OnCue Gas - Getting horrible MPG lately?

[u50254082]

Does anyone here fill up only with OnCue and has noticed reduced mileage from it? My last 2 fills have been OnCue on an empty tank, and I'm losing probably 40% of the mileage as usual.

Pretty sure it wasn't a recent switch to winter blend, and on top of that I'm getting their 100% gas and prior to these 2 tanks, the vehicle was getting the usual mileage.

Tires have adequate pressure, haven't been driving any differently than usual, and I'm calculating MPG by hand. (reset trip meter at every fill and then divide those miles by the number of gallons to top off the tank).

[jn1780]

Does anyone here fill up only with OnCue and has noticed reduced mileage from it? My last 2 fills have been OnCue on an empty tank, and I'm losing probably 40% of the mileage as usual.

Pretty sure it wasn't a recent switch to winter blend, and on top of that I'm getting their 100% gas and prior to these 2 tanks, the vehicle was getting the usual mileage.

Tires have adequate pressure, haven't been driving any differently than usual, and I'm calculating MPG by hand. (reset trip meter at every fill and then divide those miles by the number of gallons to top off the tank).

Hmm, 40% sounds like a more serious issue than "bad gas", but I'm not a car guy so I couldn't tell you.

[Bill Robertson]

I mainly use OnCue since there are three on my way to work and they have such a good C-store. I haven't noticed any mileage difference. Also, winter blend shouldn't cause any more than a 1 to 2% decrease in mileage. If you're losing 40% I would say you have a serious problem in the car's drivetrain somewhere.

[oklip955]

Try a tank from some place else and see if you get any better mileage. I haven't noticed any worse when I've gas up there. Its not my usual place.

[bombermwc]

I see a reduction in mpg when I use E-10 and if I use too many tanks in a row, my car (2010 Rogue) doesn't seem to run as smoothly so I almost exclusively use full regular.

40% is a crazy amount though. I would agree with the above, that there is probably something wrong with your car (or you've been siphoned). If you don't have a locking cap or if it doesn't require a level to open it, it's perfectly reasonable to think you've been siphoned (it happened to me before and I got a locking cap because of it...in a previous car). As oklip says, you can test performance by using a different gas station and switch to regular if you normally use E-10. But other than siphoning, I can't think of anything that would do this. If it were the gas, at 40% I think you'd be having combustion problems and would see a lot of sputtering and power loss. It would be like dumping half a tank of water in with your gas.....no bueno.

There could be a fuel line leak, a tank puncture, injector issues, etc. You might also look and see if you see a lot of iridescent fluid dripping from your tailpipe. Most cars can have some dripping there, but again if you're having injection/etc issues, you might be seeing a large amount of flow.

[OkiePoke]

What kind of car do you have?

Try a different gas station.

Could be a leak/siphon.

Might be something else, drivetrain, brakes dragging, bearing locked up...

[Rover]

They don't have their own refinery, so it would be extremely odd they would be so different. Sounds like a car problem, not a station problem.

[Richard at Remax]

Mine isn't that dramatic but ive filled up there the last 5 or 6 times and I have gotten about 400 miles/avg out of my tank. It usually is in the 440's to 450's. Im going to try 711 for a bit to see if there is any difference.

[kelroy55]

Fouled plugs? Run a fuel injector cleaner through it.

[Tritone]

We also check our mileage the same way (trip odometer). More than once I have forgotten to reset the odometer and decided to reset it after I'd driven fifty miles (yes, I keep a log of when I refuel). Then, when I gassed up, if I didn't remember to add the fifty miles to the odometer reading my gas mileage would be low and I'd have the "doh" moment. I'm not saying that's what might have happened, but it is one of my occasional slips. Ah, the memory lapses are becoming more frequent.

[OKCisOK4me]

IDK, but my boss bought a batch of electrical tape that really doesn't stick.

[BBatesokc]

I buy from the new OnCue at SE 44/Shields all the time. Car always gets the same MPG. I only get maybe 3 MPG better with pure gas and the price difference is so great its not worth the extra money so I go E10. I tend to run fuel cleaner through about every 10 tanks.

[Prunepicker]

Does anyone here fill up only with OnCue and has noticed reduced mileage
from it? My last 2 fills have been OnCue on an empty tank, and I'm losing
probably 40% of the mileage
as usual.

That's not good (duh).
Is your vehicle spitting and spewing? It could be water. Some companies
allow their gasoline to drop into the "water" zone of the tank.

The only reason I go to On Cue, NW 39th Exprswy and N. Rockwell, is for
hot dogs. I don't believe they sell corn free gas.

[Plutonic Panda]

IDK, but my boss bought a batch of electrical tape that really doesn't stick.

Well that company obviously isn't worthy of Dora the Explorer then.

[bluedogok]

That's not good (duh).
The only reason I go to On Cue, NW 39th Exprswy and N. Rockwell, is for
hot dogs. I don't believe they sell corn free gas.

I know the one at Reno & MacArthur has had E0 but I haven't been back in a little over a year.

[kevinpate]

40% loss on mileage, absent a fairly obvious change in performance, sounds a lot like a fuel leak, or someone liberating a few gallons while you are not looking.

[Prunepicker]

I know the one at Reno & MacArthur has had E0 but I haven't been back in a
little over a year.

I won't buy gas at On Cue. Only hot dogs that create gas. They're really
pretty good for the price.

Corn gas burns too hot to provide good gas mileage. My BIL was an Enduro
Go-Kart racer. When he burned alcohol he needed an 8 gallon tank to
provide the distance a 4 gallon regular gas tank provided. Yes, there is a
boost in HP but all in all the alcohol burned hotter and the engine needed a
rebuild after a race.

Since we don't race, per se, buying corn gas doesn't make sense. Let's use
corn to feed the starving instead of converting it to gasoline.

[bluedogok]

I won't buy gas at On Cue. Only hot dogs that create gas. They're really
pretty good for the price.

Corn gas burns too hot to provide good gas mileage. My BIL was an Enduro
Go-Kart racer. When he burned alcohol he needed an 8 gallon tank to
provide the distance a 4 gallon regular gas tank provided. Yes, there is a
boost in HP but all in all the alcohol burned hotter and the engine needed a
rebuild after a race.

Since we don't race, per se, buying corn gas doesn't make sense. Let's use
corn to feed the starving instead of converting it to gasoline.

E0 has no ethanol, it is pure gas. The last time that I was driving through OKC that On-Cue had E0/pure gas and E10.

I hate the ethanol crap but I have no choice here in Denver or in Austin. E10 is the base gas and only a few E85 stations here in Colorado but nothing that I have will run E85, not that I would use it.

[Bill Robertson]

I won't buy gas at On Cue. Only hot dogs that create gas. They're really
pretty good for the price.

Corn gas burns too hot to provide good gas mileage. My BIL was an Enduro
Go-Kart racer. When he burned alcohol he needed an 8 gallon tank to
provide the distance a 4 gallon regular gas tank provided. Yes, there is a
boost in HP but all in all the alcohol burned hotter and the engine needed a
rebuild after a race.

Since we don't race, per se, buying corn gas doesn't make sense. Let's use
corn to feed the starving instead of converting it to gasoline.

At the risk of getting way off track (Pun intended). Racing fuel is methanol and is distilled from natural gas or in some places coal. E10 or whatever mixture at the pump is ethanol. Two completely different things. Methanol is very toxic, ethanol is consumed every day. One thing they have in common is that they both burn much cooler than gasoline, not hotter. That's why it takes twice as much alcohol as gasoline. Rebuilding race engines doesn't have to do with too much heat. It's because you run the motor really hard and don't want anything failing in the next race.

[Prunepicker]

E0 has no ethanol, it is pure gas.

Thanks for the correction.

[Prunepicker]

... Methanol is very toxic, ethanol is consumed every day. One thing they have in
common is that they both burn much cooler than gasoline, not hotter.

Here's an article that says otherwise.

From NPR
... But there are concerns that increasing the amount of ethanol in gasoline
could damage cars already on the road. Ethanol burns hotter than gasoline
and that could damage engine parts. The ethanol industry submitted reams
of studies to support their claim that boosting ethanol is safe.

[OKCRT]

Isn't the E85 like 110 octane thus the reason that flex fuel engines require hardened valves? E10 is like 87 octane the same as reg. gas.

[bluedogok]

The octane number for E85 is a bit deceiving. The big problem with E85 is that it is hygroscopic and corrosive plus the seals, hoses, injectors and other parts need to be made to work with it. Modern, high pressure fuel systems can get pretty picky with E85 and its water, the injectors don't handle that too well. An E85/FlexFuel vehicle fuel system is made to handle it.

[Bill Robertson]

Here's an article that says otherwise.

From NPR
... But there are concerns that increasing the amount of ethanol in gasoline
could damage cars already on the road. Ethanol burns hotter than gasoline
and that could damage engine parts. The ethanol industry submitted reams
of studies to support their claim that boosting ethanol is safe.

The following numbers come from the Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago, IL. Very similar numbers can be found in any study of combustion energy sources.

Peak Flame Temperatures
Ethanol has a peak flame temperature of 3488 F
Methanol has a peak flame temperature of 3398 F
Gasoline has a peak flame temperature of 3591

Heat Energy Per Gallon
Ethanol 57,250 BTU
Methanol 76,330 BTU
Gasoline 112,114 BTU

Gasoline burns hotter and contains more heat energy per unit than either ethanol or methanol. Cooler running is one reason why methanol was first used in Midgets, Sprint Cars, Top Fuel, Funny Cars, Indy Cars, etc. They could run smaller radiators and water pumps. Therefor they make a smaller front profile and use less HP to drive the water pump. The lower heat energy of ethanol is also why E10, E15 etc. get less mileage than pure gas. Sounds to me like whoever wrote the NPR piece has an anti-ethanol agenda.

[Jim Kyle]

Sounds to me like whoever wrote the NPR piece has an anti-ethanol agenda.

Could be, or simply could be misinformation on the part of the writer, and failure to fact-check the assertion on the part of NPR. As Will Rogers once is reputed to have observed, "It ain't the things you don't know that hurt you; it's the things you do know that ain't so." I'm cautious about taking any media statement as gospel, any more, having observed the inner workings of media for so many years...