Calgary Nissan Dealers That Care: Stadium Warns of Excessive Ethanol

When you pull your car into a fueling station in Calgary and swipe your card at the pump, you expect to put gasoline into your tank. The truth is that you are putting gasoline into your gas tank – mostly. You are also filling your gas tank with ethanol, though. While a little ethanol is not bad for your car, too much may cause damage over time.

Ethanol: What is it?

Ethanol is an alcohol derived from corn that is added to gasoline. In Alberta, gasoline producers are required to have at least 5 percent of their fuel, regardless of the grade, be ethanol. That means that every time you go to the pump, at least 5 percent of what you are putting in your tank is ethanol.

This is only a minimum average, however, and you may be putting a lot more ethanol into your tank than 5 percent. Gasoline stations do not have to notify drivers that there is ethanol in their fuel, as long as it contains no more than 10 percent. Worse yet, these are yearly averages. Sometimes ethanol can make up as much as 20 per cent of your fuel.

Ethanol: Its Advantages

There are several reasons why ethanol is used in fuel. While there are lobbyists in both Canada and the United States driving law makers to require more ethanol, ethanol does have some advantages over gasoline. Ethanol is:

• Cheaper to produce than gasoline

• Can be used as fuel

• Made from a renewable source (corn)

Ethanol: Its Disadvantages

For individual drivers, though, ethanol has several disadvantages when compared to traditional gasoline. The first disadvantage you may notice is a lower fuel economy. Ethanol is not as efficient as gasoline, so your car can not go as far on a litre of ethanol-containing fuel as it can on a liter of pure gasoline.

A more serious issue (although no one likes reduced fuel economy) is that ethanol can damage your car’s engine. Over time, ethanol causes more wear and tear on an engine than gasoline does. In newer cars, it often does not have a perceivable effect on the engine. In older cars, though, ethanol can cause serious problems over time.

Ethanol Problems: Call Calgary’s Stadium Nissan

Because all fuel in Alberta, by law, must contain at least 5 percent ethanol, you cannot completely avoid it. You can try to only fill your tank at stations that have fuel averaging 5 percent ethanol, rather than 10 percent. After years of driving, even this may not be enough, though.

If you hear strange noises in your engine compartment, or if your car has gradually begun to run rougher and rougher, call Calgary’s Stadium Nissan. The technicians at Stadium Nissan will gladly take a look at your fuel system, to see whether ethanol may be the culprit. If it is, they can clean your fuel system to combat ethanol’s long-term effects.