E5 Fuel Ok For Ls400?

[cleverdick]

Just wondering....

Given that regular petrol in the UK can contain up to 5% ethanol, is this an issue?

I've always used super unleaded in my '94 LS400 anyway, and I was glad to read that as of 2011, most brands of high octane did not contain ethanol. But this may have changed in recent years.

What is the concensus on this?

Has anyone on here (with an LS400) fallen foul of ethanol in their fuel?

Thinking back to 2007, I now wonder if the Tesco fuel fiasco was a "test" of acceptability [of ethanol in fuel] in the real world.

[Cotswold Pete]

As far as I recall from a brief period working with fuels, the level of Ethanol varies from 5% to 30% depending. I recall Morrisons mix was more than 5%.

Ethonal is cleaner, though slightly less energy dense.

I think if you have fuel mix greater than 30% then engines need to be tuned differently to ensure you burn all the ethanol.

I never noticed any better performance or fuel economy using higher octane, did it with a reasonably careful test, so just stick with lower octane.

Ethanol is cleaner than petrol, so in theory a mix is good, and never heard of anyone having problems.

I also recall that in past Tesco diesel was dirtier then average, and did notice when I had a few diesels that there was a slight downgrade in performance, but maybe that was me just knowing that Tesco diesel was not the best (may have all changed now.

The biggest variant with any fuel is how much water the garage collects in the tank, and as you get near the bottom, your likely to get a slightly higher water content, so with some of the recent floods, I trust garages have cleaned out tanks properly.

Be interested if there is any more up to date expertise on this forum, as my experiences were from about 6 years ago.

[Malc]

Hi, regularly on my recent Grand Tour of Spain and Portugal I had no option but to refuel using 95+E. And no running issues at all.

Malc

[Maduggo]

The only issue i know of is ethanol and plastic, especially plastic fuel tanks of the kind you see on big adventure style motorbikes, it slowly degrades the plastic over a few years.

Had to replace a tank on my big aprillia caponord after 4 years of ownership at £1200 for the new tank and just over £100 to have the tank internals stripped then specially coated to create a barrier to stop the plastic being attacked by the ethanol in the fuel.

This issue is well known and documented in the usa where ethanol is more commonly used.

[Cotswold Pete]

The only issue i know of is ethanol and plastic, especially plastic fuel tanks of the kind you see on big adventure style motorbikes, it slowly degrades the plastic over a few years.

Had to replace a tank on my big aprillia caponord after 4 years of ownership at £1200 for the new tank and just over £100 to have the tank internals stripped then specially coated to create a barrier to stop the plastic being attacked by the ethanol in the fuel.

This issue is well known and documented in the usa where ethanol is more commonly used.

Well never knew that.

Got me looking and found this web page - http://www.plasfuelsys.org/benefits-plastic-fuel-tanks/light-weight-fuel-tanks which makes me think modern cars will have rotted fuel tanks as we try to go greener.

If Audi's have plastic fuel tanks, what else has.