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I posted the following to another thread which wasn't really about running ethanol fuel but about premium. I think though after what I discovered with an older car that I ran regular in and let sit for extended periods of time it might be worthwhile to post some of the issues one might have with ethanol and long term storage of vehicles.
For some of us smart owners, we might not drive our vehicles all year round and this issue may at some point hit us. Maybe not, I really don't know for sure but worth pointing it out.
Makes me wonder what other reasons MB has for suggesting only using premium in our cars. However not all premium is ethanol free from what I am discovering.
Running premium, theoretically you will also get slightly better mpg depending on how you drive as the fuel is more efficiently combusted, technically however with other factors thrown in it may or may not occur.
https://www.google.ca/search?client...F-8&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=WMnUWa7COpOR8Qfqia_QCg
However if your question is actually more along the lines of wanting to justify using regular instead of premium I would think twice about it. I can tell you that if you let you car sit for extended periods of time running regular which has higher concentrations of ETHANOL will cause problems with your vehicle especially older cars that did not have their fuel systems designed to deal with the corrosive nature of ethanol in fuel. Therefore if you only drive your smart during the summer or worse if you only drive a car maybe once a year and do not run through the entire tank of gas you could damage your fuel system.
How do I know this???? Well my 86 T-Bird TC just came back from the shop, I only drive this car once or twice a year and as a result of letting it sit with regular fuel in the tank the ethanol mix became corrosive and ate away at my fuel pump, and fuel regulator to the point that they failed. When we took out the parts which were about 3 years old the fuel pump had large quantities of yellow sludge coating the filter and pump. The regulator was also damaged and required replacement. Since fuel pumps live in the gas tank on most new cars this is not a cheap repair if you have to drop the tank in order to fix the problem.
Here is a link to an article on what ethanol can do if left long term in a car. E15 and Engines - Can Ethanol Damage my Engine If you drive the car regularly and run through tanks of gas quickly I guess regular won't be the end of the world, however if you do not run through a tank of gas at least every few months you could cause damage depending on how our smarts fuel systems have been designed to deal with ethanol.
https://francetravelplanner.com/trans/car/fuel.html
British tourists warned over 'damaging' French fuel - Telegraph
Our smarts are made in France however I think that any car sitting with ethanol fuel in the tank for long periods of time may be at risk even when used with fuel stabilizer which I question it's effectiveness. For example the shop that services our snow blower, lawn mower and generator had me switch over to premium fuel that did not contain ethanol as it caused major issues with the carb in my Honda generator.
And to make things more complex not all premium gas is ethanol free from what I have discovered. This site tracks brands whose premium is supposed to be free of ethanol, however looking at the list some of the entries are pretty outdated....
https://www.pure-gas.org
For some of us smart owners, we might not drive our vehicles all year round and this issue may at some point hit us. Maybe not, I really don't know for sure but worth pointing it out.
Makes me wonder what other reasons MB has for suggesting only using premium in our cars. However not all premium is ethanol free from what I am discovering.
UK and Canadian gallons are measured in Imperial gallons which are larger than US gallons therefore we in Canada and those in the UK will always get 'better' MPG.
Running premium, theoretically you will also get slightly better mpg depending on how you drive as the fuel is more efficiently combusted, technically however with other factors thrown in it may or may not occur.
https://www.google.ca/search?client...F-8&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=WMnUWa7COpOR8Qfqia_QCg
However if your question is actually more along the lines of wanting to justify using regular instead of premium I would think twice about it. I can tell you that if you let you car sit for extended periods of time running regular which has higher concentrations of ETHANOL will cause problems with your vehicle especially older cars that did not have their fuel systems designed to deal with the corrosive nature of ethanol in fuel. Therefore if you only drive your smart during the summer or worse if you only drive a car maybe once a year and do not run through the entire tank of gas you could damage your fuel system.
How do I know this???? Well my 86 T-Bird TC just came back from the shop, I only drive this car once or twice a year and as a result of letting it sit with regular fuel in the tank the ethanol mix became corrosive and ate away at my fuel pump, and fuel regulator to the point that they failed. When we took out the parts which were about 3 years old the fuel pump had large quantities of yellow sludge coating the filter and pump. The regulator was also damaged and required replacement. Since fuel pumps live in the gas tank on most new cars this is not a cheap repair if you have to drop the tank in order to fix the problem.
Here is a link to an article on what ethanol can do if left long term in a car. E15 and Engines - Can Ethanol Damage my Engine If you drive the car regularly and run through tanks of gas quickly I guess regular won't be the end of the world, however if you do not run through a tank of gas at least every few months you could cause damage depending on how our smarts fuel systems have been designed to deal with ethanol.
https://francetravelplanner.com/trans/car/fuel.html
British tourists warned over 'damaging' French fuel - Telegraph
Our smarts are made in France however I think that any car sitting with ethanol fuel in the tank for long periods of time may be at risk even when used with fuel stabilizer which I question it's effectiveness. For example the shop that services our snow blower, lawn mower and generator had me switch over to premium fuel that did not contain ethanol as it caused major issues with the carb in my Honda generator.
And to make things more complex not all premium gas is ethanol free from what I have discovered. This site tracks brands whose premium is supposed to be free of ethanol, however looking at the list some of the entries are pretty outdated....
https://www.pure-gas.org
