Tried cheap gas from a no-name station for a month and my engine light came on

I live in Austin and been filling up at this station off Lamar that's always 30 cents cheaper than everyone else. Thought I was saving like $6 a tank. After 4 weeks my check engine light popped up. Took it to my mechanic and he said the fuel was probably bad, gummed up some injectors. Cost me $200 to fix. Lesson learned, not worth the savings. Anyone else had a bad experience with discount gas?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancy_king296d ago

That station off Lamar is notorious for bad gas honestly. My buddy used to go there and his car started stalling at stoplights after like 3 weeks. He had to get his whole fuel system flushed and it was way more than 200 bucks. The thing is those cheaper stations water down their gas or use lower grade additives that just wreck your engine over time. Saving 30 cents a gallon seems smart until you're paying a mechanic triple that to fix what it messed up. Now I only go to the major brand stations even if it costs more, it's worth the peace of mind. Your mechanic is right, that lesson stings but at least it was just injectors and not something worse.

wren_mitchell6d ago

My friend's sister filled up at a place on Airport Blvd and her check engine light came on the next day. Cost her $400 to replace the oxygen sensors and fuel filter. She never saved enough on gas to make up for that mess.

ward.anna3d ago

Haha oh man I gotta disagree here honestly. Those big brand stations are the same gas from the same refineries like 90% of the time, they just add their own little detergent package after. I've been filling up at the no-name place on Airport for like two years and my 2012 Civic runs totally fine. Your friend's sister probably got a bad tank which sucks but that's rare, and she would have saved way more than 400 bucks over two years of buying cheaper gas anyway. I think the whole "only use name brand" thing is mostly marketing hype that makes people feel better about spending more.