Do You Think Gas Ratings at the Pump Really Matter?

The video is not completely correct. The computer which runs nearly all vehicles which have been built in the last 20 years will detect the lower octane fuel when it is put into a vehicle which is labeled to run on high octane fuel. When this happens the computer will automatically "detune" the engine so that it will not knock. When this happens, you will, however; get worse performance and worse fuel economy. If a modern vehicle does detect a knock in the engine the vehicles computer should turn on the check engine light and any time that light comes on you should have it read and fix the problem or you do risk engine damage.

If you have an older vehicle where the computer does not adjust anything based on the octane of the fuel being used, you should use the fuel the manufacture of the vehicle recommends. In general you should always use the lowest octane fuel unless the vehicle manufacturer tells you otherwise. If you use the high octane fuel in a vehicle which does not need it you are wasting your money.

If you are using the grade of fuel which the manufacturer of your vehicle recommends, and your vehicle does knock, do not just use high octane fuel. Get your vehicle fixed, because there is something wrong with it, and it can usually be fixed quickly and cheaply. Fixing a malfunctioning vehicle will generally cost much less over time than continuing to ignore the problem and continuing to use more expensive fuel.

One last point. ALL vehicles, especially the newest ones with the ultra tiny holes in the fuel injectors should use a high quality fuel additive to keep the injectors clean and giving a good spray pattern. This helps keep your Fuel Economy as high as possible, and prevents hard starting and other problems caused by dirty Injectors. This advice applies to both Gasoline and Diesel engines, and any fuel additives you should chose should NOT have alcohol in them which can cause other problems. I use AMSOIL® Products, which from my experience cost less to use and do a better job than anything else, however; it is your vehicle so you are free to chose whatever you want, you do not have to take any of my advise.

Hey I lived in Saginaw from Cali when the wop side my dad decided to move back there where he's from, in my senior year in High School. I loved the people there, they were the kind of people you could be friends with for life. I really feel for the folks there and how the economy has affected them. Looks like the big corporations again. Kid Rock's songs remind me a lot of that time.

Yeah it figures, the coalition with the politicians and big oil would be able to get away with screwing us on the fuel and charge us more and more for it over time, what’s new right.
It’s good to have someone of you stature on this site able to inform the public of the kinds of things our government has been up to over the years. Of course I mean at your own discretion.

I have only found one station that has ethanol free gas, but it’s by my house so it works real well. Nevada, you might be lucky that’s all you get there. I have a business as a mobile auto mechanic and ever since they put ethanol in the fuel my business has become about 50% fuel pumps, some only a few years old.
I had one in 2008 that was a 2007 Mercedes luxury sports model. This guy calls me up in a panic and I wasn’t far, so I went to the restaurant he was at, a business man which I told I would need a CD just to diagnosis it and was about a $100 to buy one at the dealer far away, but since it was so freak of a situation in a car that you would think nothing could go wrong with, that well made and that new. I don’t think the car belonged to him either. So I went and grabbed a mallet and wrapped on his gas tank, bingo it started. And I think he promised to name his next kid after me. lol

I have heard of AMSOIL (hey where did you get that (R) jk) for synthetic oils. I try not to recommend anything in a can to my customers to keep them from putting in a lot of the junk stuff out there, thinking there might be a cure in a can instead of calling me, but coming from you I should take a look at it. Best place is online?

What is your opinion on a small amount of denatured alcohol once and a while to clean the valves and injectors, bad or real bad?
It’s because the ethanol is bio based from corn, which isn't a petroleum product that gums up the pumps, right?
What I notice is this reddish hazy film all throughout the tank when I pull them a lot of the time, but others look pretty good, but still have the pumps fail prematurely.
It’s probably just the difference between premium and regular. At first I thought the correlation between this film and the failed pumps was from possibly independent stations, as most failures have this film, but only a small percentage of people bought gas from the small independent stations. Most were buying from the big oil companies, but I think a couple did say they were running premium, now that I think about it. Any time I have bought from those independents my vehicle ran sluggish it seemed. Very rarely do I find water either. I guess the ethanol takes care of that.

Matter of fact my girlfriend had a pump fail with a bunch of sand and gravel she pumped from a station that must have had bad tanks and she got there right after they filled them. You would think they would have a strainer in their pumps. They probably do, but course ones. Some of it was fine enough to get past the filter on her pump and she didn’t have any enemies that she knew of. lol

I have one last question to pick your brain with. What does non-photo chemically reactive mean? Is it that it’s not susceptible to spontaneous combustion? That's a total guess, as I read it on a lot on different solvents and thinners.