Gasoline-ethanol E15 blend could damage cars: AAA

[tcpfl]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Travel and leisure group AAA on Friday called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and refiners to suspend sales of a blend of gasoline and 15% ethanol known as E15. Using the blend, available for sale in a few states in the corn belt, could void warranties and damage vehicles, even those the EPA says can run on E15. The EPA approved the sale of E15 in June, clearing the use of the fuel mostly for vehicles manufactured after 2001. AAA estimated, however, that automakers have approved use of E15 for about 5% of the cars on the road, even those built after 2001. Manufacturers such as Chrysler, Toyota and Volkswagen have said warranties will not cover fuel-related claims, AAA said. Others, such as Ford and Honda, have said using E15 may void their warranties. "AAA supports the development and use of alternative fuels. More than 95 percent of the gasoline sold in the United States contains up to 10 percent ethanol. Lower ethanol blends should remain available to consumers while the challenges with E15 are addressed," the company said in a statement.

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Gasoline-ethanol E15 blend could damage cars: AAA - MarketWatch


I have to change the plastic fuel lines on my lawn equipment every couple years because the “up to 10%” ethanol mixed in with all regular gasoline these days literally disintegrates/melts the lines. It makes sense the “up to 10%” ethanol going to do damage to auto-engine parts as well. Of course E15 is just going to do the damage quicker.

[PTSchram]

All of my Rovers are frequently run on E-42.5.

After at least five years of doing this, I have suffered no obvious ill effects.

Without a control group, anything anyone who claims such problems is stating is little more than anecdotal-or worse.

[tcpfl]

That's good news for Rover folks I hope although I have a feeling the auto companies wouldn't be threatening to void warranties if they didn't believe E15 could/would cause problems.

However, the only baseline I have is, as I said, having to replace the plastic fuel lines on my lawn equipment every couple years. Never had to do that before the advent of ethanol in gasoline.

All the best...

[Racer X]

E10 fuel ruined the carbs on my Ninja ZX-6, and it's a '99. It hasn't done great things for my SHO, either. On the bike, I have to treat whatever fuel I put in unless I want to rebuild another set of carbs every year. E15 would just be that much worse.

Paul, with all due respect, there's more than enough empirical evidence of the harm that ethanol adulterated fuels can inflict on older vehicles. And save for specific vehicles that are FlexFuel capable, the same applies for many newer vehicles as well, ergo the warnings from the manufacturers themselves about the use of E15.

Also, who sells E42.5?

[PTSchram]

Originally Posted by Racer X

E10 fuel ruined the carbs on my Ninja ZX-6, and it's a '99. It hasn't done great things for my SHO, either. On the bike, I have to treat whatever fuel I put in unless I want to rebuild another set of carbs every year. E15 would just be that much worse.

Paul, with all due respect, there's more than enough empirical evidence of the harm that ethanol adulterated fuels can inflict on older vehicles. And save for specific vehicles that are FlexFuel capable, the same applies for many newer vehicles as well, ergo the warnings from the manufacturers themselves about the use of E15.

Also, who sells E42.5?

Gasoline is a very dirty mixture of compounds that vary dependent upon feedstocks, catalyst condition, conditions at time of cracking and the temperature of distillation.

Gasoline is a mix of what comes out of the tower. Depending upon the above, gasoline can be as much as 40% of various alcohols with IIRC, pentanol and iso-pentanol being the largest alcohol component.

Given the circumstances, and the addition of other compounds-mainly oxygenates-I find much of this to be as I said anecdotal at best. Again, without a control, how can one say that ethanol above a given arbitrary concentration caused a problem. Unless one of the main tenets of logic is thrown out the window-that correlation does NOT prove causation.

E-42.5=12 gallons E-85 in a 24 gallon fuel tank, the balance pump gas. I've been doing it AT LEAST five years.

[Nero]

There is plenty evidence that some plastic/nylon products use in fuel systems don't like it very much at all. Look up tank expansion on Ducati for example. The biggest problem with ethanol in the US is it comes from food crop, sugar beat/corn. The gains made in emissions and the like are almost negligible Brazil and the like make it from the waste from sugar cane farming where gains can be made with tying up food crops however I think thats probably out of the scope of the thread and I see it turning political pretty rapidly.

Sure some vehicles would cope with it others may very well not and its a pretty expensive experiment to carry out without some definite information. Fortunately where I live the question is irrelevant as I can't buy ethanol blends of any description.