Monday, April 20, 2009

Check engine light.

I guess I pushed the ethanol levels a little too far. I got a check engine light the other day.

This is pretty consistant. I got CEL's at 40% before, that's where I think that I am now.

On the positive side, depsite the CEL, the car drives great. No hesitation whatsoever.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Nice ride at the E85 pump!

A guy with a Chrysler Aspen filled up after me. It's a flex fuel vehicle.

tank # 38

I filled up with 7 gallons of E85 (@$1.90) and 6.4 gallons of 87 octane (@$1.94). I'm running about 40.35% ethanol in the tank.

It came pretty close to throwing a code. I saw 25 on long term fuel trim a couple of times. But I'm pretty sure that, if I was going to get a code, I'd have gotten it by now.

Seeing as how the price of E85 hasn't changed in over a month, I'm pretty sure that they're still selling winter blend E85 (at 70% ethanol content). Based on my LTFT, I think that there's no question that it is winter blend.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

I meet a Drunken Kraut at Meijer

First of all, I had to wait for the E85 pump. A lady was filling up a flex fuel Impala. Haven't seen ANYONE at the E85 pump in awhile. Now that there's a 25 cent per gallon difference in prices, maybe demand is picking up.

Then, as I'm pumping, a guy in a late model BMW 330i pulls up behind me. As I finish and drive over to the gas pump, he slides in and puts a couple gallons in. Then he too drives over to a regular pump and fills the rest of the way up.

He came over and asked, "are you doing the same thing I'm doing"? Turns out that he has a new 335i on order, and is messing around with E85 because of the turbos. He said that he puts about 25% ethanol in there. No problems thus far.

And to make things stranger... he works at the same place I do. With a couple thousand employees, it's hard to know everybody.

Tank # 37

I filled up at Meijer yesterday. I pusjed it to 7.000 gallons of E85 and 6.73 gallons of 87 octane. I had 2.67 gallons left from the last tank. It works out to 39.82% ethanol, and 95 octane. E85 was $1.90 a gallon, and 87 skyrocketed to $2.16.

I got 25.8 mpg on the last tank at 36 average mph. I drove to Midway once, I had a lot of highway miles on there. That's why I went through the tank so fast. I'm also working Saturday's, and I'm driving a little longer to work, to hit Duncan Donuts in the morning.

tank #36

I filled up with 14.914 gallons of premium at Meijer on the 1st of April. My tank was 12.29% ethanol, and octane was 93 on the dot.

I was running really late, and didn't have time to mess with two pumps.