95E10 fuel

D

domsz4

Veteran
i dont want to spark off a big debate about which fuel as frankly on the cap it says 92-102 or summat and the mileage i did this weekend (~1700) 95 was going in and thats that.

i just want to know if it is ok to use the 10% bioethanol stuff or not without any damage.

i wasnt convinced so just used the normal 95 stuff and the guy in the petrol station was giving me a funney enough look as it was after i had stood there with her indoors pointing at which one for 5 mins. (she wouldnt pay for the 102 stuff saying i was going fast enough as it was)
 
IIRC when the 10% ethanol fuel was announced to becoming widespread in the UK, BMW said their "modern" vehicles were safe to run on it, I dont know which models or how modern they were reffering to tho.
 
Actually ignore the above post, i've just found 2 articles which state all models of BMW cars, irrespective of age are fine to run on E10 :thumbsup:

http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/03/07/bmw-backs-the-introduction-of-super-e10-fuel-in-germany-and-europe/

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/bmw-cars-can-cope-with-e10-fuel-32393.html

Even tho were getting 5% less petrol, I somehow doubt it will be 5% cheaper tho lol :headbang:
 
http://www.carsguide.com.au/tools-and-advice/hints-and-tips/can_my_car_use_e10

Whilst the engine may be safe I understand the problem with E10 was its drying effect on any rubber in the fuel system/pump and the lower calorific value meaning less MPG. I'm not sure how much injector pulse duration the DME/ECU can adapted to compensate for E10 fuels with Lambda feedback; Tesco 99 fuel provided by Green Energy uses 5% ethanol from sugar cane so E5 seems to work ok but I have always noted a reduction in MPG.

If it was much cheaper to offset this then I would understand the point of it but paying similar prices to get less milage doesn't quite add up. On the plus side it does help the octane rating for a nice bit of ignition timing advance.

A bit of wiki searching yields the following energy densities for comparision.

Gasoline (petrol)
46.4 MJ/Kg
34.2 MJ/Litre

Gasohol E10 (10% ethanol 90% gasoline by volume)

43.54 MJ/Kg
33.18 MJ/Litre


Gasohol E85 (85% ethanol 15% gasoline by volume)

33.1 MJ/Kg
25.65 MJ/Litre


Diesel fuel/residential heating oil

46.2 MJ/Kg
37.3 MJ/Litre

:thumbsup:
 
I wasn't sure so I stuck to the 5% stuff. The 10 was cheaper by a bit I think 8 euros or summat but really i dint see the point if it lost mpg. Performamce was still pretty damn good on 95e5 so no real concerns there either.
Can't say I noticed a difference in consumption on the 5 and I was fairly caning it when I could. I just wondered that was all. I've not seen it here yet this was in Germany.
 
I do believe that auto makers switched to Silicone o-rings in the HP fuel systems long ago. As even regular 100% gas can dry out rubber o-rings as well, just not as fast as alcohol. Also, with the fuel injection nozzles being so close to the combustion chamber. The rubber seals couldn't take the heat. Most cars will run fine on E10. But it just comes down to a zero sum gain point. The main selling point of the E10 was that it does not come from OPEC. But it has been shown that using corn and other food crops for biofuel. Not only raises the cost of food. But it requires more energy to grow/harvest/ship/refine it than it can produce. And consumes huge amounts of water to grow and refine. :thumbsdown:
 
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