Will Sam's Club 85 fuel harm my engine?

[hans_fh]

I know Sam's Club's gas price is cheaper but it is 85, not 87. I wonder will the 85 gas harm my car?

If it is harmful, what about the 91 (or 93, cannot remember) gas in sam's club comapare to 91 gas in other stations?

Thanks a lot!

[thomasward00]

I only use Shell or Exxon, and as a third option Texaco.

[captainzerocool]

Running a higher octane than needed does no good. Same with running a lower than needed octane.

I get Sam's gas all the time and have had no problems.

[Vanderkitten]

I only use Shell or Exxon, and as a third option Texaco.

Shell, as a first choice?! Ewwww... that's about the WORST gas!! Seriously, it's great marketing, shiny logo, and horrible gas... but if you don't have Chevron, than it's what you've got I guess.

My old moto shop did dyno runs on our stock Ducati's with pump gas and the Shell was the worst HP and power curve. Chevron was the best.

[mhero]

In my country, we have 91 and 95 ...
and my Yaris uses 91 ... only problem is that the price seems to be
getting higher

[Violin]

"I can't say one brand is better than another," said Edward Murphy, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group that represents oil companies in Washington. "Base gas is a freely traded commodity that must meet certain government specifications. It flows through common pipelines into commingled storage tanks."

What he could say, he added, is that "the major brands spend R&D money on patented additives, which they add to the basic gas."

Ron Baker, director of the Petroleum Extension Service of the University of Texas-Austin, is well-informed on these additives, which are the true distinguishing elements of gasoline brands.

He described them as "detergents and other chemicals" designed to keep gasoline from evaporating, keep engines from corroding, help engines run well in different climates and seasons, and keep engines clean.

The goal, he added, is "forming less deposits when the gasoline burns, for better mileage, performance and exhaust emissions."

Which brand does Baker choose? "I buy cheap gas," he said. "All U.S. gas is of good quality."

Gabriel Shenhar, the senior auto test engineer for Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, has experience that ought to make him a determined scoffer at brand preference.

"We tried to conduct tests a few years ago to measure the differences in acceleration and fuel economy of different gasoline brands," he said. "We bagged the test, because any differences we found were not greater than those you find day to day caused by changing air temperatures or humidity."


''At our Little Rock terminal we store and distribute gasoline for many major brands,'' said Oakley Bohannon, national accounts director of the Truman Arnold Companies of Texarkana, Tex., a major gasoline distributor. ''All the gasoline taps off the same Texas Eastern pipeline, then goes into commingled 150,000-barrel tanks.'' The distinctive additives go in as tank trucks are filled; the brands acquire their differences just before the gasoline is taken to stations. ''If it's a load for Shell stations,'' Mr. Bohannon said, ''the pump injects the Shell additive package with a measured squirt into every 40 gallons of gas.''

ALL gasoline has additives. For unbranded gasolines, like those sold at low-cost outlets, the additive is a generic version that meets minimum federal standards, and the ratio is about a third of a gallon of additive to every 1,000 gallons of gasoline.

Gasoline companies aren't telling what's in their unique additive packages; they are closely held and patented secrets. But whether these details even make a difference to a driver is an open question. ''The majors claim they go beyond the federal standard in formulating their additives,'' Mr. Bohannon said. ''I can't argue that, but it's a mystery to me if it's better, and I'm not sure what it practically means. I've sold billions of gallons of unbranded gas over the years, and it has never been a problem.''

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E2D61439F931A15752C1A9649C8B 63&sec=travel&spon=&pagewanted=all

[Violin]

To answer the question:

The right grade to buy is the one your particular car was engineered for; you need to use only a grade high enough to prevent knock. ''Putting premium in a car designed to run on lower octane is a waste of money,'' said Dennis Simanaitis, the engineering editor of Road and Track magazine.

[Doc Zaius]

In my country, we have 91 and 95 ...
and my Yaris uses 91 ... only problem is that the price seems to be
getting higher

Different parts of the world use different octane ratings... check this out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating). :thumbsup:

[Kioshi]

Whats wrong w/ Shell. I've been using it on my 01 Mirage ES and had better mpg and a smoother ride than 76 or Chevron..
But I use Plus from Shell on my Yaris....being that it is a new car its hard to tell the difference right now while driving.

[graywolf_14]

The difference in using 89-91 instead of 87 on your yaris is nothing. Alot of high compression cars use higher octane like the svt focus. All turbo cars use higher octanes. But a 90hp car is not going to need it and u are spending just as much on that premium gas as you would driving a bigger car.

[Black Yaris]

The difference in using 89-91 instead of 87 on your yaris is nothing. Alot of high compression cars use higher octane like the svt focus. All turbo cars use higher octanes. But a 90hp car is not going to need it and u are spending just as much on that premium gas as you would driving a bigger car.

Running a higher octane than needed does no good. Same with running a lower than needed octane.

I get Sam's gas all the time and have had no problems.

we had this debate before, the Yaris can tell the difference between different octane fuels and adjust timing accordingly... higher octane fuel, with a light foot=better fuel ecconomy

[PetersRedYaris]

Sams Club fuel is actually descent quality, and they DON'T use ethanol, so that's good. However, 85 octane is too low; minimum octane rating for the Yaris is 87.

[hans_fh]

Sam's Club in my area (Logan, UT) only has 85 and 91...

what about you guys?

[static808]

85 is lower than the 87 recommended, but i read somewhere on this forum about a person living in colorado that uses 85 since the air is thinner up there, so running 85 was the equivalent of running 87 at sea level. maybe thats why utah only has 85 or 91 as options (colorado's next-door neighbor). i have no evidence to back this up, just the hearsay from the other post i read. hope this helps a bit..

--B

[YarisTom73]

If it makes you nervous to run lower than recommended ratings in your car, Advance or Auto Zone have cheap octane-booster additives for a few cents a gallon..just be careful how you mix it, and DO NOT buy into that idea that octane boosters equal more power, that's just silly... :thumbdown: