05-22-2016, 09:00 PM
davester has probably one of the better responses, but there's some caveats to it. Specifically:
"occasionally" will vary greatly depending on the motor. In one car I had, if I used cheaper gas 1 out of every 3 tanks, I would start seeing performance issues. The injectors needed the full dose of detergents to stay clean.
Also, those aren't the only two differences in gas from various stations. Some states are better regulated than others. In some, the bigger chains have higher requirements on tanks and pumps and do a better job of making sure there aren't problems. There were quite a few stations around here that went out of business when the state upped the requirements. One of them had tanks that allowed water in. But I've driven in other states that clearly don't have the same requirements.
If you run water or other pollutants through just one time, there's certainly a chance of harming an engine.
Markintosh brings up a good point about ethanol.
It won't hurt your engine or harm performance to run non-Top-Tier occasionally
"occasionally" will vary greatly depending on the motor. In one car I had, if I used cheaper gas 1 out of every 3 tanks, I would start seeing performance issues. The injectors needed the full dose of detergents to stay clean.
Also, those aren't the only two differences in gas from various stations. Some states are better regulated than others. In some, the bigger chains have higher requirements on tanks and pumps and do a better job of making sure there aren't problems. There were quite a few stations around here that went out of business when the state upped the requirements. One of them had tanks that allowed water in. But I've driven in other states that clearly don't have the same requirements.
If you run water or other pollutants through just one time, there's certainly a chance of harming an engine.
Markintosh brings up a good point about ethanol.