California may switch to winter blend gas early
 

Due to gas shortages in California, which has caused prices to go up around 40 cents per gallon this week, they are contemplating switching to winter blend gasoline about a month early. This means more butane in the fuel and worse mileage.

With as picky as the subiyota is to gasoline, ethanol content, etc; I'm curious (if not a little scared) about how the car will react to EVEN LOWER energy content fuel while the temps are still relatively warm out here. :(

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/...eaded-our-way/

yea if you have some gas cans i would fill em up now. its getting kind of scary :(

My mileage has already taken a plummet. Used to get 30/31, down to 28.

so this is only on the west coast? winter blending happens normally each year for you in CA?? wow i never heard of this.. u learn something new each day!!!

maybe contacting your local toyota/subaru service shop and ask?

That is interesting. I was always under the impression that CA used a special blend in the summer (to reduce air pollution) and winter gas is the normal gas that everybody else uses.

Our winter gas is oxygenated...:thumbdown:

Uh I thought all gas is oxygenated...just means it has 10% ethanol in it, CARB mandate (and federal now I think too?).

It definitely doesn't get cold enough in CA to warrant a more volatile gasoline for cold weather operation, but I pretty much don't know anything about how fuel formulations work. So I might be completely wrong.

But holy shit, I did not notice the gas prices going up. Gonna fill up if I see ~$4.2/gallon since $5 is way crazy.

EDIT: okay read that article, it says they add butane into the fuel for the winter, which I'm guessing has slightly lower energy density or something.

All I know is there's a sticker on the pumps here in San Diego that says during the months of OCT-MAR, gas may be oxygenated to reduce greenhouse gases. That's paraphrased. Maybe I'll take a pic next time I fill up.

Yea I think oxygenated probably isn't the most accurate term, but they do change the formulation to something that burns easier in colder air.

5 dollar a gallon gas sure is scary though, gonna slow down a bit when I drive back to school this weekend lol.

Looks pretty out of date, because gasoline in CA is required to be 10% ethanol already. MTBE was banned in 2003, not sure what else they put in gas as "oxygenate" now. I feel like ethanol is the only thing used, but that might be wrong.

Pretty sure winter gas has the "base" reformulated with lighter compounds or something.

WHAT is up with this bs I went to fill up today and looked at the price and it said 4.90 WTF i felt like i was getting robbed

I really want to visit Cali but it's shit like this that stops me

In time, these problems will be everywhere...