Well, as you may remember I recently got my car retuned. It has been pinging all sorts, so I figured it was running lean (it was) so I took it to Church Automotive last week to get dyno tuned. They took out 5 degrees of timing, got me an extra 11hp/10tq, and eliminated all the pinging.

Of course, it was a 2 hour drive from where I live to get to the tuner, so I used up basically all of the gas that was left in my tank by driving up there. When I got up there, I filled up at a Chevron with standard 91 octane ****-water, and went to the tuner.

Well, yesterday I finally used up that tank of gas so I needed to fill up. Given that Costco premium was almost 10 cents per gallon cheaper than the Chevron across the street, I decided to wait in that long *** line and fill up there.

Shortly after, I noticed some pinging as I loaded up the engine in 5th gear on the freeway. Playing around on the street, I noticed it even more between 3 and 4K RPM.

Crap.

That was yesterday. Today I decided to take the car out and test it. Sure enough I was still getting pinging and now it was worse. On top of that, I got surging in my idle again (going bewteen 900 and 1500 RPM) AND I threw a CEL.

Double crap.

After turning off the engine and starting the car up again, the CEL cleared it self. I then drove to the local Pep Boys. I bought a bottle of Lucas Octane Booster (the only one on the market proven to be worth a damn, but at 10 bucks a bottle, its not very cost effective) and put it in the tank.

I drove around for a while at very partial throttle, letting the additive mix with the ~9 gallons of fuel I had in the tank. After about 10 minutes of this I tested the car out again.

No pinging what so ever, and the idle smoothed out almost completely.

WTF?

Now, when I brought the car up to Church's to get tuned they told me NOT to fill up with Shell gas because its been known to cause pinging... but I didnt even think about that when I filled up at Costco. I honestly thought the only difference between brands of gas are the additives they put into their mixture. 91 octane should be 91 octane... right?

I guess not.

F YOU COSTCO!

 

I've never been in that situation but when a car is pinging, does it really sound like a "ping"? Also, does the car stutter as it accelerates? I want to in case I'm ever in the same situation. Thanks.

 

Keep the RPM up at partial throttle to keep the dynamic compression low. Have you tried octane boost?

 

tuned my 392whp B16A on Costco 92oct pump gas...

but in general this is why i always try to get gas at the same two pumps to make sure im getting the same gas quality/octane. one is a chevron the other is a shell.

 

I've been using Costco gasoline since the implementation of the service. I run the 93 octane in the R, the TSX and my bike. Costco does its best to keep costs down for the members and in this situation, uses gasoline from various places. You just got a bad batch. I bet if you go back and refuel, you'll be ok.

-Victor

 

It basically sounds like a handful of steel BBs bouncing around in your engine. No real stuttering in my case though.

 

interesting.. i never thought that shell gas would cause ping.. never heard of anyone who use shell to have the problem either though.. not sure about Costco though..

Oh well Chevron and 76 for me =D

 

i've been using costco gas for a while. my ep3 was pinging like crazy on the freeway, but it's usually not like that.

 

yes, I know what you mean. The gas is ok but i dont believe worthy enough for the R, unless its 93 maybe. . .

 

I work at Costco and the gas is OK. Its not super great like Mobil and its not as bad as Arco but you don't want to use it for your R. I don't put Costco gas in my R, did a few times and it doesn't run well.

Is All Costco gas the same? No. Costco gets it gas from a lot of different sources.
I stay in SoCal so my experience with Costco gas in this region is not so good.

 

76 only

 

i always get shell 93 been using it for years

 

Been using Arco in my Civic for 17 years/318,000 miles and it still runs fine and gets upwards of 42mpg and still does trips of 400+ miles at least 3 times a year. I know someone else who's been using Arco 91 for most of his 104,000 miles in his R and no problems on his end either. I'm not an Arco *****. They're just conveniently located (one by my house, one by my work) and cheaper than the other stations nearby. If any of the name brands were cheaper I'd be using a name brand.

 

only shell or sunoco for me!!

 

Just like everything else, you get what you pay for..

 

Been using Costco premium and regular for years and years with no ill effects. I did get a bad batch in my S2000 that caused a CEL one time (from Phillips 66), but never did again after that.

 

Well, to be fair, I've used Costco gas for quite some time. I used it in my 300RWHP MR2 turbo, my SR20DET S13 240SX, my B18C5'd EM1 Si, and my 08 G37 coupe (currently only have the G37 and MR2, but that is neither here nor there). I've never had an issue with it.

However, I think that when you up the compression of a motor to ~12.8:1, the little differences between brands of gas makes themselves apparent. Either that, or as was suggested I simply got a bad batch. I really don't want to find out though. I think Ill stick to Chevron with this car. Having to put $10 worth of octane booster into the tank is way more than what I saved by going to Costco vs Chevron.

 

Reminds me how F1 motors are "tuned" to the fuel of their fuel supplier. Or maybe it's the fuel that's "tuned" to the engine? If the formulation is off just a bit the performance loss is immense.

 

I fill up at Costco all the time, no problems for me. Sounds like a one time thing.


Read before posting, noobert.

 

I completely agree. I wouldn't be surprise if the OP had mentioned Arco or Thrifty in this case.

 

76 is just like Costco in that they just buy overstock gas. So you never know what you're getting. For those that don't know, big gas trucks bring the gas over and fill up the stations. Anything they have left over is bought up and mixed together by 76 and some other companies.

Stick to Top Tier gasoline http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html . Although you have to watch out because old stations will have leaks into their gas tanks. That's what I think about their comments about Shell. Shell is good but maybe in that area their tanks leak (which is VERY common with old stations).

Chevron is good but you're basically giving money to Iran and other countries that give the money to terrorists. So I stick to Conoco and Phillips because they're domestic. But I know when I lived in CA there aren't any out there.

 

 

^^
Isn't that why were are invading Iraq right now ? Haha

Lol, I will always and only use Shell and Chevron.

 

Me too, costco fuel makes my car bog sometimes. <---True.

 

FYI, 76 is listed on that website you mention.