Today I looked on the Top Tier Gas website and BP is back on the list again, in the past they've gone back and forth about every decade.

Top Tier is a gasoline standard promoted by the automakers to reduce engine problems caused by deposits. With direct injection like we have on the C7, it's not as important because our intake valves don't get "washed" by gasoline like on port injection or carbureted engines, but it still reduces deposits in other areas.

Now it's time for all the people who love or hate Top Tier to post, with religious fervor, about how:
It's completely worthless
or
Your engine will explode if you don't use it
or
It's just a scam by the oil companies
or
It's all a political plot.

 

I think you've covered about all of them.
Time to grab your popcorn

 

Great. Can you throw in a best oil or oil change interval poll too?

 

Thanks for the tip 👍 Now I can go to BP if necessary

 

I run Mobil 93, PERIOD. It's always served me well.

 

Followed by a “should I use nitrogen in my tires” thread.

 

Well, I get my gas at Costco and bought four Michelin Tires there while they were on sale. I guess I have the Top Tier and Nitrogen covered.

 

I use Bp fuel so that is good to know!

 

I always use BP 93 octane. Also, even when BP wasn’t Top Tier rated, it exceeded the requirements required for Top Tier gasoline.

 

Thanks for letting us know about the top-tier status of BP. That had been one of my favorite gas stations for all of my vehicles until I found out they had lost their top-tier status. I wonder why they lost that status. But I’m glad it’s back.

The only thing is that the main gas station where I got BP gas has now become an Exxon station. Currently my favorite gas station is Shell (also Top tier) because I get anywhere from 10 cents a gallon to a dollar a gallon off because I am a member of a program in which I get points when my wife buys groceries at Kroger.

My only wish for BP and Shell and other top-tier petroleum companies is that I would love for them to provide ethanol free gasoline, which is required in my chainsaw. Currently, I have to get my ethanol free gas at Wawa, which I don’t think is a top-tier product.

 

I've been buying BP for years because my local Kroeger grocery store gives me gas points for purchases. Got almost a $1 a gallon last couple tanks. It's nice to know but for my daily I buy it regardless of its top tier status. For my corvettes it's either Mobil 93 or Shell 93.

 

We don't have BP around here so no factor for me.

 

Same here. At least I do not recall seeing any BP stations nearby.

 

Pretty good post. The only aspect I might quibble with a bit is that I don’t think too many of the top tier fans are religious about it. I think most just figure it’s a modest advantage, as opposed to necessary insurance against exploding engines. The scam, plot, worthless fans on the other hand……….

As to BP, back in ancient times when they were Amoco, they did make a nice and colorless premium. Of course it had nothing whatsoever to do with making clean gasoline. It was simply that they bottomed their reformate to supply the bottoms as feedstock for their heavy aromatics business, and heavy reformate is where most of the color bodies are. But they did score some points against us for our normal (ie, still yellow) gas, whose reformate hadn’t been bottomed. That was back in the days before massive trading, so most of the gas at a company’s stations was actually made in that company’s refineries. So even if BP refineries are still bottoming their reformate to supply a heavy aromatics feedstock (and I don’t know whether they are), it wouldn’t matter to the gas in their stations.

 

Seems like we lost some BP stations around here over the last few years. I liked their gasoline.

 

There is also a difference from one Top Tier to the next. For instance, Shell V Power contains 6 times the required amount of detergents. Costco actually is not far behind at 5 times the required amount (and if you have a car that takes regular gas, Costco also uses the same level of detergents in their 87 octane) By way of comparison, stations that use the Synergy additive package (Exxon, Mobil as well as Esso in Canada) only use 3 times the required amount. So in addition to making sure I always use Top Tier fuel in both of my cars, I also try to fill up mostly at Costco or Shell to give me the maximum amount of deposit protection. This could be very helpful with keeping intake valve deposits from forming in the first place.

 

Even more important than the Top Tier gas is the requirement to use 93 octane.

 

I saw the stickers at the BP station last time I was there when Meijer was out of service.

 

FWIW, I did see a better than average test process (involved multiple engine tear downs, etc.) where an engine using non-Top Tier fuel had 19 times the amount of deposits on the valves and rings as it did using Top Tier. Testing was done by an independent. Confirmed for me that what little extra I pay for Top Tier is worth it.

 

Not a "requirement" but a recommendation. Only 91 octane is available in California.