A reminder to run Top Tier fuel and avoid cheap gas

[N7turbo]

Besides that, 10 times better protection than what?

Probably compared to gas without additives, which might not exist in the wild.

 

[sm1ke]

From website bp says… "bp and Amoco gasolines with Invigorate® offers 10 times better protection against intake value deposits and helps clean any deposits left by minimum detergency fuels."

I think they meant to say "valve", not "value". Besides that, 10 times better protection than what?

A minimum detergency fuel is a fuel that meets only minimum government standards. I think that's what they're referring to, which I assume are fuels from places like Esso, 7-11, Circle-K, or other smaller stations.

I found this CR article that shows the difference in intake valve build up, comparing Top Tier to non-Top Tier fuel used.

The results showed that, on average, non-Top Tier gasoline left 19 times more carbon deposits on injectors and intake valves and in the combustion chamber than Top Tier gasoline had.

AAA also found that Top Tier gasoline can have a cleansing effect, reducing intake valve deposits by 45 to 72 percent when used over a 5,000-mile interval. Variation in the results is attributed to the detergents used by different brands.

While the intake valves on our GDI engines won't benefit from a Top Tier fuel, it does help with keeping injectors and combustion chambers clean. I also learned that while the detergents do have some cleaning power, they're better at preventing carbon build up, and they won't clean caked on deposits. So it's not like you can run non-Top Tier gas for 5 years, then run Top Tier gas and expect it to wash off the deposits. Ideally you would run a Top Tier gasoline consistently to clean and prevent carbon build up.

 

[bojo]

Been running Shell Nitro Premium in my 2025 CX5 Non Turbo. That, combined with bumping up to Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30 (from 0w20) , couldn't be happier with the cars responsiveness, acceleration, and the way it purrs so quiet at idle I sometimes think the engine shut off.

 

[MrMcE]

Does anyone bother with the occasional bottle of Techron? Even though I only use Top Tier gasoline in my cars, I used to put in a bottle of Techron for the tank of gas before an oil change based on some random internet advice but I don't look at my valves to see the effects. I'm not going to bother with even more detergent (Techron) going forward unless another random internet advice compels me back.

 

[madar]

Does anyone bother with the occasional bottle of Techron? Even though I only use Top Tier gasoline in my cars, I used to put in a bottle of Techron for the tank of gas before an oil change based on some random internet advice but I don't look at my valves to see the effects. I'm not going to bother with even more detergent (Techron) going forward unless another random internet advice compels me back.

I use it regularly, great stuff.

 

[BoomerZoomr]

Does anyone bother with the occasional bottle of Techron? Even though I only use Top Tier gasoline in my cars, I used to put in a bottle of Techron for the tank of gas before an oil change based on some random internet advice but I don't look at my valves to see the effects. I'm not going to bother with even more detergent (Techron) going forward unless another random internet advice compels me back.

Probably a couple times a year I add a bottle of Techron to the Chevron gasoline in the tank.

 

[Lazy2.5]

Everyone talks about how great "top-tier" gasoline is, but when I use fuel system cleaner, I can objectively feel the difference.

So, I do suggest occaisonally using it, and it does imply the "top-tier" gasoline perhaps does not have sufficient detergents to keep the fuel system clean/lubricated on it's own.

I use only shell 91.

 

[madar]

Everyone talks about how great "top-tier" gasoline is, but when I use fuel system cleaner, I can objectively feel the difference.

So, I do suggest occaisonally using it, and it does imply the "top-tier" gasoline perhaps does not have sufficient detergents to keep the fuel system clean/lubricated on it's own.

I use only shell 91.

Depends on which grade you use. The Mobil/Exxon and Shell premium fuels supposedly do a better job than their 87 fuels.

 

[ruthrj]

Does anyone bother with the occasional bottle of Techron? Even though I only use Top Tier gasoline in my cars, I used to put in a bottle of Techron for the tank of gas before an oil change based on some random internet advice but I don't look at my valves to see the effects. I'm not going to bother with even more detergent (Techron) going forward unless another random internet advice compels me back.

Sometimes yeah, following that same advice in the manner you described. Might only do it once every 10 or 20k miles though, and only if there’s a good sale on the detergent. No idea if it helps lol!

Currently doing that on my Titan with 60k miles as the truck is new to me. Got a free bottle of Amsoils fuel system cleaner with an oil purchase, so I figured why not. Will change the oil when the gas tank is empty. Will use Costco and Marathon exclusively for all of my vehicles, or find another top-tier station while on road trips. My CX-5 still hasn’t seen a drop of non-top tier since I purchased it.

 

[VQ35DE]

Does anyone bother with the occasional bottle of Techron? Even though I only use Top Tier gasoline in my cars, I used to put in a bottle of Techron for the tank of gas before an oil change based on some random internet advice but I don't look at my valves to see the effects. I'm not going to bother with even more detergent (Techron) going forward unless another random internet advice compels me back.

I use it every oil change

 

[ColoradoDriver]

Been running Shell Nitro Premium in my 2025 CX5 Non Turbo. That, combined with bumping up to Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30 (from 0w20) , couldn't be happier with the cars responsiveness, acceleration, and the way it purrs so quiet at idle I sometimes think the engine shut off.

I started using that gas as well. Been very pleased. Maybe its butt dyno / placebo, but car feels way more responsive to accelerate than it did on regular.

 

[TwinPeaks]

been filling up at BJs for a long time. Can someone explain what mileage we are talking about here? 100k? 200k before problems starts? If I don't want to drive 200k I shouldn't probably worry about this?

 

[ruthrj]

been filling up at BJs for a long time. Can someone explain what mileage we are talking about here? 100k? 200k before problems starts? If I don't want to drive 200k I shouldn't probably worry about this?

It’s not something that’s going to grenade your engine, but over time it could get costly to fix. Direct injected engines are more prone to issues as a result of gunk building up on the injectors. It can screw with your fuel trim levels, throw a check engine light, cause rough idle, reduce gas mileage etc.

How many miles is totally dependent on the fuel quality though. No reason not to pay an extra few cents a gallon vs paying $$$ potentially within 100k miles to service fouled fuel injectors. Couple of scholarly articles out there but they’re behind a paywall. Checking out the abstract or summary is still useful.

Xu, H., Wang, C., Ma, X., Sarangi, A. K., Weall, A., & Krueger-Venus, J. (2015). Fuel injector deposits in direct-injection spark-ignition engines. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, 50, 63–80. Redirecting

Robert J. DuMont, Jeffrey A. Evans, David P. Feist, Walenty M. Studzinski, and Timothy J. Cushing (2009). Test and Control of Fuel Injector Deposits in Direct Injected Spark Ignition Vehicles. DOI: 10.4271/2009-01-2641