The gas stations in our area have recently reported that their supplier improperly blended the gasoline sold to the stations and subsequently sold to consumers. The gasoline sold contained well over the 10% ethanol blend allowed by law. Some tests reported in the papers have indicated that the gasoline sold contained 50-60% ethanol. I filled up my car from empty during the period they were selling the bad gasoline. Do I need to worry about my car? If so, what should I do? FYI, since my roundtrip commute to work is only 3 miles I still have about 7/8 of a tank of this gas blend left.
I’d go to that gas station and discuss it with them. Keep your credit card records or receipt showing the date you bought gas there. Your car isn’t Flex Fuel (E85), is it?
I just read that some of that gas was 63% ethanol. Maybe that gas station would syphon out the bad gas from your tank and give you good gas. This should be at no cost to you.
Call the gas station first. They’re probably prepared to deal with the situation.
Goldwing makes sense. The station’s owner would no doubt prefer to stand the cost of a tank of gas than face a lawsuit. Check with the station first.
I would think 63% ethanol would cause harm to the engine and fuel lines, rubber seals, and gaskets. Agree about calling the gas station. Ask if there is a way to test the gas for the ethanol content. If you get no good answers the safest thing would be to get that suspect gas out of there until you can determine what it is and what to do about it.
Station referred me to corporate. Corporate sent generic paperwork for mechanics for any problem that might occur that your mechanic swears is caused by the gasoline. Nothing about removing the gas to prevent any problems that might occur - and either way looks like I have to pay upfront and get reimbursed. BS.
In that case, I’d hand pump (syphon) out 5 gallons of it. Fill up with no-ethanol gas. That should get the ethanol level down to a safer level. Hope for the best, the faster you use up that gas, the less time it has to damage seals, gaskets, etc…
Any way to test what the ethanol content actually is in your tank?
I’d have the tank drained and filled, keep the receipt, you don’t want to damage your car.
This happened around Mankato, MN last week also or if this is the one you are talking about. The shop in St. Paul recommended adding fresh gas to dilute it or pumping some out. I dunno though we had driver at work that twice dumped in E85 into a non compatible car and it was pretty costly to get it back on the road. The Mankato Free Press had the article and a list of stations so far that got the 60% blend.
Bing–how did this happen in Mankato, MN ? Did Grain Belt beer somehow get mixed with the gasoline?
<font color="blue>UncleTurbo —
Ask if there is a way to test the gas for the ethanol content.
The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) sells a kit for about $15 that tests for ethanol content up to 30%. EAA Fuel Tester I think a lot of such kits are now available on the market.
But you don’t need a special kit. See Ethanol Fuel Testing (This method yields a value slightly off because mixing water of volume W with ethanol of volume E yields less than volume W+E of the mixture, but this can be corrected by using chemical tables.)
Anyone know if any of this bad gasoline blend made it to Florida? I live in central FL., south of Ocala, and I haven’t heard any reports about it in the area; just wondered if someone knew something, and if so, which stations?