Shell Gas and Pinging

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deven

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I have noticed something interesting in using Shell Gasoline. My two cars (Acura TL and MB E350) when fed Shell 93 octane with V-Power, both cars get a slight ping especially at start-up. For a bit now, I have been going back and forth with the V-Power and Mobil 93 octane. Whenever I fill up with Mobil Gas, there is no pinging in either cars!

My question is if anybody here has had similar experience as mine or I am just going senile(don't answer that..lol)

Thanks,
Deven
 
I remember one or two threads on the Maxima.org forums where people talked about '95-'01 Nissan Maximas pinging on Shell fuels. When I had my '95 Maxima, I never got pinging, but I felt like Shell seemed to make it run slightly rough, whereas BP and Exxon were fine. These kinds of reports were few and far between, and of course totally unverified, so I never thought much of it.

My current car does nothing of the sort.
21.gif


FWIW.
 
Originally Posted By: willix
Perhaps a bad batch of fuel?
Is the knock sensor is a problem?


I doubt it is a bad batch of fuel because we are talking about 7 or 8 fill-ups of Shell gasoline.

Both cars are fairly new. Acura has 8,000 miles and the E350 only has 2,000 miles. I did check the knock sensors on the Acura and also by the dealership and verified that it was not the issue.

I went as far as even using different Shell gas station but I gather that the same tanker probably refills both stations underground tanks.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
My current car does nothing of the sort.
21.gif


FWIW.


Thanks d00f00d, this is exactly what I am looking for. First hand experience from members here! Appreciate it.
 
Originally Posted By: J. A. Rizzo
What happens when you use the recommended fuel for the cars, which I'm sure in the case of the Acura is 87 octane?


The recommendation by Acura is to use "Premium". It is hard to find 93 octane in some states. In MA, it is required that Gas stations use 89, 91 and 93.
 
My mother has a 2005 TL 6-speed manual and it does not pig at all on Sunoco 91 or 93 or Exxon/Mobil 91 or 93.

We only have one Shell around here and it is far away.
 
Originally Posted By: ffracer
My mother has a 2005 TL 6-speed manual and it does not pig at all on Sunoco 91 or 93 or Exxon/Mobil 91 or 93.

We only have one Shell around here and it is far away.

Thats been my experience as well. We don't have Sunoco's here but at a Mobil Gas station, I fill the Acura with 93 supreme and it does not ping at all.
I think just for curosity I will fill the Acura with Shell 91 premium and see if that does the trick. Maybe it is the Nitrogen filled 93 octane that causes air bubbles in my engine...lol, I am just kiddig bout that.
wink.gif
 
The shells around my pathway have always been terrible. Now mobil is bad too. I started using 87 Sunoco again and its the best running 87 in my Yaris. Fuel quality All depends on your geographic location and what garbage is being dumped in the UG tanks. Our local Gulf last year sold regular grade that smelled strongly of kerosene and #2 heating oil. Top Tier is MEANINGLESS since their is NO POLICING of the standard. Also, somtimes the E10 % can be way off since there is a IDK attitude compounded by the inability to run basic calculations by the distributors. It's Roulette, kiddos ...
 
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Originally Posted By: deven
Originally Posted By: J. A. Rizzo
What happens when you use the recommended fuel for the cars, which I'm sure in the case of the Acura is 87 octane?


The recommendation by Acura is to use "Premium". It is hard to find 93 octane in some states. In MA, it is required that Gas stations use 89, 91 and 93.


Actually, MA is 87/89/93 in almost all cases. Some may have 87/89/91.
 
I don't know of any car that calls out 93 specifically. Cars have to be able to run on any region's premium, including the worst - NV, CA and another have their own especially [censored] 91 oct mix. In other words, I doubt that your engine is pinging due to Shell's 93 formulation. If you are in fact getting bad gas, that would be pretty serious.

With that being said, I used Shell 93 oct for 4/5 fillups because it was convenient for the first year I owned my turbo Subie, but noticed that it seemed to run a little better when I filled up a few times in a row with Mobil. I then filled up with Shell again for a few tankfuls in a row, but at a station a little more out of the way and haven't had any issues since.

The station that was most convenient was also in the city, near a lower-income area. Maybe the premium simply sits longer there or the tank is maintained at a lower level to account for the low demand.
 
my 93 Ranger 4.0L hates shell gas. the family I bought it from told me they ran exclusively shell gas but had to put the 92octane in so it wouldn't ping. when I got it, I ran the tank near dry and put in Unocal 76 regular, the truck didn't ping and actually ran better. However, a few months later I decided to check the spark plugs.. the guy put regular autoline copper plugs in. these motors don't like copper plugs, they like the double platnums. so I put a set of motorcraft's in and it just kinda got reborn again!
Hard to say if it was actually the gas the whole time or the wrong plug type. This motor has the waste spark ignition.

But I stay away from shell gas simply because it is always priced more than everybody else, even chevron. and I'm not sure about the nitrogen in the gas, but I know it doesn't hurt anything, but seems to me that shell likes to be gimmicky and the gimmick stuff gets added to the price per gallon.
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
I don't know of any car that calls out 93 specifically. Cars have to be able to run on any region's premium, including the worst - NV, CA and another have their own especially [censored] 91 oct mix. In other words, I doubt that your engine is pinging due to Shell's 93 formulation. If you are in fact getting bad gas, that would be pretty serious.


The cars don't call for 93 octane, they call for Premium Unleaded. Since 93 is the highest we get here, I feed it that. The only reason I said Shell's 93 is causing my pinging is because whenever I changed to Mobil's 93 octane, BOTH cars essentially stopped pinging. Those are the only two gas stations around me that are toptier gas so I have not tried others. I think giving Shell's 91 a try may be in order to experiment more.
 
Ping or detonation at start up is odd, presumably under no load (in neutral). I wonder if this shell blend has a real low RON number and a high MON? Impossible to know without a lab. Maybe after start up the timing is advancing aggressively (after being retarded when cranking) leading to a ping.
 
My car pings pretty consistently with Mobil or Shell 93

When I used to race, the word around the track was that shell made more power (and required different tuning) than other pump gas. This was before E10 and nitrogen enrichment, etc.
 
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I'd love to have the opportunity to listen to these engines personally, as I have difficulty believing that anyone with a newer late model car is 'pinging' on any fuel!

My car specifically recommends 91 and will cheerfully run on 87 per my wifes experience. Actually ran well! That's at 10.3:1 compression in a very old school type of V8.

With most modern engines the top ring has moved very close to the piston crown for emissions and efficiency. This makes pinging, if it's genuine pre-ignition knocking, a VERY bad thing!
 
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