Shell vs Chevron

[capnbass91]

Posting this to share my experience with these two brands of gas.

So a Shell station re-opened up close to my house after being closed for probably over a decade (I remember seeing gas for $0.89 there when I was young lol). And since they now have their "V-Power Nitro+" gas that supposedly cleans better than their competitors I decided to fall for their marketing and to try it out, and as much as I could, only go to that station when filling up. Before I would switch between what I feel are the best top tier gas stations, Shell, Chevron, and Mobil, and only use those whenever I could.

Been going to that Shell station for over a year and I could only assume that my valves and pistons were staying clean lol, didn't notice any difference until a few weeks ago.

I was at a stop and noticed that my engine was running just a tiny bit rough. It seems like one of those things where the changes are so minuscule that you don't notice it until it's a little more significant.

I decided that my next fill up would be with gas from Chevron. About halfway through that tank of gas my engine was running totally smooth.

All I did was change gas from Shell to Chevron and will be sticking with it for a while.

I do remember reading an article a while ago, it said something along the lines of that even the cleanest gasoline will still leave deposits, so the best thing to do is go like 5k or 10k miles only on 1 brand of gas, then switch to another for another 5k or 10k, so that new gas gets rid of the deposits from the old gas. And it will take a long time for new deposits from the new gas to form. And not to mix gas, because that could create mixed deposits that are hard to get rid of.

Sounds reasonable, and matches up with my experience. I do know there are many variables, could have been a bad tank of gas the last time I filled up at Shell or whatever, but I would just like to share this experience.

I have a 2013 Dodge Dart aero, with the 1.4 turbo and only use 91 octane.

[Stubby79]

Might have nothing to do with your gas. Repeat your experiment....at this point, it could just be a coincidence.

[jamesqf]

I just don't get this "top tier" marketing thing. My vehicles run just fine on whatever the cheapest stations on my route are selling.

PS: All of them well over 200K miles, too.

[redpoint5]

I've observed no difference between brands of gasoline. It's highly regulated with tight tolerances in the US. Most gasoline comes from the same regional refiners, so the difference would be in additives. How much detergent do you need? Maybe the legal minimum?

I've never had an issue with injectors, or detonation due to deposit buildup. Perhaps it was more an issue with carbureted engines that are poorly tuned.

[Xist]

They also want you to purchase more expensive grades than your engine needs. That is almost never beneficial.

[wdb]

I buy Sunoco whenever possible. They're locally headquartered, their gas has a good rep for quality (now passes Top Tier specs), and they don't buy crude from the middle east.