Inconsistent Hess Gas?

[hcstymie]

Has any one had issues with inconsistent Hess gas or gas from any other company?

Sometimes when I get gas from Hess my car runs awful. I don't mean I get 2mpg less. I mean it runs awful! When I am idle at a stop light or something the car bucks. If I don't hold the break pedal down hard it will inch forward with each buck. I have to have 1 foot on the gas to bring up and even out the idle to get it to stop bucking. I also have a lot less power which is noticable up a couple steep hills on the highway.

The interesting thing is it is not every time I go there or even a seasonal thing I can blame on winter/summer gas. When it does occur it lasts for the whole tank of gas. Sometimes I buy octane booster to help with the problem.

Any ideas why? It's a busy station so I imagine the gas doesn't sit there long. Maybe it's a quality control issue or maybe they get water in their lines? etc?

That is for my 160,000 mile '93 ford tempo on regular gas. I also have a suped up '95 BMW M3 with about 60K miles. I have had power loss issues sporatically on their premium gas and a couple times issues with hesitation.

Haven't had issues with the Exxon or Shell stations nearby but don't go there nearly as often.

 

[semaj281]

Does Hess have its own refineries? If not, they most likely buy gasoline from the lowest bidder. This means a batch from Monday can be different than the batch from Wednesday. Hence the quality variance.

 

[hcstymie]

Yes, Hess does have their own refineries.

 

[rslifkin]

Inconsistency is why I stopped filling the Jeep up at the Hess up here. I'll drive an extra 1/2 mile and pay the same price to get better gas. My issue was that about 1 out of every 3 tanks would leave me with a light ping under moderate load, which I've only ever had due to fuel related issues. Hasn't been an issue since I switched stations.

 

[Zoridog]

My wife went to the local Hess and returned home saying that the car (2004 Mercury Sable) was running "funny". I could smell diesel fuel. Opened up the fuel cap ... yes... they put diesel in it.

The driver of the fuel tanker truck put diesel in the gasoline tanks. Hess paid for draining and filling the tank but that is a big screw up!

 

[Clevy]

I gave read about some Europeans mixing 25% diesel into gasoline. Apparently it doesn't hurt anything in carb'd vehicles. O2 sensors may go nuts on today's cars though

 

[Digital2k2]

We have one Hess station in town that I usually avoid just because it's priced even with the Shell stations by it and I'm sure it doesn't have anything over the epa minimum detergents in it's fuel.

Filled up there once last summer when they were actually close to 10 cents lower for once, and noticed the car ran a little rougher at idle.
Back when it was called east coast a friend said it constantly made his cars run bad so he completely stopped buying fuel from them.

 

[SteveSRT8]

We buy thousands of dollars a month in fuel for our fleet, all gasoline.

I can't remember the last time we had a fuel related problem.

 

[Eddie]

I found that if I really top up my tank by clicking the nozzle several times rather than stopping at the first click off, that I get what you are getting. Overfilling can overload the vapor canister with fluid and it can take several miles to clear. If one does this often, you can eventually mess up the charcoal and you well need to replace it. Just my experience. I use Hess gas regualarly over the past 12 years and never a problem. Ed

 

[law3500]

Check the list of TOP TIER gasoline suppliers and see if there is a station that is close to you. They have to meet the top tier standards for all grades of their gas so you don't have to buy the expensive stuff.

 

[hcstymie]

I live in Jersey so it is actually illegal to pump our own gas here. The gas station tendants don't usually top off. Just stop when the pump clicks off. My cars are usually a little lower than when I used to be able to pump gas myself in other states so I don't think that is the problem here. Also the issue for me doesn't clear untill I get a new batch of good gas or dump a bunch of octainbooster and fuel system cleaners into the bad gas.

Been avoiding Hess these last few months and my cars have run better.

Wanted to support Hess since a while ago they made a deal with Sainte Lucia about building schools in exchange for letting them build something there for their company. And Hess made good on their promise and did more than was asked of them. Oh well, my cars come first.

 

[bigmike]

I can't run Hess in my truck. It develops a loud tick every single time I've tried. The tick goes away on a tank of another brand (Chevron, Shell, BP, or Sunoco, for instance).

 

[Ken2]

The problem might be poorly cleaned trucks or ground water leaking into the underground tanks, or poor practices at the wholesaler's loading terminal, or something like that. In any case, buy something else.

 

[Vstrom]

Many years ago Hess gasoline used to smell different and run well. Back then I used to see their own branded tankers delivering it. For quite awhile now it is just generic gas from the terminal I believe and the tankers are generic.
I buy it from time to time and have noticed no difference here in SC.