I was wondering if anyone here has used gasoline which contains ethanol. I didn't want to risk it but I was on fumes and didn't have a choice. Thanks.

 

I only use gas that contianes ethanol. As long as you don't have a mixture of more than 15% you are fine. ethanol is actully very good when mixed with standard fuel.

 

I am also using gas that contains ethynol (92 octane). I'm not sure what the percentage is, I've looked for it at the pump but it does not say. I will go in next time and ask the manager.

I have not noticed any issues performance wise with my car, seems to run very smooth.

When I first started using it I thought that I was getting less gas mileage with the ethynol. So I tried a couple of tanks of Chevron (92oct), and I actually think I got worse gas mileage with the Cheveron! So now I'm back to ethy, I continue to monitor and keep you guys posted.




2002 A6 2.7T
Cold weather package, ming blue, 20% tint all around

 

Here in MN all our gas has 10% ethanol in it. So I think your car will be just fine.

 

I guess 10% ethanol is a pretty much standard now. You will have to find a speciality gas stationthatwill carry petrol without ethanol. However, when you will switch to the one which has 15%, your gasmileage will go south. I have seen thegas stations those sell cheaper, are usually with 15%, likeLiberty and7-Eleven.

 

My car seems to run fine with ethanol (10% blend) but I do notice a significant drop in mileage, which in my experience has resulted in the cost benefit of ethanol being erased. I plan to run a few more tanks of ethanol in order to get another comparison, but most stations in my area only use ethanol on the mid-grade (89)fuels and since I run premium (92), it doesn't come with ethanol.

There are some stations in the area which do have a premium with ethanol that is a 93 octane, so I might try that and see how it does.

 

The manual talks about this some. I think the standard recommendation these days is up to 10% should be no problem. In addition toany decrease in mileage (which I can't verify) the main problem with ethanol is that it will eat away many of the rubber/plastic parts in the fuel system. As far as I know, all cars today are designed so that they can handle it. I use a gas (QuiK-Trip) that doesn't use ethanol, at least I don't think they do because it's not posted on the pumps, which I believe is a requirement.

 

Like Costner, my A6 runs fine with 10% ethanol but it gets less mpg. I prefer to use Shell or Mobil midrange. It runs fine on that, too, and I don't notice any difference in mpg using premium. I am not a lead foot so I've never experienced any pinging.