Ethanol=good or evil?

Zip · 23 Jan 2006 at 04:47

The petrol station in my town now gets its petrol on from another componey and this componys petrol has 10% Ethanol blended into the ULP and the 98 octain stuff.
My question is, is it better or worse for your engine?
Ive heard two sides to this story some saying it cleans the engin and is good for it and some saying its bad for it.

Mickey_D · 23 Jan 2006 at 06:00

10% of the corn stuff won't really affect it much at all.

The US has been running this mix for YEARS. In fact you can't find petrol arund that DOESN'T have at least 10% in it anymore.

As a matter of fact, they're now pushing the E85 stuff - 85% corn ethanol, 15% petrol......

Bear · 23 Jan 2006 at 07:07

It can be very bad but is dependant on your car. IIRC ethanol can break down your fuel lines, so you have to find out if your car is ok running with 10% ethanol. My car can only run on 5%, so Tescos 99 RON is ok.

robmiller · 23 Jan 2006 at 07:17

Where do you find this out? Is there a list of certain brands and their ethanol contents or something?

I'm kinda worried now, since I have no idea what's in the petrol I use

Bear · 23 Jan 2006 at 07:24

Found a Aussie site that lists some cars able to run 10% Ethanol Click Here It would seem that its only suited to newer cars. Apparently it will attack cartain rubber and plastics it comes in contact with, so fuel lines, injector seals etc, so you need to find out if your fuel parts are Ethanol tolerant.

IIRC fuel in the UK is currently only 5% Ethanol so its not a problem yet.

Meridian · 23 Jan 2006 at 07:24

robmiller said:
Where do you find this out? Is there a list of certain brands and their ethanol contents or something?

I'm kinda worried now, since I have no idea what's in the petrol I use

Tesco 99RON is 5% I believe?

M

Mickey_D · 23 Jan 2006 at 07:42

Bear said:
Found a Aussie site that lists some cars able to run 10% Ethanol Click Here It would seem that its only suited to newer cars.

Meh, as I said above, you cannot find petrol over here that DOESN'T have 10% ethanol in it, and that's for everything from the fully restored 1956 VW Beetle to the brand new Corvette. Even my '86 Tercel and '81 Chevy truck.

10% isn't enough to cause problems. A car will rust apart over there before 10% ethanol will have a chance to do any damage......

Zip · 23 Jan 2006 at 09:45

In australia only a few componys use Ethanol.
The old suplyer of the pertol station didnt use it