Top Tier Stations Detergent Levels

My research is ..Phillips 66 has 3 times the detergent of top tier standards. Shell 93 has 5 or 7 times detergency..it's one of those 2. Mobil gas synergy. Shell reg has twice detergency . I always use Lucas ucl in my fill ups. Always got about 197 miles with shell, 207-210 miles and out 200-207 with Phillips. I record everything pad pen I keep in car in folder. But this is with winterized gas. When they stop winterizing gas, Mobil I'll get about 237-245 miles, phillips about 237 max so Mobil synergy is best. Citgo I averaged about 193-197;miles. Have had times it went too 210-212 miles but not consistently. I use Phillips because recently Mobil 87 here went from $3.17 gallon too $3.34 now credit....Phillips and shell are $3.19 gallon. 2 other shells here are like $3.45..mobil across town,poor section is about$3.34 and so is sunoco.id Mobil was lower price ide be using it. Phillips is the winner
 
My research is ..Phillips 66 has 3 times the detergent of top tier standards. Shell 93 has 5 or 7 times detergency..it's one of those 2. Mobil gas synergy. Shell reg has twice detergency . I always use Lucas ucl in my fill ups. Always got about 197 miles with shell, 207-210 miles and out 200-207 with Phillips. I record everything pad pen I keep in car in folder. But this is with winterized gas. When they stop winterizing gas, Mobil I'll get about 237-245 miles, phillips about 237 max so Mobil synergy is best. Citgo I averaged about 193-197;miles. Have had times it went too 210-212 miles but not consistently. I use Phillips because recently Mobil 87 here went from $3.17 gallon too $3.34 now credit....Phillips and shell are $3.19 gallon. 2 other shells here are like $3.45..mobil across town,poor section is about$3.34 and so is sunoco.id Mobil was lower price ide be using it. Phillips is the winner

I don't think they've ever claimed that. They've claimed that their detergent concentration was over 3x that required for EPA minimums, but that typical Top Tier minimums might be about 2.5x EPA minimums. They've more or less used the same ad copy for 76 and Conoco.

Raising the bar with every drop.​

Good news for drivers everywhere – our fuel has 3 times more detergent than the minimum required by the EPA and 30% more than the minimum specified in the TOP TIER® Detergent Gasoline standard recommended by major car manufacturers.​
 
After doing your best ..what did you do that was your best!?they look clean!
Everything except walnut blasting. Lots of solvents, picks, zip ties in drills and shop vac-ing. I was replacing a water pump and figured I'd clean the intake valves real quick while I had access to them. Ended up being by far the most time consuming and labor intensive part of the whole job.
It looks like sludge but it's hard as a rock, nearly impervious to chemicals and has become one with the engine.

Anybody planning on doing this, trust me, just get the walnut blaster lol
 
It's slightly more complicated than that. Long story...
I once said to a coworker dude your wife works at Vanguard their health care is cheap why are you on ours it’s expensive…he said long story. Next happy hour he showed up with a voluptuous young gf….

Yes huge Costco fan here it solves my gas and other problems too. We have been memebers since 2009 but once they opened near my office big benefit
 
Some general comments on the video and other information:

The belief seems to be that more and more additive is always better even though people don’t know what the heck the additive is composed of. Are all additives equally effective and serve the same purpose?

Unspoken is how much the additive adds to the cost per gallon. Is it significant?

And the video says more additives mean better gas mileage. Not so in the short or medium term.
 
Basically two cards are available with the most basic membership. They say both cardholders have to be in the same household, but that's kind of hard to prove.

A total of two people can be on a Gold Star Membership (either regular or Executive): one Primary Member and one free household member who is over 16 and lives at the same address. If you are the Primary Member, we leave it up to you to decide who receives the second card—something you can change at any time by visiting your Account Details or the membership counter at your local Costco.​
The notable difference between Gold Star Membership and Business Membership is that the Primary Member on a Business Membership can add more than one person for an additional fee.​
I'm aware. But that's not a business membership, correct?
 
With a business membership, the basic annual fee is higher, and as they note there's going to be a fee for each extra card attached to the membership.
And that's why it's more complicated than just getting a second card with your wife's membership 😉
 
With a business membership, the basic annual fee is higher, and as they note there's going to be a fee for each extra card attached to the membership.
The annual fee is not higher, it's exactly the same.

There is no extra fee to attach an extra card to the membership, it comes with an extra household card for free, and that's not a thing Costco does. At all. With any memberships. That's just buying another membership, not attaching anything to an existing one.
 
Top Tier is a scam! Save yourself.....

I have never seen a Top Tier sticker on a gas pump in Illinois.
I've seen them before at various stations. Shell likes to make a big deal out of it.

I had a Kia for a while before my ex got it, and the owner's manual actually did say that if you didn't run Top Tier gas all the time they recommended a bottle of Techron every 5,000 miles.

For some reason, all the auto makers recommend either Techron or something they're buying from Chevron, tripling the cost of, and selling. GM's "totally not Techron" is a 12 ounce bottle, costs over $20 (at Amazon, the dealerships don't even seem to know about it), and AC Delco-labeled, and they sell it and say add it to the gas even though GM's official statement is "don't use any fuel system treatments".

Really anything with a decent amount of PEA in it should work. Techron keeps cutting the PEA and raising the price. I don't think that's really competitive anymore.

I should probably mention I asked the guy at the parts counter at a Kia dealer what they had for in tank detergents and they sell Gumout, really expensive. Probably send people down to Walmart and come back with some.
 
There is a fuel depot about 2 miles away. It sits on a pipeline that comes from the Whiting IN BP refinery. The pipeline also terminates in Texas somewhere.

But I'd guess 70% of the local gas no matter what the station gets the fuel delivered from this depot. So if BP is above the minimum, then all stations using BP as the base fuel are too. The local pricing is regional or territorial. Three seperate areas that the price moves up and down within but they are never the same.

I always thought the additives were added in the transport tanker as it was filled? That's the only what to get certain stations to claim more than required. Of course any additive reduces the btu content.
BP also owns Thornton's, which is everywhere in Illinois, and not nearly as expensive as BP branded stations.
 
BP also owns Thornton's, which is everywhere in Illinois, and not nearly as expensive as BP branded stations.
I don't get to the big urban areas. Never seen a Thornton's. I see the one long time Standard/Amoco/BP truck stop in my area switched to a Phillips 66. There use to be a lot of them but they all went Circle K a few years ago. The local mom and pop gas station I use to get all my premium gas from use to be a Phillips 66. Phillips use to own the other fuel depot that services the area.
 
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