When Tech Support Fails
Thread Starter
|
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 237
Likes: 0
From: Reston, VA
When Tech Support Fails
Recently, I was told by SuperChips tech support that I should put in a bottle of octane booster to dilute the 2-3 gallons of 87 octane in my tank when filling up with the 93 octane before installing the performance program. I almost compuunded this by passing on the bad advice. Luckily, Mike chimed in:
If I can't trust the manufacturer's tech support, who can I trust? (other than Mike). Seriously, has anyone else run into this situation with any other manufacturer? My ? for Mike is, what sort of liability does SuperChips (or any other manufacturer) have for giving bad advice? Luckily, I saw your post before using the booster. What if, in fact, following their advice did cause a problem? Would it be like the IRS..."we will give advice, but you are still responsible even if it was the wrong/bad advice"?
No - whatever you do, please DO NOT use any octane boosters at any time - well, the exception would be when your only other choice is walking.
Former Sponsor
Joined: Mar 1998
Posts: 13,385
Likes: 4
From: Virginia
Hi gschein,
Well, I suppose I should be horse-whipped for brainwashing you!
Actually, I think we just have to try not to look at this in terms of "absolutes".............. A lot of this lies in some combination of experience mixed with personal preference & individual opinion - meaning this specific situation you're talking just isn't an "absolute" - nor is it something that one should have a "beef" over, etc.
Now me personally - everyone knows how I feel about "octane boosters" and why - I have shown little restraint on the subject, I confess. But there are plenty others who either don't know, don't believe, don't agree, or just don't care about this - and will go right on using & recommending them.
It's kinda like aftermarket MAF meters - we sell 'em too, and any of them will virtually always (like 99.8% of the time these days) require a custom tune to be done to correct the transfer function - but the MAF meter manufacturers don't tell you that in their description, marketing, etc. They are specifically advertised to be a bolt-on part requiring no tuning changes, but any tuner worth their salt will tell you virtually any aftermarket MAF must have a custom transfer function done to restore fuel trims to OEM levels, correct loading, A/F ratios, timing, even automatic transmission shift points, etc.
Basically, it's just life, when you get right down to it - we don't all agree. It's that simple. Heck, if any significant percentage of people agreed with me on octane boosters, they wouldn't exist! Instead, where 10 years ago there were maybe a half-dozen nationally recognized "brands," now everyone and their brother markets an octane booster.
I just don't like 'em, and don't recommend using an octane booster for anything other than an "emergency" situation. There are better options, such as unleaded racing gasoline, and the mail-order race fuel concentrates.
Octane boosters (IMHO), *do* serve a legitimate purpose - it's a product to be used in an "emergency" situation where you can't get good enough quality fuel and you have to get gas, or you'll be walking home. Or some other such scenario, you get my drift.
Being a tuner, you tune the engine for whatever level of octane it's going to be run on - so you don't *need* octane booster if that job is done correctly and the vehicle is in proper mechanical condition & configuration. Thus relegating octane boosters to what I feel is their purpose, an "emergency" only type of product. Now that's just how I feel - and how I feel is influenced heavily by being a tuner, as well as what I've seen over the years in terms of the deposits left on the spark plugs & in some cases even on O2 sensors, etc. But that doesn't mean that anyone who gives different advice automatically somehow can't be trusted - or that different advice somehow automatically negates what I say about it. Nor that because they said something different that you were somehow "harmed" & they are somehow now supposed to be "held liable" - that would be inappropriate. They didn't "harm" you or your vehicle, on the contrary, they tried to help you protect your engine by advising the use of a very small amount of octane booster to raise the octane of 2 gallons, or 3 gallons (I though in your last post it was 1 gallon) of 87 octane, etc. That didn't "hurt" you or your vehicle - you would have used so little octane booster just to raise only a coupla-few gallons of fuel left in the tank up to premium that even if whatever type of booster you used does happen to leave some deposits behind, that little bit used just that once would, at most, maybe leave the lightest tinge of color on the white ceramic insulator of the plug, not hurting it and not nearly enough to affect the O2's. So in reality, I'd say don't even think about feeling "bad" about almost giving what you now feel might have perhaps been "bum advice," etc. - everything is fine, this is not a situation to worry about.
Yes, I am very adamant about not using octane boosters - I always have been. But even worst case, with repeated use, the cleanup is simple - a set of plugs & 2 fresh upstream O2 sensors. And all of those are 30K mile maintenance items anyway (most of us don't really take Ford's 100K mile spark plug life seriously, even though they will fire that long) - just like your fuel filter, which needs to be changed at not more than about 15K miles instead of the 30K manufacturer's maint. schedule - and every 5K miles if it's a model with a supercharger, factory or aftermarket.
Thanks for your post,
Well, I suppose I should be horse-whipped for brainwashing you!
Actually, I think we just have to try not to look at this in terms of "absolutes".............. A lot of this lies in some combination of experience mixed with personal preference & individual opinion - meaning this specific situation you're talking just isn't an "absolute" - nor is it something that one should have a "beef" over, etc.
Now me personally - everyone knows how I feel about "octane boosters" and why - I have shown little restraint on the subject, I confess. But there are plenty others who either don't know, don't believe, don't agree, or just don't care about this - and will go right on using & recommending them.
It's kinda like aftermarket MAF meters - we sell 'em too, and any of them will virtually always (like 99.8% of the time these days) require a custom tune to be done to correct the transfer function - but the MAF meter manufacturers don't tell you that in their description, marketing, etc. They are specifically advertised to be a bolt-on part requiring no tuning changes, but any tuner worth their salt will tell you virtually any aftermarket MAF must have a custom transfer function done to restore fuel trims to OEM levels, correct loading, A/F ratios, timing, even automatic transmission shift points, etc.
Basically, it's just life, when you get right down to it - we don't all agree. It's that simple. Heck, if any significant percentage of people agreed with me on octane boosters, they wouldn't exist! Instead, where 10 years ago there were maybe a half-dozen nationally recognized "brands," now everyone and their brother markets an octane booster.
I just don't like 'em, and don't recommend using an octane booster for anything other than an "emergency" situation. There are better options, such as unleaded racing gasoline, and the mail-order race fuel concentrates.
Octane boosters (IMHO), *do* serve a legitimate purpose - it's a product to be used in an "emergency" situation where you can't get good enough quality fuel and you have to get gas, or you'll be walking home. Or some other such scenario, you get my drift.
Being a tuner, you tune the engine for whatever level of octane it's going to be run on - so you don't *need* octane booster if that job is done correctly and the vehicle is in proper mechanical condition & configuration. Thus relegating octane boosters to what I feel is their purpose, an "emergency" only type of product. Now that's just how I feel - and how I feel is influenced heavily by being a tuner, as well as what I've seen over the years in terms of the deposits left on the spark plugs & in some cases even on O2 sensors, etc. But that doesn't mean that anyone who gives different advice automatically somehow can't be trusted - or that different advice somehow automatically negates what I say about it. Nor that because they said something different that you were somehow "harmed" & they are somehow now supposed to be "held liable" - that would be inappropriate. They didn't "harm" you or your vehicle, on the contrary, they tried to help you protect your engine by advising the use of a very small amount of octane booster to raise the octane of 2 gallons, or 3 gallons (I though in your last post it was 1 gallon) of 87 octane, etc. That didn't "hurt" you or your vehicle - you would have used so little octane booster just to raise only a coupla-few gallons of fuel left in the tank up to premium that even if whatever type of booster you used does happen to leave some deposits behind, that little bit used just that once would, at most, maybe leave the lightest tinge of color on the white ceramic insulator of the plug, not hurting it and not nearly enough to affect the O2's. So in reality, I'd say don't even think about feeling "bad" about almost giving what you now feel might have perhaps been "bum advice," etc. - everything is fine, this is not a situation to worry about.
Yes, I am very adamant about not using octane boosters - I always have been. But even worst case, with repeated use, the cleanup is simple - a set of plugs & 2 fresh upstream O2 sensors. And all of those are 30K mile maintenance items anyway (most of us don't really take Ford's 100K mile spark plug life seriously, even though they will fire that long) - just like your fuel filter, which needs to be changed at not more than about 15K miles instead of the 30K manufacturer's maint. schedule - and every 5K miles if it's a model with a supercharger, factory or aftermarket.
Thanks for your post,
