Am I the only one having spark knock issues?

[Jeeperjamie]

Haha! Here I am driving in circles trying to burn off this tank of discount gas so I can see if it's just a case of bad gas. If you're not familiar, Safeway is a grocery chain in Northern California but it's parent company is multi state so it's like buying gas from Costco or Wallmart. Who knows whats in it... The stations are clean and I never had trouble with the premium in my Audi.

The app looks interesting...I have to download it and see if it works here. Thanks!

Yeah I know what Safeways are, I was just giving you a option that would offer you some money back and keep you away from those places like safeway, walmart, ect.... Those discounts like 70 cents off are tempting but I'd rather put clean gas in my jeep. I used to not care until I started putting QT gas in my old jeep when they started moving I to our area. If not familiar a QT is like a sheets, but just like a sheets their gas sucks, that's why they can sell it so cheap. I ran that QT gas in my jeep for about two months and started experiencing rough idle and engine ping. Couldn't really figure out what was causing it but my wife's BMW we had started acting up to. The only thing we had done different was get gas at those QTs. Once I went back to using BP and Shell gas the problems went away. Don't get me started on sheets gas either.

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[ShadowsPapa]

Yeah I know what Safeways are, I was just giving you a option that would offer you some money back and keep you away from those places like safeway, walmart, ect.... Those discounts like 70 cents off are tempting but I'd rather put clean gas in my jeep. I used to not care until I started putting QT gas in my old jeep when they started moving I to our area. If not familiar a QT is like a sheets, but just like a sheets their gas sucks, that's why they can sell it so cheap. I ran that QT gas in my jeep for about two months and started experiencing rough idle and engine ping. Couldn't really figure out what was causing it but my wife's BMW we had started acting up to. The only thing we had done different was get gas at those QTs. Once I went back to using BP and Shell gas the problems went away. Don't get me started on sheets gas either.

BP is the most bloody expensive gas in the whole state of Iowa. It's always a LOT more - I don't mean a nickel or a few cents, I mean a LOT.
QT here is actually really good. Before we retired, we often filled at QT when we were commuting as there was one half-way between us and work, and another 2 blocks from where we worked. Convenient as heck to go there over lunch, grab a coffee or something and fill up so after work we didn't have to stop for gas.
Maybe it's a regional thing - but here, QT are among the most trusted and busiest stations you'll see. We never had any issues.
Frankly, and this may seem odd - but we've never had any fuel issues ever at all with any place we've bought.
And I mean going back to the beginning of our legal driving years. For me, that's going back to the early 1970s. No water in fuel, no misfires, no injector issues, nothing.

There are no Shell stations here, Sinclair is not in this area, it's up north.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

BP is the most bloody expensive gas in the whole state of Iowa. It's always a LOT more - I don't mean a nickel or a few cents, I mean a LOT.
QT here is actually really good. Before we retired, we often filled at QT when we were commuting as there was one half-way between us and work, and another 2 blocks from where we worked. Convenient as heck to go there over lunch, grab a coffee or something and fill up so after work we didn't have to stop for gas.
Maybe it's a regional thing - but here, QT are among the most trusted and busiest stations you'll see. We never had any issues.
Frankly, and this may seem odd - but we've never had any fuel issues ever at all with any place we've bought.
And I mean going back to the beginning of our legal driving years. For me, that's going back to the early 1970s. No water in fuel, no misfires, no injector issues, nothing.

There are no Shell stations here, Sinclair is not in this area, it's up north.

QTs a convenient place to grab a coffee and snacks for sure. Here in North Carolina I've heard to many people talk about their vehicles running weird after getting gas there, but I will say that was a few years ago when they started hitting the area. We got 3 of them in Kannapolis and like 6 of them on my commute to work, it seems they try to put one every 3 or 4 miles going up a certain hwy in my area. I do stop there for coffee in the mornings and it's definitely about 4 cents cheaper than the BP I get gas at most of the time, but I just prefer BP or Shell gas, plus I can get my Getupside perks too. BP is normally about 1.89 a gallon. Compared to 1.85 a gallon at QT, but the BP I stop at normally offers 18-22 cents a gallon in perks if you get gas before 7:00 AM, I'm normally hitting it at between 5:30 and 6:00, and on 12 to 15 gallons which is my normal range that gets me back $2.00 or more in money.

 

[P.Lo]

I run Sunoco and Shell gas......80% of the time I use Premium, but sometimes just Regular......Today is my 1 year anniversary of driving the truck off the lot, 19,000 Miles as of yesterday, and not one time has it EVER knocked, ........ low speed, high speed, hard acceleration, medium acceleration, up hills, down hills, pulling a trailer, not pulling a trailer.
If I had a JT that was knocking, I would take it to the dealer and tell them to fix it!!!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

QTs a convenient place to grab a coffee and snacks for sure. Here in North Carolina I've heard to many people talk about their vehicles running weird after getting gas there, but I will say that was a few years ago when they started hitting the area. We got 3 of them in Kannapolis and like 6 of them on my commute to work, it seems they try to put one every 3 or 4 miles going up a certain hwy in my area. I do stop there for coffee in the mornings and it's definitely about 4 cents cheaper than the BP I get gas at most of the time, but I just prefer BP or Shell gas, plus I can get my Getupside perks too. BP is normally about 1.89 a gallon. Compared to 1.85 a gallon at QT, but the BP I stop at normally offers 18-22 cents a gallon in perks if you get gas before 7:00 AM, I'm normally hitting it at between 5:30 and 6:00, and on 12 to 15 gallons which is my normal range that gets me back $2.00 or more in money.

If BP was only 4 cents cheaper - but it's often 15 cents higher instead. It's crazy.
There's also few of them around - I'd have to drive several more miles just to find one here.

I know good often (not always, but often) means more money, but since I never have any trouble with Caseys, Hy Vee or QuickTrip - or even Kum&Go, which is another biggy that always has a ton of options, I mean from biodiesel to diesel to E85 to no ethanol, whatever, they have it. They sold a few of their stores to Caseys a few years back.

 

[cecaa850]

Look for a top tier gas station.

https://www.toptiergas.com/

 

[MrZappo]

Look for a top tier gas station.

https://www.toptiergas.com/

YES THIS ^^^

Safeway or any other station is not "THE SAME" as buying from Costco or other places ... Some stations and or providers distribute gas that adheres to the "top tier" standard as referenced here.

Others do not ... I dont know about safeway but I do know that Costco does ... Many others (discount sellers) do not ...

Cheapo stations like speedway are NOT top tier ... You should check your local stations and choose as you see fit ...

In any event, if you are having knocking with a fuel grade that this "time tested and highly refined" engine is certified to run with than you have some outside factor that is affecting your engine.

It could be:

Bad gas, poor maintenance, faulty sensor(s), etc etc etc ...

These engines and their computers/software have been rigorously tested before a recommendation is given. Especially this current pentastar which is 3rd generation engine ... It has been refined to a high degree. They are not going to flub something simple like octane recommendations ...

That being said, something simple like water in the fuel or a variety of other things (outside influences) could cause it ...

Good quality gas of the proper octane should run smooth in most circumstances ...

This is interesting though ... Please do keep us informed as the new gas is introduced. Very interested in the root cause ...

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Look for a top tier gas station.

https://www.toptiergas.com/

Yeah, that was mentioned a page or two back and what started some of the more recent posts (like Safeway, etc.)

If a person is having problems, that's a sure way to see if it's "cheap fuel" related.
But so many things come into play aside from the fuel.
These days unless it's an ethano blend, water will settle to the bottom and should be caught by a good filter. I've seen fuel issues where there just wasn't enough fuel delivery because water got into the filter and prevented fuel flow otherwise.
Ethanol will absorb the water and run it through without issues.
(what is gas line antifreeze? Alcohol - I have WATCHED it work in tests - I introduced gas line antifreeze into a tank with some water in the bottom and watched it disappear as the fuel was "mixed" by motion. I also watched the exact same thing happen when an ethanol blend was put into the tank with water droplets at the bottom - it then is run through, no longer just water, and burned)

 

[ShadowsPapa]

HEY GUYS - the QuickTrips I mentioned we used to fill at when we worked - TopTier stations. LOL - so we've been using it all along when we fill at our local QT stations. All of the area QTs are TT stations. No shock there as we never had trouble and they are ALWAYS swamped. Often you have to wait in line to get fuel there.

 

[Logan94605]

You guys are killing me with your $1.89 gas! It's $2.99 here in Northern California for the crap stuff and $3.49 for Top Tier. Thanks to @cecaa850 I checked the clean new Safeway and they are not listed on the Top Tier listing but the super sketchy Valero with the bullet proof windows down the street is Yay?

 

[MrZappo]

You guys are killing me with your $1.89 gas! It's $2.99 here in Northern California for the crap stuff and $3.49 for Top Tier. Thanks to @cecaa850 I checked the clean new Safeway and they are not listed on the Top Tier listing but the super sketchy Valero with the bullet proof windows down the street is Yay?

Well, at least it wont knock on your way to the hospital from being mugged ... Life it full of tradeoffs ...

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You guys are killing me with your $1.89 gas! It's $2.99 here in Northern California for the crap stuff and $3.49 for Top Tier. Thanks to @cecaa850 I checked the clean new Safeway and they are not listed on the Top Tier listing but the super sketchy Valero with the bullet proof windows down the street is Yay?

I had to laugh sort of like you on this - two of the, uh, discount "Liquor and cigarette" shops are TT but the mainstream stations are not! LOL - so the South Americans operating stations here are selling TT gas at the cigarette and liquor shops but we aren't at our locally owned stations. What a hoot. Yeah, I looked at who in Des Moines is sellint TopTier gas and a couple of those listed I wouldn't go into in broad daylight let alone early morning or late evening. The cars that pull up there are rusted hulks from the 70s in many cases. But they use TT gas.

 

[Logan94605]

Update.... I finally got down to the "Limited Milage" warning on my gas gauge. I filled up at a Chevron (Top Tier) and the ping is no more. I'll keep trying to replicate the conditions and see if I can force it to do it. Hopefully I'm done with this issue ;-)

$3.69 a gallon for regular! I did find out I could use my Safeway points for a discount at Chevron so that saved a little but it's not the same discount as buying Safeway. Thanks everyone for the help on this!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Update.... I finally got down to the "Limited Milage" warning on my gas gauge. I filled up at a Chevron (Top Tier) and the ping is no more. I'll keep trying to replicate the conditions and see if I can force it to do it. Hopefully I'm done with this issue ;-)

$3.69 a gallon for regular! I did find out I could use my Safeway points for a discount at Chevron so that saved a little but it's not the same discount as buying Safeway. Thanks everyone for the help on this!

Boy some of you Jeep owners must live in places where the gas is more like kerosene mixed with water or something. I can buy anything here and have never ever had a problem with a vehicle that has electronic controls.
My older vehicles with high compression and carburetors - yeah, but nothing since 1990s has EVER pinged, EVER, on any gas I've used.

 

[MrZappo]

Boy some of you Jeep owners must live in places where the gas is more like kerosene mixed with water or something. I can buy anything here and have never ever had a problem with a vehicle that has electronic controls.
My older vehicles with high compression and carburetors - yeah, but nothing since 1990s has EVER pinged, EVER, on any gas I've used.

In San Francisco the gas is refined from wildfire smoke, unicorn farts and millennial tears ... Lower octane ...


I'm sorry but I could not resist and I'm really a nice person ... Its humor.

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