ParkerC

I always try get gas at the Raceway near my place, even go as far as trying to using the same pump, OCD? maybe... I write down the milage too at the top of the reciept...

Anyway I made the major life decision to switch to WAWA one night, same as always pump clicks off at about 18 or so gallons.

Light comes on today, put in 18 or so gallons(at WAWA), look at my milage on my trip odo and I'm 40 miles short of what I normally get... WTF???

Usually I get 220 mi like clockwork on 18 gallons.

Apperently now at WAWA 180 is standard... THOSE BASTARDS.

No more life decisions for me for a while. Live and learn I guess

Parker
889285SPD.

SeanR

Man you must have a heavy foot. I'm getting 18.5-19.5 per gallon. This last tank I got 360 miles to the tank.

ParkerC

Yea, I normally get about 12 around town with the 5 spd and RMB and all

You guys think I was ripped off?

My odo is working, and I would have probabally smelled 3 gals of fuel leaking out...most days anyway.

P.

N.Masco

Could be something else. I've had a caliper slowly sieze in a different car, slowly degrading the fuel economy.

Ed Hughes

I haven't gotten anywhere close to 20mpg since I bought my car and it had 10+ year old desert-dried tires. I'm happy to go over 16mpg, but and usually closer to 15. Come to think of it, maybe it was the RMB.....

Warren928

Its called pump meter calibration and it can be reported to the proper authorities. I worked at a gas station where people continually complained that one pump was 12% off in the stations favor for measuring gas flow.

RicerSchnitzzle

Regardless of what WAWA charged you, or said you got.. If the pump clicked off, (twice) the tank was close to full. You should have gotten roughly the same mpg for the same driving conditions. The question is did they somehow fill the Super93 tank with Regular87? That would account for some lost milage.

Again, if the tank was full, the only thing they could have stolen was octane. When I lived in Philly, I never had an issue with the gas quality @ WAWA.

SharkSkin

I agree with the crap gas assessment...

FotoVeloce

Sometimes you get junk gas.

The way gas is distributed out here (and if I recall across most of the nation) is that it's pumped in a single line from the refinery. Hi-test, low-test and green-diesel, all down the same line. Well a few years back the Chevron refinery screwed the pooch and contaminated a bunch of gasoline fuel with diesel (something did not go right and the fuels did not remain seperated. That's bad.. but when you consider that the fuel sort contaminted was 100LL (that's avaiation fuel!) it was really REALLY bad.

More recently the Union 76 distribution network had a fuel problem out here again and quite a few cars had to have some serious FI work done to fix the damage (most of them just needed new O2 sensors and a fuel system cleaning.. our benz lost a sensor and the oil company pay to have it fixed).

I guess my point is that bad gas is a reality. If you think you had a problem, report it.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Ah...."The question is did they somehow fill the Super93 tank with Regular87? That would account for some lost milage." High Octane fuel simply put BURNS SLOWER it really does not carry more energy NOR does a car produce more power by using higher octane fuel than it was designed for. If
you burn alcohol it has significantly LESS power per gallon but better higher Octane rating which is one reason CART/ Indy Cars used alcohol. So when people get all excited about using corn to replace gasoline they need to factor in the fact they they need something like 40 % more alcohol by volume plus to fully explote the potential the engine should be built with much higer compression ratios to utilize the higher octane. I am not sure why your MPG varied but doubt it has much to do with the fuel and the comment that you buy your gasoline at the raceway does make me wonder what Octane Fuel you were normally burning ?

ew928

I lost about 2 MPG when I had neglected to inspect air cleaner.
Found a wad of stuff sitting on top of the center of the cleaner right above the MAF area.

Guess I had to push further on the loud pedal to get the same go.

Average 16.5 to 17 for general driving. Near 22 MPG on highway due to the 2.20.

Ernest (NYC)

SharkSkin

The other thing that people don't seem to understand about ethanol is that it takes a HUGE amount of extra energy to produce the stuff.

True, if a car was designed for 87 you will gain little or nothing by adding premium -- however, you can tweak the design a bit -- on cars where you can adjust the timing, higher octane plus a few extra degrees of advance will yield enough HP gain to register on the butt-o-meter....

anonymousagain

Amen, Dave!! The '80 really perked up with the <compromised> move up to 89octane and a little bump in timing.

For non 16v, lower octane brings detonation for 85/86 cars and slightly reduced performance with knock sensored '87+ cars. My '86 must run 91octane as any lower puts it on the edge with detonation; IF higher 93octane were available, I'd still run the 91 'cause it's cheaper and won't change performance --> run lowest octane matched to performance, iirc 91 for 32v Sharks.

That said, you should have noticed a slight performance degradation if the gas had any affect, which could possibly have shown in mpg reduction if you found yourself in the throttle more to compensate...but you didn't state any performance change, so it's not gas related.

FWIW, Jim outlined fuel performance very nicely, and for your '88 you should get the same mpg with 89octane as with 91octane under normal driving, since the knock sensors will compensate for detonation - the only difference you'd notice is a slight decrease in responsiveness (timing retard) during spirited driving. Have heard of <knock sensor> Sharks running 87octane on long trips to save $$ with the cheaper cost over so many coast-coast miles, knowing performance would be slightly off but not horribly so. I can do the same manually with the '80, as Dave points out, but I wish it'd work with the '86 when were just cruizing to Monterey or Napa.

Good luck!!

ParkerC

Thanks guys for all the reponses...

I always run Premium (91?)in my car, and only used to buy from Raceway becouse they were always swamped with people, and I figured I'd prob get fresher gas Exxon and BP were always dead in comparison.

and WAWAs got everything you need for an early morning caffiene/ sugar fix and good lookin help to boot...so I thought I'd try em out.

So you guys are telling me my 12 mpg around town sucks regardless...I hardly ever let the revs dip below 3k cruising etc., but I definatly don't (have a chance to) drive it like a race car...

All my plugs, wires, air filter are pretty recent (6mos), no locked up calipers etc.
Maybe my MAF or 02 is starting to go south...

I'll be intrested to see what happens with these next 18 gals from WAWA for sure...

Thanks all
Parker
889285SPD.

ParkerC

Forgot to add;

No performance change in the butt-o-meter...

And the MPG never changed for me, even after doing the plugs, wires filters etc...

Later.
Parker.