My pounding around ride is a 2002 Saturn SL2/5 speed. It has happened before, but since I filled up at Costco on Friday, it has gone crazy every time I shove in the clutch to upshift. RPMs would climb 600-700, and when I stopped, it would hold there for 10-15 seconds and slowly drop to a fast idle of around 1000. In thinking about it, the last time I bought gas there, it was the exact opposite, and would drop off to idle as soon as the clutch was disengaged, which made for some rough shifts if I didn't compensate. In fact, it stalled once when I was coming to a stop light. This morning, I had a little under 1/4 tank, so I stopped at the local Shell and filled it up, about 8.5 gallons. I buy my gas there about 75% of the time, and all of my small engine gas, because it is close to home. By the time got home, my car was running perfectly. When I went to shift, rpm would slowly drop so that when the clutch was engaged again it was running at the proper speed for a smooth shift. I just had to run to the hardware behind the Shell, so I swung in and talked to the manager. She said their gasoline is pretty tightly controlled by Shell, and places like Costco and Sam's, not so much. They sell whatever they can get away with to offer the lowest price. Again, just a totally unscientific observation, but I am going to experiment with this a little more.
I'm NO expert on this, but have been involved with many conversations similar to this one over the years. I don't know if this is 100% true, but it sure seems it. From what I have summed up, most of the time all refined gasoline (what we buy at the pumps) comes from the exact same place (or multiple places aka the refineries). The only difference is what is added to it by the local distribution center prior to being loaded into delivery trucks to deliver to the local stations. For example, Long Island has only one main fuel distributor, which stores a million gallons of fuel locally. Every fuel company that sells fuel on LI, then buys and picks up their fuel from that location, same storage tanks. And any additives that brand (Shell for example) wants to add is added at the time of loading. The truck then delivers that fuel to those stations (Shell in this case...). Additives include the up to 10% ethanol, special fuel treatments and stabilizers like Techron.... I don't know how accurate this is, but on LI it sure seems like it. 2 years ago following hurricane Sandy, we had a huge and brutal fuel shortage on LI. The reasons being reported was the ONLY fuel distribution center on LI was out of fuel. And when they did finally get fuel delivered to it, they could not sell it cause they did not have the additives, and they were fighting wit the EPA to allow them to sell the fuel without the additives to help us get thru the rough times from the hurricane... (we were all running generators....). So this sure does seem to add up the above statement...
Yep. She said Shell collects random samples there and analyzes them to make sure they are selling gas with the proper additive packages. Here, fuel can come from a number of places from Detroit to Toledo.
Nearly 50 years ago I used to work for Ashland Oil Company (Now Marathon) in Marietta, Ohio. I worked at the gasoline terminal. There were also Sohio, Gulf, and several others right along together on the Ohio side of the river bank between Marietta and Belpre, the next town South. But all the river barges unloading at those terminals between Marietta and Belpre, Ohio said Ashland Oil Company on them. Farther more. Our terminal had all regular grade gas. If you wanted Premium you had to go to Gulf and diesel was at Sohio for example. Not all companies participated in this action as Sunoco had their own terminal (now abandoned) at Mattamoros up the river and I saw Sunoco barges going up and down the river.
Not saying this is true in your case, but I've wrongly blamed intermittent problems on bad gas before... Only to be proven wrong when the problem becomes more persistent. Things like bad coils or wires can come and go with changes in weather and operating temp of engine.
Yeah, I think further investigation is required. I had an '01 Dodge/Cummins that had an issue with the injector pump. The problem went away whenever I bought B20, and would come back when it was diluted enough by straight #2 diesel. The first couple of times could have been coincidental, but after the fourth and fifth times, I knew I was on to something. The codes were there, and I could have had the pump replaced under warranty, but I was a little ticked off by the whole situation. So I found a punk kid whose daddy was willing to pay what I wanted, filled it up with B20, and sent it down the road. I'm assuming the kid beat the chit out of it, and any issues were never blamed on me. I was at my local dealer a year or so later, and we looked it up by VIN. It had never been back under warranty.
Its a saturn thats the problem. They have little tiny sensor wires and act all wonkey all the time as they get weird readings from them cause the connections break and get weak. I have a 1997 saturn it will idle up sometimes and others almost cut out. And them for months run fine. It has all kinds of codes sometimes then none others. On forums I have been on its the sensors and tiny wires that lead to them . The temperature sensor provides most of that crazy idle like your talking about. Watch your temp gauge at the same time and see what it does? And there is a huge tank farm down the road and there is all kinds of trucks there getting gas. Some independent s and some name brands. All from same tanks out of same pipeline.
Did these symptoms exist for days at a time? They always do, and the other day was the first time I ever really paid attention at fill up. I am a gauge watcher, and never notice any fluctuation, execpt maybe in the mcd's drive thru in the summer. And never any codes. Well, I know I need a new air pump, but this started long before that gave up.
I used to get gas at Kroger, and felt like my vehicles never ran well when I used it. I stopped probably 12 years ago and typically only fill up at speedway, havent had a fuel problem since. I even use them for ope fuel, when I can't get non-e. I partially artibute this to fresh fuel, it is definitely a high traffic gas station.
