Hello everyone! So, just a couple days ago I was doing some research on E85 fuel (85% ethanol) because it is very cheap in my area, around $1.70 per gallon. And after a little bit of looking, I found that a lot of people run it in their non-flex-fuel cars just fine. Went to several different websites and blogs where people ran it in their regular, non modified cars just fine. This was not the case for me however, and I'll explain what happened.
The first time I tried it, I had about 1/8 of a tank of regular gas left, and decided to put in a couple gallons of E85 just to see how my car fared with it. It did well! No abnormal sounds, no higher temp readings, no engine light. Albeit, slightly poorer mpg than normal. So, after driving around with it for a day I had no issues, and the next day, I decided to fill it up with the E85, since it was so cheap. (only costed ~$14 to fill up from 1/4 of a tank) It was this time, on my way back home that the check engine light came on... That had me nervous right away, but I still didnt notice any abnormal behavior from the car. So I just kept on driving, and I noticed I was getting much lower mpg than normal, averaged 20 with mostly city driving, when normally I would get between 28-32 the way I drive. After I got home from that trip, It sat for a few hours, then went another ~30 mile trip and back home without issue. It wasnt 'till I started it up yesterday night that the engine had a little shudder right after it turned over. By that time I had used about a quarter of a tank of fuel, and decided to fill it the rest of the way with regular gasoline (which is already 10% ethanol in my area) to sort-of dilute the E85, since my engine clearly isn't running well on it.
I was having issues, but the car still worked observably fine, just very inefficiently, and with an engine light. BTW, at this point I had determined I would never use this fuel again, because clearly my engine doesn't take it well, and the poor MPG eats up any cost savings from the cheapness of the fuel. But this morning... Oh boy.. Got going to a friends house and what happens? Rev limiter wont let me rev higher than 3k RPM and I cant go any faster than 20-30 MPH... I had to crawl my way into a trailer park (on a road with a 55 MPH speed limit) where I called roadside assistance to have it towed. Lady said it would be about 2 hours, so I decided to crawl down to a little auto shop down the road to ask if they could help me with it, and they couldnt. So I went ahead and got it towed to the Hyundai dealership. The car is now sitting in the back of the dealership, and it's scheduled for a diagnostic on monday, which is costing me $125 itself...
Just sharing my experience so no one messes up like I have. I feel like a complete dumbass, but lesson learned I guess. :/
Does anyone have any idea how much they are likely to charge me to fix this? That would be a huge help...
The first time I tried it, I had about 1/8 of a tank of regular gas left, and decided to put in a couple gallons of E85 just to see how my car fared with it. It did well! No abnormal sounds, no higher temp readings, no engine light. Albeit, slightly poorer mpg than normal. So, after driving around with it for a day I had no issues, and the next day, I decided to fill it up with the E85, since it was so cheap. (only costed ~$14 to fill up from 1/4 of a tank) It was this time, on my way back home that the check engine light came on... That had me nervous right away, but I still didnt notice any abnormal behavior from the car. So I just kept on driving, and I noticed I was getting much lower mpg than normal, averaged 20 with mostly city driving, when normally I would get between 28-32 the way I drive. After I got home from that trip, It sat for a few hours, then went another ~30 mile trip and back home without issue. It wasnt 'till I started it up yesterday night that the engine had a little shudder right after it turned over. By that time I had used about a quarter of a tank of fuel, and decided to fill it the rest of the way with regular gasoline (which is already 10% ethanol in my area) to sort-of dilute the E85, since my engine clearly isn't running well on it.
I was having issues, but the car still worked observably fine, just very inefficiently, and with an engine light. BTW, at this point I had determined I would never use this fuel again, because clearly my engine doesn't take it well, and the poor MPG eats up any cost savings from the cheapness of the fuel. But this morning... Oh boy.. Got going to a friends house and what happens? Rev limiter wont let me rev higher than 3k RPM and I cant go any faster than 20-30 MPH... I had to crawl my way into a trailer park (on a road with a 55 MPH speed limit) where I called roadside assistance to have it towed. Lady said it would be about 2 hours, so I decided to crawl down to a little auto shop down the road to ask if they could help me with it, and they couldnt. So I went ahead and got it towed to the Hyundai dealership. The car is now sitting in the back of the dealership, and it's scheduled for a diagnostic on monday, which is costing me $125 itself...
Just sharing my experience so no one messes up like I have. I feel like a complete dumbass, but lesson learned I guess. :/
Does anyone have any idea how much they are likely to charge me to fix this? That would be a huge help...