I mistakely put e85 gas in my 2008 lincoln mkz and the check engine light came on. I’m on my third fillup and the light hasn’t gone off. With the third fillup I added sea foam to help clean out the whole fuel system. If that doesn’t “turn” the light off, what should I do?
First go to an auto parts store such as Autozone and get the codes read and post the codes here, code format will be P0123. There might be something else going on other than the E85.
If you have ethanol free gas (some states “recreational gas”) fill with that next time, that should ensure the ethanol level in your car is down to acceptable levels.
That E85 will clean out a lot of crud the Seafoam is also trying to clean.
Agree with @Purebred Have the codes read and post them here. I suspect the codes will call out the fact that about 25% more fuel is being requested than with normal gas and the ECU sees that as an error.
I recently had the car tuned up and I mentioned to them about the wrong gas being put in the car. I had an engine diagnosis done
and the codes were po171 bank 1 lean condition and po174 bank 2 lean condition and po301 cylinder 3 misfire. I think that’s all in
connection to the e85 gas being put in the car. The check engine light wasn’t on until I put the e85 gas in. Also, there aren’t any
ethanol free gas stations in my area.
Are you filling it with E10, or ethanol-free gasoline? Ethanol-free is how I would go at this point, if you’re going to continue driving it. Even if you have to go out of your area to find it, or buy it at a marina, it’s worth looking for or traveling great distance for if you have another vehicle to do it in.
I wouldn’t have driven it any farther than absolutely necessary with E85 in the tank. I’d have driven it straight to the shop, if at all, and had the fuel drained. Towing it would have been better.
So that’s what I’d do now, although you’re on your third tank of fuel, so you might as well drive it to the shop rather than tow it.
There could be rubber or plastic parts of your fuel system that were damaged by the E85, so this car is going to need a thorough check.
If repairs are needed on your fuel system, you could ask that the parts be replaced with ones that will withstand E85. There might even be a kit out there that allows this car to be converted into a flex fuel vehicle. Maybe having that kit installed would amount to a solution.
All seem pretty normal for your error. The car is trying to add more fuel but can’t quite get there so it throws a “lean condition” code. Keep running gasoline through and I believe you will be able to reset the code eventually. It is possible, however, that you may have damaged your fuel pump. Have the pressure checked if the codes keep coming back.
How much E85 did you put in? How big is your tank? How much gas have you put in since?
I put a full tank (16- 17 gallons) of e85 and I am on the third full up.
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I only put one tank of e85 in my car.
That wasn’t what I asked, but okay.
If your goal is to lower the ethanol content in the fuel tank, you should be filling up with ethanol free fuel, not E10. (Look up what E10 is if you don’t know.)
I am going today to have the fuel system checked and since the mistake I have been putting two unleaded and one premium gas to try and fix the fuel
The premium is unleaded also . The trip to a shop is a good move to just have this solved and be done with it.
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The check engine light should have turned off after the fuel trim values returned to normal with the second tank of fuel but it is not always that simple, you may have to erase the faults and see if they return.
A lot depends on how much E85 was used before refilling. There could still be quite a bit of ethanol in the tank.