Petrol shelf life?

[M0T]

I have seen it mentioned here before that petrol has a shelf life, i.e. it goes off. Does anyone know how long this will take (i.e. a few months, a year)?

I was banned from driving in july and since then my car has sat with half a tank of Tesco 99 ron on the drive. I checked earlier and it still starts and idles fine but if Its going to go off in the next 11 months I might as well drain it and stick it in the lawnmower.

Opinions?

 

[Skiddley]

12 months I've heard.

 

[merlin]

All I can tell you is I've driven a car with 3 month old fuel in it and it drove like a bag of ****.

 

[Luke]

I have heard (possibly incorrectly) that the higher octane fuels like v-power go off in a matter of days.
Anyone know if this is true?

 

[penski]

Depends on the car; I've known a Dolomite that had sat with petrol in the tank for nearly a decade turn over and purr away with only a fresh battery and a drop of petrol in the carb.

But a modern techno-barge would probably have a hissy fit.

*n

 

[ste_bla]

Vectra worked after 5 months, battery didnt like it though!!

 

[jimblowscash]

petrol goes orrange with age, and with a few freezes and defrosts the additives make the fuel turn to jelly if left long enough. the longer you leave it the less [potent it will be, so my advice is get cutting the grass!

 

[Jonny69]

The fuel in the Pop hadn't been touched for at least a couple of years and it was pretty dead. Even smelt like it was dead. I just added 2 gallons of fresh unleaded and it fired straight up. It does go off quite quickly but by adding some new petrol will freshen it up.

 

[Glaucus]

Fuel in the dodge hadn't been touched for 4years and started and ran fine after some persuasion. But that was more timing issues than anything else. The only thing is the longer you leave petrol the lower the octain will be. a part from that never heard of any problems.

 

[Skiddley]

I'm with penski, if it's a modern (valuable) car, I'd play it safe.

 

[SgtTupac]

Left fuel in an XR2 for three years, jump started it and witin minutes it was doing wheel spins up the farm road... But it seems the Fuel outlasted the car when i fell thru the floor

 

[burns]

I'm not sure if it works, but you could stick some of this stuff in.

 

[jimblowscash]

as mentioned before if the cars valuable dont risk it for the sake of a good suck! ( on garden hose to drain the tank )