Wrong gas in tank

thanks, we’ll have it towed

thanks for your comment

I’m no expert, but I believe the ethanol is corrosive to parts in your fuel system, so you need to handle this quickly whether or not the engine has been run.

yes, i read that too, but my regular garage is not open tomorrow
i don’t know if i find one open

will a 2 day wait be bad?

i feel just bad about this,

I would round up 3 five gallon cans and siphon the fuel out right where the car sits…Use a small (3/8") clear vinyl hose. By rotating the hose round and round, you can usually work it into the tank…

How much gas was in the tank, and how many gallons of E-85 did you put in ?

about 8 gallons of E85, about 2 gallons regular

i also drove about 25 miles with this mix

i called some garages,which were still open late in the evening,
estimates for draining between $100 and $250
one was talking about doing all kinds of work, with the fuel injectors
and who knows what

we can give it a try-thanks

The cheapest (and quickest, but far from easiest) fix at this point is to jut do your best to drain it yourself. As Caddyman said, wind a tube down there, and drain it as best you can.

After the drain, if you’re really brave (and know something about fuel systems, or have a buddy who does), you can de-pressurize the fuel system, and use the fuel pump to drain the lines. That may take a while to complete. However, it MAY damage the fuel pump and filter, but it may also protect the rest of the engine (injectors, primarily).

As long as you don’t run it, the damage that’s done is already done, there’s nothing you can do to stop that. You can only protect what’s left.

Find a buddy with a car capable of running E85, and dump it in his vehicle. He’ll be grateful for 10 gallons of free gas, and you get a place to get rid of it. His car will run just fine on that mix.

When you’ve got it as drained as far as you can get it, fill it (from cans, so as not to run it yet) all the way with regular. That way the mix is as lean as you can make it.

Fire it up, and hope for the best.

That’s roughly what your mechanic will do, anyway, except he may also want to change lots of parts that haven’t failed yet (I try and consider honesty levels). It’s likely, at this point, nothing’s hurt, so you should be OK.

Best of luck,
Chase

The way I read E-85 in a non E-85 car is that it causes damage when used over the long term, a few gallons of diluted E-85 sending a car to the crusher? just keep diluting the E-85 when you get a chance.

Crusher? What the heck are you talking about?

The only thing talked about was possible damage to some parts of the fuel system, and some possible repairs to same if he just runs it out as is.

It seems you are big on “possibilities” today,like coyotes in the UK (driving left hand drive cars) 10 gallons of E-85 damaging a car,and of course “the lady that helped pinpoint her problem”. I hope you can learn to fine tune things a bit as we have a full boat of speculators already.

I’d just fill it with regular gas when it gets to half full for a few tanks. It will eventually get back to normal. Don’t fret about problems that don’t yet exist. In 4 or 5 tanks full (10 gallon tank?) you will be back to E10. Time in contact with the ethanol-sensitive parts is the issue. You might drive a lot to empty the tank.

thanks for the tip

thanks for your reply

thanks for your comment

thanks for the many comments, it helped to come to my senses
and not to panic-
from other sources the majority suggested to keep adding
the regular gas to the tank as it empties

The problem with E85 is that the stoichiometric fuel air mix is different: lower than the 14.7:1 for “gasoline.”

Modern cars have feedback whereby air/fuel mixture is “trimmed” to compensate for any number of things, but a car not designed for E85 may “run out of trim” on E85 and operate too lean, throwing a code, possibly introducing drivability problems, and just possibly inducing internal engine damage from running too lean.

From personal experience, somewhere around 35% ethanol will “throw a code” on a 1998 Ford Contour. The Nissan Versa is more modern, but whether that makes the car more or less sensitive to this is something I don’t know.

How about the guy that got “4 stars” ( a first responder even) for telling you to get the car towed, those star ratings really don’t mean much anymore.In fact it is a bit embarassing that our site would give someone “4 stars” for that kind of advice.

If you disagree with the stars, just click on them and they disappear…Easy come, easy go…