Austarion

Do any of you have any experience with the new ethanol blends?

There seems to be nothing on this board about ethanol apart from SpidersWeb's quote from an old manual saying: "Gasahol - a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% unleaded gasoline may be used in your Mitsubishi. You should switch back to unleaded gasoline or try another brand of Gasahol if you experience driveability problems"

Petrol prices near me look like this today:
Shell/Mobil/etc 95 RON PULP: $1.28
United 95 RON PULP w ethanol: $1.09

Optimax/Mobil/etc 98 RON: $1.30+
United 98 RON w ethanol: $1.15

Almost $15 per tank difference certainly makes me curious.

i ran E5 or e10 a few times ,cant rememba wat one, but i found i got better mileage on it. was good for wen i was doin 1K kms a week

Kremmen wrote: United 95 RON PULP w ethanol: $1.09
United 98 RON w ethanol: $1.15

http://www.unitedpetroleum.com.au/Copy% ... mpany1.htm

Those fuels are Gasahol (E10), and it is written in my book that Starions will run Gasahol. However did some other reading, and albeit not on Starions, but some people have reported fuel pumps failing, or corrosion. It could be just bollocks though or limited to certain cars like how the Leaded -> Unleaded change was. Its not recommend for cars prior to 1986 unless stated in the handbook its ok, which it does say in the book, but still not a 100% on the idea. So I'll let you make up your own mind.

Some more reading from another forum I found when searching about.

http://ausrotary.dntinternet.com/forums ... ef0a58c823

When ethanol first surfaced a few years ago, heaps of fuel pumps (vn - vp commodores etc) had failures. These pumps are fragile enough as it is but the ethanol certainly didn't help. There has been a big back flip on whether its any good or not by the governments, but from what i have seen (working in the service dept of a car dealership) there seems to be alot of coincidental failures not long after people have switched to efuels..... :?

I've been using it for ages! My stazz runs fine! Shit load cheaper and it can't be that bad if Mitsubishi officially recommend it, as do Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Toyota, Holden, Ford etc... :?

as a former employee of a toyota dealer, no they don't and holden strongly recommend against using it after ther fuel pump dramas...considering there is a percentage limit of ethanol allowed in fuel doesn't that say enough?

The ausrotary thread is interesting, but look at the maybes all over the place and the lack of proper analysis. After all, if a fuel pump lasts a little less long and you're saving $'00s a year on fuel, it might still be worth it. Or it might not. It would be nice if there were some reliable research not funded by the sugar industry or the oil industry.