Ethanol in your fuel…

So what is ethanol and how does it affect my vehicle????

Ethanol is an ethyl alcohol renewable fuel that is used to oxygenate gas and raise octane. It's also a solvent, degreaser, drying agent, antifreeze and water-absorber.

Vehicle Manufacturers recommend the limit for ethanol in conventional gas not exceed 10%. Keep that 10% number in the back of your head… On 10/12/10 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a waiver allowing the use of E15 (15% ethanol) for model year 2007 and newer cars and light trucks. On 1/21/11 - the EPA again waived a limitation to include model year 2001 through 2006. The waiver applies to fuel that contains up to 15 percent ethanol – known as E15.

Use of what Vehicle Manufactures call contaminated fuel, that is fuel containing more than 10% ethanol will void all conventional engine warranties for fuel system related repairs. With the recently added 5% many people are left wondering how this will affect their new car warranty and so far manufactures haven't backed of the 10% maximum limit.

Gas stations in New Jersey are not legally required to monitor the percent of alcohol in gasoline or display an E10 gas pump sticker. We've already begun to see high ethanol content related parts failures. In several vehicles that we've tested we found ethanol contents as high as 25%.

So how is 25% possible….??? Ethanol is added locally not at refineries because it would absorb too much water when traveling through underground pipelines. Ethanol blending may be done by a professional company at the terminal, a local distributor or even by the fuel truck driver known as splash-blending. A profit motive exists to over or double-blend due to ethanol blending tax credits offered by the federal government.

Shelf life of ethanol fuel is only about 3 months in an ideal environment (low humidity storage). Low mileage drivers may want to refuel more frequently rather than filling the tank..

I'll be following up on this topic in upcoming newsletters….

Thanks Janet….