Reply To: E10 Fuel

[howard-poole]

As with all such legislative changes that will affect existing inventory in one way or another, there is much debate and conflicting opinions as to how it will do this, won’t do that etc.  My research unfortunately cannot provide much clarity, save to say:

a. Using E10 will not result in instant failure but the older the components, the sooner some degradation will occur.

b. Probably not a bad idea to change “soft” fuel system parts in advance (assuming you can verify E10 compliance…)

c. Don’t leave E10 in the tank without an ethanol stabiliser if the car is not to be used for a prolonged period.

One report I read suggested that although the measured energy density is lower than E5/pure petrol, the stuff actually burns cleaner and may in fact result in improved performance and negligible consumption increase.  This will obviously depend upon the individual vehicle specs but, my brain cannot reconcile figures of 30+% degradation with only a 5% change in chemistry!

So there you go, no help whatsoever.