fill up at the Chevron 5 miles from my house. It felt like it made my Mustang run better and it feels like it makes my Sonic run alright. Also do the stations you guys fill up at really tell you how much ethanol is in the fuel? Everywhere I go all I see is "May contain up to 10% ethanol per gallon."

 

[The Champ]

Also do the stations you guys fill up at really tell you how much ethanol is in the fuel? Everywhere I go all I see is "May contain up to 10% ethanol per gallon."

That's the typical wording on our pumps.

But knowing that ethanol is less expensive than gasoline, if they say "up to 10%", most likely it is 10%.

Having said that, one of my fuel pump manufacturer's told me that they had a research firm check actual ethanol content at various stations around the country on gasoline labeled as #10.

Most of them were right on, but they did find some private branded stations that were making there own "homebrew" gas...

A station in Nebraska was selling fuel labeled as E10 that had in excess of 30% ethanol...

 

[SuperFudd]

I use the mid range ("Plus") from the local 76 (ConocoPhilips) station herein Union City California and it runs very well. I tried the "low range" once. It didn't seem to run as well. Maybe the computer would eventually adjust for it?

 

[JesusTheAgnostic]

I use the mid range ("Plus") from the local 76 (ConocoPhilips) station herein Union City California and it runs very well. I tried the "low range" once. It didn't seem to run as well. Maybe the computer would eventually adjust for it?

As far as I understand as long as you're stock you can put any fuel from 87 octane up and it will eventually adjust to use that fuel. I just use 91 because I can get 86 but not 87 at most gas stations around me then there's 88 which is what 91 costs at good gas stations so I just fill up with that.

 

[SuperFudd]

I only used one tank of low octane. Not sure what it was but at least 87 octane. I suppose I should try 3 tanks at least and see how my stock 1.8L reacts.

 

[Llia]

Just filled up with 93 from Costco. Woke my car up.

 

[bluejay]

shh dont say that too loud here, the witch hunters say octane doesnt do anything on a stock engine . lol

 

[The Champ]

shh dont say that too loud here, the witch hunters say octane doesnt do anything on a stock engine . lol

It's not the witch hunters - it's the GM engineers that have given me this information. But what do they know - they only design engines for a living...

I think it's a placebo effect for those of you who claim it makes a difference.

You paid more money for your gas - so it must be better...

I'll continue to get the same performance and fuel mileage using the recommended Top Tier 87 octane as you do running 91 or 93.

 

[spacedout]

Just filled up with 93 from Costco. Woke my car up.

Funny you say that, in both mu cruze and now the sonic I get worse MPG and power from costco gas. Their source is so inconstant around the country their gas will vary at every location.