Here is the situation:

I have been a mostly religious user of Mobil gasoline for most of my driving days. Recently all of the Mobil stations in the area have been bought out by other "generic" brand gas stations. At the same time Shell gas stations are becoming more and more prevalent.

Shell's premium octane gas is referred to as "V-Power" and boasts more than 5 times the cleaning additives of other gas products. This seems like a bad thing to me.

My car has less than 1000 miles on it and is on it's 4th tank of gas. The first two tanks were Mobil and everything worked fine, but the second two were Shell V-Power and now the car has some sort of hesitation whenever I accelerate.

I was wondering if anyone else has had any similar experiences with brands of gas, specifically Shell.

 

sure it's not heat soak?? it's been pretty hot the last few days

I use all kinds of gas and have not had a problem

 

Me too. Including V Power. (I thought it was for my VTEC!)

 

I've had no problems with shell..
heatsoak is a def. consideration...along with AC being on =p

 

Good point, Bill.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVV tec power!

 

Chuck - I have to agree, heat does (at least in my experience) make a noticable difference in response and power. It might be sort of like the hesitation that you are mentioning; however I would suspect that during your morning commute it would be cool enough that it wouldn't happen. Have you noticed it more in the afternoon than the morning?

As my recent experience would suggest...check your throttle cable for being over-tightened.

Also it wouldn't be bad to just inspect your air filter - you never know what might have gotten in there.

I have seen various fill-ups cause the car to run better/worse; however on the whole nothing very serious. Usually just a feeling that the car gives off. I would suggest you find yourself a Mobil for your 5th tank of gas and see if that does resolve your issue. If it does, please let us know and some of us will probably start avoiding Shell stations.

 

My car has 49,000 miles on it and I have been using the new Shell formulation since it's inception. I see no problems and it performs just like the other premium gas that I use, Marathon.

They both perform the same to me, which is great. I can tell no difference between the two gas formulations.

 

I use it for the cars that require high octane at the dealership I work at and we haven't noticed any problems with it. I filled up a Cadillac CTS-V with it today and thought that the shell "V power" was appropriate for the CTS-V!

 

You might want to reset your ECU - changes in air temp have a considerable effect and it is getting much cooler in the mornings

 

Follow Up:
I checked the intake, and apart from being stock there was nothing wrong with it. The intake was dry and clean and clear of debris or small animals.

I checked the throttle cable and there was enough slack. I didn't measure it specifically but the cable was not taught and had enough room to move back and forth a total distance of approximately 5 to 7 mm freely.

As far as "heat soak", the hesitation is more prevalent when the engine is cooler. (Anything less than 7 bars/ 8 bars being the normal running temp.) The last few days here have been pretty cold and damp, I would say it is more of a cold thing than a hot thing.

On my way home I had a quarter tank of gas so I topped off with Mobil Super+, and I did not notice any difference immediately. There were no signs of hesitation this morning, but it was also a little warmer and not nearly as damp.

I will keep you informed.