Yeah, in the EU there’s a law that petrol has to be 10% non-fossil energy for 95 and 5% for 98 IIRC. Now, most stations skirt by it by producing “green” natural gas or just buying clean energy certificates or whatever it is they do, but when the law came out, there was a big deal because it turns out a lot of older cars aren’t cleared for E10. I imagine even fewer are for E15.
It’s not so much that it’d kill the engine. That’s unlikely to happen for MOST engines. What it will do is destroy the fuel hoses. And if you have a stupid early direct injection petrol engine with a membrane based high pressure fuel pump (fuck you, GM! I think a few others used that design too though), that pump’s not gonna like ethanol. If the high pressure fuel pump fails and your engine runs lean, that might indeed kill an engine though.
Yeah I only run 98 (Australia, no ethanol) in my MK6 golf. I’d love to be able to run E85 or E10 but that requires new hoses and an ECU tune. I’d do the hardware myself and have a shop handle the ECU, however time is such a valuable thing these days.
98 around here is approx 2.15 / L or 5.80~ per galon. E85 is similar in price to 98, while E10 is around 1.70.
If that’s in AUD, people round here would kill for that. We’re at about 1.80 euros per liter here, but it goes above 2 every now and then. Diesel and Petrol are roughly the same price and no real difference between 95 and 98 either.
Our fuel prices are subsidized by the government currently. They were climbing for a while when I was walking / riding so I’m not over how mad they had become. Back in the car during rain / shit weather but prices seem much more acceptable currently.
In Norway, 98 is still ethanol free for older cars and engines only used seasonally like lawn mowers and snow plowers.
In Estonia, they straight up recommended getting alkylate petrol for lawn mowers and such when the law came that 95 should be 10% ethanol and 98 5%. That stuff is pretty expensive. But since the law had a loophole in it, nearly no chain sells ethanol in their fuels at this point (though there are a few that will sell you high ethanol content fuel for racecar use, I think it was E85)
95 is of course (up to) 10% and that’s completely fine for anything even remotely modern and in use every now and then.
GM’s Z22YH can’t handle it for an example. Opel used it in the Zafira B and Vectra C up till 2010. Once you upgrade it to use Renault’s F5R engine’s high pressure fuel pump for better reliability, it’ll work, since Renault/Bosch engineers were sober when it was designed, as opposed to GM/Siemens.
There are a few other manufacturers who claim their cars made in the 00s or early 10s don’t take E10, but I cba to look for the list. To me that’s still “remotely modern” since I grew up poor enough that my first car was older than myself lol
Like you said: hoses don’t like the ethanol, and it’s hydroscopic which is what can cause issues if left in for 6 months every year.
Technically I don’t think you should regularly leave fuel in that long even if it’s ethanol free. Though I’ve never had bad fuel kill any of my equipment, oddly enough. I’ve got a rototiller that gets used twice a year and it doesn’t even take the entire tank each time and I’ve never drained it. I’ve only used ethanol free on it though.
I have to admit: I know very little of GM engines, and they sell very few cars here. It’s becoming even less relevant as EV’s are just dominating completely, passing 97% here last month.
For me personally it’s the snow blower and motorcycles, but both of those are new enough to handle E10. I still give them 98 as they sometimes have to sit idle due to weather, and we have winter from October to April.
I’ve heard the same about petrol being stored, but I’ve never had issues either. At least a year seems to be more than OK, but that is always 98.
95 E10 might be worse as it absorbs water over time…
Hope your rototiller works fine next time you use it !
Hmm, round here GM (Opel and Saab) was very common in the 00s. Now Saab is long gone and Opel was sold to Stellantis.
It worked fine, used it today, just before the rain so now the ground is prepped for planting crops! Also got the tank nearly empty so I can fill it with fresh fuel in ~October when I need to use it again lol
Chainsaw is the other thing that doesn’t get used a lot, but that has a super slow leak so if you leave it with half a tank, it’ll be empty in a few months. Lawn mower I switched to battery powered and unfortunately I don’t have a snow blower, I have to push my own snow :(
Though I think Makita makes a snowblower attachment for their weedwhacker multitool thingies so I might get one of those if my weedwhacker can run it. One fifth the price of a proper Husqvarna one.
Yeah, in the EU there’s a law that petrol has to be 10% non-fossil energy for 95 and 5% for 98 IIRC. Now, most stations skirt by it by producing “green” natural gas or just buying clean energy certificates or whatever it is they do, but when the law came out, there was a big deal because it turns out a lot of older cars aren’t cleared for E10. I imagine even fewer are for E15.
It’s not so much that it’d kill the engine. That’s unlikely to happen for MOST engines. What it will do is destroy the fuel hoses. And if you have a stupid early direct injection petrol engine with a membrane based high pressure fuel pump (fuck you, GM! I think a few others used that design too though), that pump’s not gonna like ethanol. If the high pressure fuel pump fails and your engine runs lean, that might indeed kill an engine though.
Yeah I only run 98 (Australia, no ethanol) in my MK6 golf. I’d love to be able to run E85 or E10 but that requires new hoses and an ECU tune. I’d do the hardware myself and have a shop handle the ECU, however time is such a valuable thing these days.
98 around here is approx 2.15 / L or 5.80~ per galon. E85 is similar in price to 98, while E10 is around 1.70.
If that’s in AUD, people round here would kill for that. We’re at about 1.80 euros per liter here, but it goes above 2 every now and then. Diesel and Petrol are roughly the same price and no real difference between 95 and 98 either.
Our fuel prices are subsidized by the government currently. They were climbing for a while when I was walking / riding so I’m not over how mad they had become. Back in the car during rain / shit weather but prices seem much more acceptable currently.
In Norway, 98 is still ethanol free for older cars and engines only used seasonally like lawn mowers and snow plowers.
95 is of course (up to) 10% and that’s completely fine for anything even remotely modern and in use every now and then.
Like you said: hoses don’t like the ethanol, and it’s hydroscopic which is what can cause issues if left in for 6 months every year.
In Estonia, they straight up recommended getting alkylate petrol for lawn mowers and such when the law came that 95 should be 10% ethanol and 98 5%. That stuff is pretty expensive. But since the law had a loophole in it, nearly no chain sells ethanol in their fuels at this point (though there are a few that will sell you high ethanol content fuel for racecar use, I think it was E85)
GM’s Z22YH can’t handle it for an example. Opel used it in the Zafira B and Vectra C up till 2010. Once you upgrade it to use Renault’s F5R engine’s high pressure fuel pump for better reliability, it’ll work, since Renault/Bosch engineers were sober when it was designed, as opposed to GM/Siemens.
There are a few other manufacturers who claim their cars made in the 00s or early 10s don’t take E10, but I cba to look for the list. To me that’s still “remotely modern” since I grew up poor enough that my first car was older than myself lol
Technically I don’t think you should regularly leave fuel in that long even if it’s ethanol free. Though I’ve never had bad fuel kill any of my equipment, oddly enough. I’ve got a rototiller that gets used twice a year and it doesn’t even take the entire tank each time and I’ve never drained it. I’ve only used ethanol free on it though.
Yeah they recommended the same alkylate here.
I have to admit: I know very little of GM engines, and they sell very few cars here. It’s becoming even less relevant as EV’s are just dominating completely, passing 97% here last month.
For me personally it’s the snow blower and motorcycles, but both of those are new enough to handle E10. I still give them 98 as they sometimes have to sit idle due to weather, and we have winter from October to April.
I’ve heard the same about petrol being stored, but I’ve never had issues either. At least a year seems to be more than OK, but that is always 98.
95 E10 might be worse as it absorbs water over time…
Hope your rototiller works fine next time you use it !
Hmm, round here GM (Opel and Saab) was very common in the 00s. Now Saab is long gone and Opel was sold to Stellantis.
It worked fine, used it today, just before the rain so now the ground is prepped for planting crops! Also got the tank nearly empty so I can fill it with fresh fuel in ~October when I need to use it again lol
Chainsaw is the other thing that doesn’t get used a lot, but that has a super slow leak so if you leave it with half a tank, it’ll be empty in a few months. Lawn mower I switched to battery powered and unfortunately I don’t have a snow blower, I have to push my own snow :(
Though I think Makita makes a snowblower attachment for their weedwhacker multitool thingies so I might get one of those if my weedwhacker can run it. One fifth the price of a proper Husqvarna one.