Bad Gas

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efrench515 @ Apr 19 2006, 04:59 PM) [snapback]242362[/snapback]</div>

Is the station you are going to an Arco by any chance?

 

My wife has been buying gas from Sams and is averaging 45 mpg for both city & hwy... Im stumped..

 

Could they be using the E10 stuff when everyone else isn't or something?

 

The simplest explanation is that the station is cheating you by making their pumps inaccurate. That's a far easier explanation than concocting a different gas mix that gets lower milage.

Gas is refined by very few companies -- all the stations in a given area buy from the same one or two refiners. Each "brand" of gas has its own package of additives added by the refiner, but the basic stock is exactly 100% identical -- it has to be, it's the same refiner!

In California, they stopped enforcing weights and measures quite awhile ago. The stations now "self police" themselves. Sure they do. The result is that you can get widely different "milage" depending on which stations you frequent. They'd cheat you even more if they could get away with it, but 10% is about the limit of what people notice.

 

The MFD mileage shouldn't change if the pump doesn't measure it correctly, however, as the MFD measures based on distance traveled/volume consumed. So if the MFD mileage is whats dropping from that station, it would imply that there is something chemically different in the gas coming from that station, such as adding 10% ethanol, which many stations are doing (E10 is very commong, cars are starting to be designed to even work on E85)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Apr 19 2006, 06:51 PM) [snapback]242418[/snapback]</div>

No, I'm gettting 54 with E10

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(benighted @ Apr 19 2006, 05:18 PM) [snapback]242365[/snapback]</div>

I filled up at an Arco on Sunday and am currently achieving the highest mpgs I've ever gotten on a tank thus far: 49.2mpg so far over a distance of ~130 miles. Keeps going up steadily at about .4-.5mpgs/day. No complaints here yet!!

Edited to add:

Now I'm up to 49.5mpg and 151 miles into my tank of Arco gas.

 

'Bad gas' is not restricted by brand or station. However, once burned, I don't go back to that station anymore...

 

Completely understandable. I'd probably do the same thing if I was getting significantly lower mpgs than usual after filling up at any particular station, whether it be a specific Arco, Valero, Chevron, or Shell. I wouldn't boycott all stations bearing the same name, but I would make it a point to avoid that specific station, that's for sure!