[…] However, a useful point emeges – Michael may have misread it the leaflet! He said ‘<em style=”font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;”>The engine is explicitly stated to be unsuitable for fuels with more than 5% Methanol content …‘ Thing is E5 and E10 contain Ethanol, not Methanol, so the engine might be OK.
No, Dave … Michael did not misread the leaflet
Pleased to hear it!
I quoted the full text from the Drivers Handbook, which covers all three options, specifically in the hope of avoiding this confusion.
In which case, why is the topic entitled ‘E5 Petrol [please discuss]’? And what are the three options – I only see two?
The fact that the UK fuel presently uses Ethanol does not guarantee that it always will.
True, but it doesn’t alter the price of fish; your leaflet doesn’t cover what happens if government or the market switch to petrol other than E5 or E10. My guess is they’re more likely to go for E25 than a Methanol blend, but no sign of that at the moment.
Sorry but ”the engine might be OK” is not a useful comment.
I suggest it is. Not possible from the information presented to confirm positively that this car definitely runs without problems on E10.
- May not matter, but the clip starts with an unresolved ‘if’. Does the car have a RON95 label or not?
- There’s a second ‘if’ in the Gasoline/Ethanol blends advice. ‘Blends of this type may be used in your vehicle if they are no more than 10% ethanol.’ In other words, low risk burning E5, but E10 is right on the limit.
Looking good, unless point 2 is a worry, but more research needed.
MichaelG.
A few posters comment they’ve been running old bangers on E10 without problems. Sorry but their input is low-value. An E5 only car doesn’t fall apart the moment someone gives it a whiff of of E10! It might pink, though most EMUs will hide that. The big hidden problem is that any seal or pipework that’s not alcohol resistant will start rotting from the inside out, probably slowly. The owner is blissfully unaware until he spots a fault like a pool of petrol under the car. He might never realise – if 25% of vehicles run on E10 fail prematurely, the problem is real, even though 75% of owners got away with it. In general personal experience of this kind of problem isn’t much cop: you need a sample size of at least 1000, and it mustn’t be self-selecting.
Dave