My 2017 Hyundai Tucson owners manual indicates that Top Tier gasoline should be used.
Is this really necessary and if so why?
Yes, I’d say it is necessary. But, I am guessing it recommends Top Tier gas not requires Top Tier gas. I’d still use Top Tier.
The simple answer is; Because the experts who designed, built and warranty the car you drive, suggest you should use good quality fuel. The more complicated answer is; Top Tier fuel has a guaranteed quality with a lot of chemicals added to keep the inside of your expensive engine parts clean and working properly.
Since you paid oh, $35,000 to $40,00 for the car, is the $0.75 you save buying gas each week from the cheap sketchy gas stations worth the risk for the tiny savings? I know Hyundai has a very long warranty but they will make the case that clogged injectors are on your dime, not theirs.
Yes, as stated above they want you to use gas with a good amount of detergents to keep the fuel injection system cleaner.
+1
But, I have to mention that, in my neck of the woods, Costco’s Top Tier gas is–at worst–the same price as the gas at the no-name stations, and is usually several cents cheaper. This may or may not be the case in the OP’s area, however.
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If you look around, you can probably find top tier gas from the usual list of suspects (BP, Exxon, Shell, Mobil) for a couple cents more per gallon than at Costco. I use Gas Buddy to find attractive prices between work and home.
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Seeing the problems that Kia/Hyundai have been having with their 4 cylinder engines lately grenading themselves early I don’t think I would skimp on a few cents per fill up on no name gas .
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Here is the list of all , many who I have never heard of so maybe names you thyink are cheaper are actually top tier. https://toptiergas.com/licensed-brands/
Not all TopTier brands display the TopTier seal, preferring to display their company name for the detergent package. Such as Chevron usually just mentions Techron.
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In my area, the only “major” brand of gasoline that isn’t Top Tier is Gulf.
By simply avoiding Gulf, Sunoco, Speedway, Raceway, and Delta stations, as well as Joe’s Super-Duper Gas Station and Bait Emporium, one can usually fill his tank with Top Tier gas without having to do much searching.
Funny gas like Speedway is not top tier seeing that Marathon which owns and makes
Speedway is top tier . Gulf used to be considered a top name gas .
As a long-term holder of shares in Marathon Oil, and a more recent holder of shares in Marathon Petroleum, I understand your consternation. When I have posed that question to the folks at Marathon, I haven’t gotten a response that I consider to be adequate.
As to Gulf Oil, it has changed hands so many times that it is difficult to figure-out who owns it at any given time.
No, it isn’t necessary. By that I mean the engine will still run using non-top-tier. But it might not run as many miles before needing service. The top-tier ID supposedly indicates the fuel is clean and contains certain additives that will mitigate corrosion problems in the fuel system. Whether that is true or not, or whether it makes any difference, I have no idea. It’s sort of like the Betty Crocker Seal of Approval on a product. Who knows what that actually means. My gasoline purchasing theory is that the gas stations that sell the highest volume are the best choices b/c the gasoline is always fresh and more likely to be clean, and in my area those stations are all top tier. I used to have problems with getting bad gasoline every once in a while in Colorado, either water or sandy-grit contaminated , but that never has happened here in San Jose.
?? The major carmakers that helped come up with the added detergent specs that defines “top tier” sure know what it means. It’s not just a marketing scheme.
OP, Read the Manual carefully: it recommends Top Tier, but not required.
If you don’t use TT it recommends a bottle of fuel injector cleaner in the gas tank at every oil change.
Is it possible that you think that top tier fuel is the same as Premium ( high octane)?
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The manual will say if you can’t use top tier then every X miles you have to use a cleaning additive in the tank.
Your Tucson has a direct injection engine that is prone to carbon deposit build up in the valves. The top tier gas is supposed to help with this but we are not sure if it really does.
Just for the sake of the warranty, I will use top tier as mentioned here.
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seriously, George . . . ?!
I think there’s a little more science behind the “top tier” rating . . . versus the Betty Crocker Seal of Approval
I don’t know how/why you come up with this stuff
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Top Tier gasoline standards were established in 2004 by auto manufactures BMW, General Motors, Honda and Toyota. Prior to that manufactures had recommended certain brands of fuel that were known to have sufficient amounts of additives and some people believed that advise was nonsense.
There was a thread 18 months ago where one regular stated that this was nothing more than marketing, he compered it to “My Pillow”, there is a wide range of opinions on this message board, not everybody is connected to the auto industry.
Do you mean the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval?
If so, I can tell you what that seal guarantees to the consumer.
In addition to an assurance of a good-quality product, the consumer is given a 2 year guarantee of a refund of the purchase price if the product proves to be defective. This refund comes from the magazine, not from the company making the product.
Here is an article that discusses the testing that is done before a product can qualify for the Good Housekeeping Seal:
I didn’t use Top Tier gas in my 2005 Accord V6 and we don’t use it in our 2010 Cobalt, but they don’t have direct injection. I do use Top Tier almost exclusively in my 2017 Accord I-4, and it does have DI. We had a carbon build-up problem in a Windstar about 20 years ago, and it was not fun to deal with. I eventually sold the van because of it. I’m not going there again if I can avoid it, especially if Top Tier gas costs very little more than non-Top Tier.