Premium fuel or not? What are the benefits of premium fuel?

[t3lcfe]

The benefit? Watch this video and answer yourself.
I only know 1 solid answer is your $$$ from wallet will be lesser when filling with premium fuel
I personally just follow the Toyota recommended premium fuel for LC

 

[Nuke]

He is speaking of fuel with friction modifiers. VERY interesting! So, it appears "premium" fuel has to do with the octane AND other additives. This is why I only use Top Tier rated gasoline. Recently, no specifics, but Costco advertised their excellent fuel was made even better with an improved additive formulation, and as I seem to recall, it applied to both octane ratings.

 

[ultane]

The benefit? Watch this video and answer yourself.
I only know 1 solid answer is your $$$ from wallet will be lesser when filling with premium fuel
I personally just follow the Toyota recommended premium fuel for LC

Lake Speed Jr. is the ‘real deal’. It’s funny to watch him get all excited while doing his ‘talk’, and sometimes I swear it looks like his eyes are turning even bluer than they are when he is getting all ‘jacked up’..

 

[Midwest Duo]

The benefit? Watch this video and answer yourself.
I only know 1 solid answer is your $$$ from wallet will be lesser when filling with premium fuel
I personally just follow the Toyota recommended premium fuel for LC

Pretty convincing argument, at least to me, to keep using premium beyond the warranty.

 

[Area 51]

When i did a full refill with Premium, Union 76 this week, same day, same route same distance, same driving style. My mileage went up .3mpg and the vehicle only has 250 miles on it at this time.
Premium or ethyl in these exotic drive line vehicles is a serious Duh moment.

 

[treadmark]

Much appreciated video. I’ll continue with Top Tier and Premium for my LC. I’m not a conservative driver, so every factor helps.

 

[ultane]

My local source of 93 octane Ethanol Free fuel is a local BP station. I can only hope that it has additives in it that Lake mentioned. There are tons of gasoline stations that have ethanol free 87 octane gasoline, but even using the Pure-Gas app, finding 93 octane Ethanol free fuel can be a challenge.

 

[Roots]

He is speaking of fuel with friction modifiers. VERY interesting! So, it appears "premium" fuel has to do with the octane AND other additives. This is why I only use Top Tier rated gasoline. Recently, no specifics, but Costco advertised their excellent fuel was made even better with an improved additive formulation, and as I seem to recall, it applied to both octane ratings.

I’m curious: has anyone else perceived a lower mileage when using Costco fuel? I always seem to get lower numbers. I can’t back it up with specific datapoints other than I do log on fuelly and I’ve noted a drop on occasions. Enough that I kind of backed off on purchasing there.

 

[LCNorth]

I don't know about Costco mileage, but I defninitely get metter mileage with 94 than I do with 91. Noticably better.

My brother-in-law is a big wig at Suncor. We've talked about fuel quality before. Flagship gas station chains use flagship product with top-shelf additivies and overall chemical composition. The big oil companies sell a cheaper alternative to be sold in cheaper branded stations and I'm sure that includes Costco. (Who I believe uses Husky gas in Canada.)

The cheaper tiers of fuel aren't 'bad' like the 1970s, but they aren't the same as what you get at the pump at Shell, Esso/Exxon, Petro-Canada, etc.

 

[Roots]

I don't know about Costco mileage, but I defninitely get metter mileage with 94 than I do with 91. Noticably better.

My brother-in-law is a big wig at Suncor. We've talked about fuel quality before. Flagship gas station chains use flagship product with top-shelf additivies and overall chemical composition. The big oil companies sell a cheaper alternative to be sold in cheaper branded stations and I'm sure that includes Costco. (Who I believe uses Husky gas in Canada.)

The cheaper tiers of fuel aren't 'bad' like the 1970s, but they aren't the same as what you get at the pump at Shell, Esso/Exxon, Petro-Canada, etc.

Many moons ago I remember hearing that Sinclair was the best gas quality wise, but I have doubts that is still the case. They've just gotten so small.

 

[Alpha Puppy]

I don't know about Costco mileage, but I defninitely get metter mileage with 94 than I do with 91. Noticably better.

My brother-in-law is a big wig at Suncor. We've talked about fuel quality before. Flagship gas station chains use flagship product with top-shelf additivies and overall chemical composition. The big oil companies sell a cheaper alternative to be sold in cheaper branded stations and I'm sure that includes Costco. (Who I believe uses Husky gas in Canada.)

The cheaper tiers of fuel aren't 'bad' like the 1970s, but they aren't the same as what you get at the pump at Shell, Esso/Exxon, Petro-Canada, etc.

The various mpg threads spurred me to perform an experiment regarding the effect of high grade octane fuel with regards to efficiency (MPG). Now, take it with a grain of salt as, given the cost, it is a sample size of 1.... But, anyway, I ran my tank empty to the 0 mi range so only about 2G left per this forums experiments. Then I filled the tank with Suncor racing 100 octane fuel. Long story short, I noticed a 3 mpg improvement for my typical driving patterns over the life of the tank when compared to the CA crappy 91 octane 15% ethanol winter blend. Perhaps a bit better power but hard to tell. I did notice a bit more of a rich mixture smelling exhaust at first which decreased to normal over the life of the tank.

 

[ultane]

I’m curious: has anyone else perceived a lower mileage when using Costco fuel?

I used Costco gasoline in my Ford Transit 350 about 70% of the time when I lived in Florida. I was always light footed, and got 19 to 20.5 mpg (the best I have ever gotten) in that beast of a van (3.5L twin turbo), never having any problem with the Costco branded gasoline.

About a decade ago, when I lived in Idaho, I was talking to a guy who was making a gasoline delivery to the Chevron station that I was filling up at. I had seen him at Costco on another occasion. I asked him about the quality of the Costco gasoline. He told me that Costco required FIVE times the amount of Techron to be put into their gasoline, than was required at Chevron stations.

 

[No15]

For the most part all gasoline in a region comes from the same source. The only difference is the additive pack. So joes corner market and Chevron have the same fuel base with different detergents (maybe).

Costco has their own additive system on site which is unusual. At some stations you can see the tank because it is above ground. The additive gets mixed in when the fuel gets delivered.

 

[ultane]

For the most part all gasoline in a region comes from the same source. The only difference is the additive pack. So joes corner market and Chevron have the same fuel base with different detergents (maybe).

Costco has their own additive system on site which is unusual. At some stations you can see the tank because it is above ground. The additive gets mixed in when the fuel gets delivered.

When I lived in the Boise area, I found out that virtually all of the fuel sold there comes up from Salt Lake City, through the desert, over mountains, etc. in a pipeline. So that makes perfect sense.

 

[Captain Trips]

When I lived in the Boise area, I found out that virtually all of the fuel sold there comes up from Salt Lake City, through the desert, over mountains, etc. in a pipeline. So that makes perfect sense.

All gas is the same. It comes from the same place, same pipeline, the same tank. The only difference is octane and additives.

No, there’s no difference in gasoline itself but brands do mix in different additives

The EPA and state set minimum standards for fuel and additives but many companies exceed minimum requirements.

www.wtsp.com

 

[ZNFRNO]

I have used the highest-available octane gas for 20+ years, but I don’t go so far as avoiding certain gas stations. Have been buying it so long, I actually don’t even look at the price of the lower-octane options. I have not made a point to look at the different additives, but have long-believed higher-octane is helpful for performance engines and especially so in summer…glad I have been doing something right.

 

[Mookie242]

All gasoline is not the same. It depends on region and time of year and blends. AAA found that the use of non-TOP TIER gasolines resulted in up to 19 times more engine deposits than TOP TIER brands after just 4,000 miles of simulated driving. To me, WHERE you get your gas is way more important than whether you use regular or premium.