NP

 

Guys, this had been covered IN DETAIL in several other topics.

Start here to get a little information on the gasolines Toyota recommends:
http://www.toptiergas.com/index.html

If it is NOT on that list, it is NOT recommended.

One could also search on ScionLife...

OK?

Tomas

 

also remember there are people who swear by toptiergas, those who believe its a conspiracy, and those who are of the "gas is gas" philosophy...

anyways, just know that most all gases are the same up to a certain point, and they differ only in their additives (pretty much). Even within the same company they will switch suppliers. The only thing that stays constant are the additives that each company adds before delivery.

As for me, I'll go Chevron or BP, whatever is closest. I still have a hard time on that BP isn't a "top tier" gas. But then again, I've only ever filled gas in my tC three times; plus the one time I tried Shell I got no gas in my tank, but a nice gasoline spill over the side of my car and tire. Never got the pump to start.

 

this has been bothering me,
wat gas station is BP???

 

uhhhh BP is the station name?

 

British Petroleum.....bought out Amcco

 

ooooo

neva seen none of that out here in cali

 

BP bought out all the Mobil stations in western Washington state. I was driving a Ford Explorer at the time, and used to always use Mobil. It wouldn't run smoothly on BP at all! So much for using the station three blocks away.

Tomas

 

interesting, Mobil is still Mobil here. Wouldn't get gas there though, not really sure why I think that however

 

yea, i see mobil here

 

oh and Arco uses BP now too. It is noticeable that Arco is MUCH cheaper then the rest. They recently started charging 0.45cents per transaction if you use a debit card (they don't take credit) so I go to the Shell across from Arco that is usually about 5 cents more.

 

There's a Chevron here that normally advertised prices about $.10 lower than everyone else... until you got to the pump, that is, and the REAL price they charge you is about .10-.15 higher! It's ridiculous, and nowhere do they state this.

Apparently, you have to pay in CASH or use their card to get the advertised price. Ridiculous, and also false advertising IMO...

That's the last time I'll ever go to that station again. Just to give the example, I pumped (and even waited) for gas I thought I was getting for $2.43, only to see $2.52 printed on the receipt

 

I'd use their card.

1. It builds up your credit
2. You see how much you spend on gas
3. You have a seperate card for gas
4. You normally get discounts and what not after pumping up a certain amount

 

Good plan.

I have 2 CCs. One is for gas and the other is a skymiles card for all my purchases. Usually I buy things online, so the skymiles is building up quite nicely with the parts I've gotten for my tC.

 

I will not use Chevron. I rebuilt my chevelle motor and used only cheveron gas for 8k miles. At which point I had a major hesitation. After pulling the heads off, my entire intake system had been coated with this black sludge. When I took it to the shop they said it was the gas... So there you have it. On another note, the station closed a year later for having leaking tanks...

 

Black sludge in your intake manifold huh? Valve seal leaking will do that on old 350 blocks. Lots of problems with valve seals and rear mains on the 350s. It wasn't the gas. But it's personal choice after that. I havn't had problems with any of my cars and my parent's used to use it a few years ago before we moved a little further away from the station and en Exxon is closer now. We never had any problem and I've taken the intake manifold off my Ranger, my mom's Stratus, sister's Accord (all of which have run Chevron for a few years) and the only "black" stuff that's in there is a little carbon blow back from the 1st/3rd cylinder.

 

The only wierd thing was that the engine was new when I started, taken I was 16 w/400hp, but I really think the gas had some additive in it that was burning as soon as it hit the valve causing buildup. Since, I have rebuilt the heads twice and haven't seen sludge since.

 

Well, I'm just speaking from what I've seen with 350s but you definately have the experience since it was your car.

Sorry to hear that about the rebuild, and I guess maybe that station did have some type of contaminate mixed in the gas...who knows.


Good luck with everything else though.

 

Contaminants happen anywhere along the supply chain. Here in the Pacific Northwest the Conoco/Philips refinery at Ferndale contaminated several hundred thousand gallons of gasoline with some sort of polymer (plastic) at the refinery, and distributed it last year. *

They ended up paying for one heck of a lot of engine maintenance in three states for all the folks who's injectors stopped working...

Your black sludge problem could have been the gas, but where it got contaminated is is questionable - could easily have been the station in your case.

Tomas

* Seattle Times Article on contamination

 

Well, you have the choice between getting a Chevron card, where you'd only get discounts on Chevron's gas, which isn't always the best, cheapest, or nearest.... or you could get another gas card (like I did with Discover), and get 5% back on most gas purchases, meaning you're not just tied down to Chevron.

Which one will you choose? I know what I chose ;)