BJ's wholesale Gas

Is anyone else using this in their truck? I seen the owners manual says it's best to use "top tier" gas and BJ's is not. They do state that it has all the additives the EPA requires and my local location seems very busy so no doubt the fuel is fresh.
I just don't know much about this "top tier" thing. I drove a diesel vehicle for over a decade and don't remember that being a thing anyone spoke about in the days I had a gas vehicle.
I found a thread about it on Bob's oil forum the opinion there was that BJ's gas was fine in supercharged and direct injection turbo engines. I'm not sure if it matters much that it's not top tier. It's about $0.20 cheaper per gallon than most other places near me. That may not sound like much but over time that adds up to a lot of savings if I use BJ's.

 

Top tier only for me. ~400$ a year @ 2 fill ups a week. Meh

 

I’m not sure whether things have changed, however I used to drive a fuel truck many years ago and at that time we would be sent to one of three different refineries to load fuel for the days run. I was told that there was a standard minimum that all refineries were required to meet (contamination, octane and additives, etc). I would deliver to both name brand and discount stations, there was no distinction between the fuel delivered to either site. The only difference in fuel at that time (1980’s) was seasonal (winter/summer), and regional, but not specific to a particular customer. This may have changed as it was over 30 years ago. I would suspect there would be more issues with individual sites with older tanks and a greater potential for contamination.

 

It all comes up the same pipeline so there's that. We run whatever off brand in our 2019 Suburban and have had 0 issues.

 

This is the same thing that happens at our store, my wife and I own a small mom and pop store and we have a common carrier bring us gas. You also see their trucks at name brand stores with the same load. Go to the terminal and watch all the different trucks load from the same pipe

 

So far I've been lucky to find ethanol free gas...that's my main concern

 

It’ll run fine. Only thing that’s worth considering is cleaning agents. Top tier gas usually has some form of cleaning additives and some others don’t or if they do not the same quality. As to if cleaning agents are worth it or not, I’ll let you decide. But if you feel they are, add a bottle of Techron (Or equiv) to your tank every X fillips.

 

I can tell you I'll never run Arco or any other cheap gas. Had nothing but issues in a 1972 GMC on crap gas.

That has carried over to my Tacoma.

Edit: probably had more to do with ethanol than anything

 

I don't have the answers, but I did put just under 400,000 on my 1992 F-150, with 90% of the fill ups coming from "Jim's BBQ"
Never missed a beat and was running just fine the day the dealership gave me $1,500 for her on trade..

 

There's a cheapo gas station on my way to work, always 10 to 20 cents cheaper. I tried it once and my truck ran like shit and got terrible mileage.

 

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-maintenance/study-shows-top-tier-gasoline-worth-extra-price/

I've got a local chain that carries Top Tier that sells for the same price as 7/11.

 

You can easily supplement the detergents every few k with using Techron or equivalent. I haven't seen a huge difference using Shell, Sam's or Marathon.

 

I know what top tier gas is... We used to watch a guy fill our tank on our ‘85 Toy PU by repeatedly filling up a large liter jug from a hose in a drum that was resting up on the top tier of a rack and pouring it into our tank by hand to measure the amount of gas he was giving us. Baja California was so cool back then! That was the only ‘top tier’ gas I ever really used in any of my Toyota trucks and I never had any fuel related issues with them.

 

Toyota engineers are smarter than most people on Tacomaworld. Top Tier gas has extra detergents added above the minimum added to meet U.S. standards. I forget why the truck needs more detergent but it something to do with fuel injection and keeping the top of the valves clean. Check Toptiergas.com for stations. The gas is the same but extra detergents are added at some point.

 

I've used the BJ'S gas. So far I have topped up from half tank twice on each visit to shop there. Also once at a big convenience store chain in Delaware. So far no issues. I see that the top tier has a bit of extra additive though they don't say anything to what the difference is.
If I'm going to use it maybe an extra fuel system cleaner every 5k is not a bad idea. I will look in to those products. I really wish we had a Costco my understanding is that they sell top tier.

 

I vote its the same stuff. My dad used to work at sams club with a gas station. He saw the same truck come by and fill up the discount tanks that did the shell across the street.

the only real difference as mentioned above is the detergents they add. From what I've read, the detergents added are so minute it makes absolutely no difference. Think, 1,000 gallon tank of gas, with maybe a gallon of detergent in it. Sure its in there, but how much is that really affecting the cleaning properties of said gas, and is it worth the extra 20 cents a gallon?

Also people seem to forget gasoline itself is a detergent. Anything port injected is getting hit with gas constantly and should be keeping it clean.

 

That was kinda my thinking too and yes we have port injection as well as direct injection so we are always seeing the fuel cleaning to valves.

 

yup! I'm with you there. I just pull into whatever gas station is convenient or noticeably cheaper.

 

As far as I know it all comes from the same pipe (all suppliers feed into it at 1 end) but... at the terminal the additives are put in and that is the difference. Minimum detergent gas is just that, meets gov requirements so that should be all cheapy no name stations and BJs as well. Top tier including Costco adds different and usually more detergents so it helps prevent intake valve deposits. I always try to go for top tier whenever I can and luckily costco is usually the cheapest and still top tier.

 

Exactly true. The southeast for instance is fed from the colonial pipeline. It goes to storage facilities that send gas to all the stations in your area. They are filled by none branded tankers because that tanker that fills BJ's may stop at BP or Shell next. The detergents are little more than a cap full tossed in the tanker. There is no difference between the gas that you get at BJs or anywhere else. The only thing I would worry about are the storage tanks and how frequently they are filled. You don't want stale gas and you don't want gas that could be potentially contaminated. There is a gas station around here that started selling ethanol free. They stored it in an outdoor tank and being in Fla you get a lot of sun during the day and it cools down somewhat at night. That heating and cooling = condensation. While the gas is ethanol free, it isn't always water free and I found out the hard way with my boat. Older steel underground tanks could be an issue as well with rust especially if they run ethanol. I'm pretty sure that with BJs being new to the gas business that they all have plastic tanks.