Modern gasoline expires after only 3 months???

I just learned the hard way that modern gasoline expires after only 90 days, and will no longer ignite in a combustion engine afterwards due to the expiration of added ethanol that many people aren't even aware of.

I decided to tinker with my car for the first time in about a year, but the engine wouldn't start. I figured that the fuel pump froze because it sat in the yard for a year and didn't put much more thought into it. Then, today I pulled out my push mower because the riding mower is getting fixed. The tank was empty, with just some gas in the fuel line to the carb. I filled it up with fresh ethanol free gas that I recently got from a special pump about 30 minutes from my house. Well, the lawnmower wouldn't start either. I finally got it to start every now and then, but only for a couple of seconds at a time.

After I checked everything and found nothing wrong, I called a lawnmower dealer to see if they had any suggestions. They asked me if I used pump gas with ethanol before I parked it, and proceeded to explain that pump gas now needs a stabilizing agent added or it will expire very quickly when compared to older gas. Sure enough, I drained the gas, which was only about 5% expired gasoline, I flushed it from the carb, added fresh gas, and it started right up.

So, not only does this garbage, modern gasoline expire after 90-100 days, but just an extremely small amount of expired gas can greatly degrade the efficiency of new gasoline.

Underground reserviours at gas station are only emptied if they sell out of gas, which nearly never happens. Just imagine how much lower the true octane rating of your gas is, and how much better your gas mileage would be if your gas wasn't almost certainly mixed with expired garbage gasoline.

Sorry for the long post, but I just feel that this is something that more people should be aware of. I'm going to use ethanol free gas pumps whenever I can. Unfortunately, gasoline without ethanol added has become a rare thing...

http://www.fuel-testers.com/expiration_of_ethanol_gas.html

Good read, I wasn't aware of gasoline expired because ethanol. It can't be good to have all that expired gas sitting under gas stations. I never believed the ethanol hype even since Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The car needs to be reinvented. We don't need a 3000lbs vehicle to transfer a 180lbs individual. Hyperloop One sounds promising; they're the tubes from Futurama.

I don't think it's 3 months. I park my mustang for the winter, usually 4 months give or take the weather and have never had a fuel problem, I've been doing this for 15 years now.

You have to use stabilizer and for any small engine especially, Ethanol is the main cause of small engine problems. Also fuel left over will ruin o rings, rubber hoses..etc. Typically, any engine that is stored, you want to drain all fuel from lines. Fuel stored in sealed cans, always use stabilizer.

Old fuel will still combust, it's highly volatile but obviously with any engine that hasn't been started in a while, you want fresh fuel because old fuel is harder to combust, moisture causes issues as well which is the cause of phase separation. Octane has nothing to do gas mileage, you only use the rating according to your combustion ratio. The octane number is it's resistance to knock/ping during combustion. If your car is rated at 87, you use 87 only...higher is a waste. Ethanol raises the octane rating and Ethanol sucks, it ruins motors but it's cheaper....it's like watering down your milk. Back in the day, we had leaded gasoline and most stations had a gas jocky that would ask if you want your oil..etc checked and put fuel in your tank for ya...even sell ya smokes regardless of age. Those stations were also mechanic shops, greasy ones with shady mechanics but they were convenient.

Also, different environments give different results. Gas stored in underground tanks (gas stations) can last a very long time because it's sealed and temperature stable. Moisture and the light/day cyclic temp changes is what causes phase separation, that's why you use stabilizer in any fuel can or your car's fuel tank when stored for more than 100 days...or store it underground deep enough 3ft or deeper which keeps temps stable.

think about the amount of available energy in the gasoline that is completely wasted. the automobile itself is only able to extract a fraction of the available energy in the fuel to do mechanical work. and the vast majority of that work is to just move the damn car itself...

solution?

buy a motorcycle!

Ethanol only accounts for about 5% of fuel consumption. It isn't as big an issue as you think. Stations that carry Ethanol follow certain guidelines to insure the fuel is in usable condition. So long as the tank is refilled regularly you won't see any issues in the quality of fuel. Not to mention they use stabilizers in their tanks and all fuel passes through filters in the pump before entering your vehicle. That being said Ethanol is terrible when compared to actual gasoline so I'd recommend just using normal gas instead.

Normal gasoline has it's own separate issues. Most deal with the condensation of water and the evaporation of important elements in the fuel. About the only time you'll discover any issues in your gasoline is when it sits in your car engine for a long period of time because your cars system is far from air tight and subject to lots of changing temperatures. In the end, electric cars are the future so gas will eventually be a thing of the past.

I remember when they talked about upping the ethanol rating to 15% that they specifically talked about how gas powered equipment like lawnmowers and leaf blowers would require non-ethanol sources of gasoline, and problems with modern pumps holding about .6 gallons of gas in the line, so say you go bump 10 gallons of premium gas after someone pumped regular, .6 gallons of gas going into your car are from the regular, which is bad if you're pumping in to equipment that only holds a small volume of gas, like motorcycles/scooters, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, etc.

As for problems relating to modern ethanol expiring, I'd imagine we'd be hearing about more problems as a result of this happening. That's not the case, this site is obviously one of those ad-articles you clicked on at the bottom of one of these pages or that of another site. They're selling gas testing kits for your cars, they're out to convince you that you need to buy their product and then offering you a means to buy it.

And, to save you the trouble so you don't fall for it later, there's no such thing as vitamin B-17, it doesn't cure cancer, it's just cyanide. There's no science as to its health benefits (there are none morons!); this belief is about as old and unscientific as the modern day flat earth society. So, if you're going to be reading ad-articles; STOP!!

And, worth noting, when you let machinery sit idle for long periods of time, they tend to not work as well because they're not properly maintained, they're not lubed where they need to be, they're mechanically dry all over. They're going to need some love to get running to full capacity.

Yeah ethanol gas sucks. you're paying for gas with less energy in it.

no it actually boosts the vehicles power, also cuts down on emissions

I don't know about that dude. I mean i have a 44 gallon tank on my truck, and i don't use it all right away. I'm sure i've used it after 3 months and its starts ever time. Although my fuel pump was replaced last year ? Dang, i hope that wasn't it, and i just wasted money. This is shocking, it just can't be true. Does Chevron with Techron count ? lol ..

I knew it expired, but I thought it was 6 months or so, not 3 months.

Yeah, same here.

Didn't use my car for 5 months, just doing a start up once a week, but the gas in it was fine.

My dad's old Pontiac sat untouched for 20 years. After 20 years, he removed the stuff that had been piled up on the body and tried to crank the engine. With 20 year old gasoline in the tank, it cranked right up. We took it for a spin around the subdivision, spinning the old tires at every stop sign, using 20 year old gas. The shelf life of this ethanol tainted stuff doesn't sit well with me.

This gas was thoroughly expired after one year. The brand of gas and quality of the station tanks may matter, as well.

I called Briggs and Stratton to discuss the issue. They told me that ethanol fuel should be drained and replaced after only one month.

The gas in my car had been in it for 2-3 years, so the brand may matter. My lawnmower had cheap gas in it. The gas station that it came from may matter, as well. Some fuel station tanks may not protect the fuel as well.

No. It doesn't boost power and like i said has less energy. https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml

First I'm hearing of it. I don't know cars very well, but it might be something else.