Ethonal Damage

I have heard that if you use Ethonal in a non “Flex-Fuel” vehicle, it will damage the the metal components of the fuel system. Is that true?

If you use the 85% ethanol formula and your car isn’t designed for it then YES it can cause damage. Many gas stations sell 10% ethanol formula which is perfectly safe.

Thank you.

10% ethanol won’t hurt anything.

If you use E85 in a vehicle not designed for it there will be negative consequences.

Define “Ethanol.”

More information, please.

If you try to use E85 (85% ethanol) in a non-flex-fuel car, you risk damage to the fuel system, because flex fuel cars have special fuel lines to resist the highly corrosive fuel. Also, the non-flex-fuel car may have a hard time getting the timing advanced enough for E85.

E10 (10% Ethanol) is supposed to be a non-issue. But some people have experienced problems even with this small amount the ethanol blended in. There’s even a thread about damage to small engines due to E10. http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2128985.page

When I mean Ethanol, (sorry for typo), I mean 10%, the mechanic I spoke with said he would drive across town to find a gas station that had “0%” ethanol gasoline. Of course the lower priced gas stations tend to have 10% ethanol in their gas.

10% ethanol is common, and won’t damage fuel system components on a modern car.

If I can find 0% ethanol gas I’ll gladly buy it (better mileage), but most of the stations in my area have E10 and it hasn’t hurt either of my my cars.

Your mechanic is a bit too conservative.

When I mean Ethanol, (sorry for typo), I mean 10%, the mechanic I spoke with said he would drive across town to find a gas station that had “0%” ethanol gasoline. Of course the lower priced gas stations tend to have 10% ethanol in their gas.

If that was true…then we’d be seeing THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS of problems every year. Where I live…I don’t have a choice…10% Ethanol is MANDATORY. I can NOT buy gas anywhere near me without it…and neither can several million cars across this country.

If you think 10% Ethanol fuel is damaging your car, you better look for a solution. It looks like Ethanol, whether corn based or made from other materials, is here to stay.

Embedded video from CNN Video