My BMW mechanic told me that I needed to find a source for Premium Gasoline that does NOT contain Ethanol. He told me that the Ethanol is responsible for gumming up serveral engine parts which destroys gas milage and causes the engine to perform poorly. I'm have a very difficult time find premium gasoline without Ethanol here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Any suggestions?
All I can suggest is write your congressman and get them to change this stupid policy. You can thank the ag lobby for the proliferation of ethanol into our gasoline. Here in Eastern PA I cannot get fuel without it. BMW sells fuel injection cleaner that they recommend every 3,000 miles. It is cheap, I would suggest using it. GR
Good luck in finding it. Mike Miller (TechTalk) recommends the use of Shell fuel. I've never seen the "Ethanol added" sticker on their pumps here in the Southeast. Mike told me that BMW engineers had mentioned to him that even with ethanol Shell seems to handle it better.
I regularly pump at Shell and every gas pump I've seen at Shell had the "10% Ethanol" sticker on it. Here in CT, I haven't ever seen a gas pump that didn't have at least that warning label on it.
It all depends on where you live, from Wikipedia: "The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires that 4 billion gallons of "renewable fuel" be used in 2006 and this requirement will grow to a yearly production of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.[47] In the United States, ethanol is most commonly blended with gasoline as a 10% ethanol blend nicknamed "gasohol". This blend is widely sold throughout the U.S. Midwest, and in cities required by the 1990 Clean Air Act to oxygenate their gasoline during the winter. Ethanol and isobutene are also the feedstocks for ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), an oxygenate antiknock additive. The use of ethanol makes ETBE partially a biofuel, but also more expensive than the similar additive methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), made from methanol and isobutene"
No. You really should use a top tier fuel. Not all fuel distributors put the same quality additives in their gasoline. Gas all comes from the same place, refineries, but the distributors put their own additives in. GM, Honda, BMW, and some others went to the fuel distributors to address the lack of quality additives in gasoline. Top Tier Fuels is a result of that. I would try to go to a top tier fuel distributor if at all possible. Here is the website. http://www.toptiergas.com/ GR
+ 1 on Shell and BP gas too. My bike and Car seem to like them more, seemingly better mileage, smoother performance. I thought the ethanol thing was a federal law and everyone had to use it, stated on pumps or not.
Every pump I've seen in Virginia, DC, and Maryland has a diluted by 10% with useless ethanol sticker. I usually stick with Shell Premium for my car. I notice it doesn't pitch a fit with my ECU chip and crazy driving. It kind of upsets me that we are destroying food to make gas that sucks and creates more pollution due to inefficiency. I tell you what, if the government touched the Virgin Mary, she'd be a Ho in a week. Why don't we learn.
Here in Nebraska, we have a bunch of Ethanol Refineries, yet at our pumps there is only Mid grade (89-90 octane) with the Ethanol and it is always $0.10 cheaper than the regular unleaded (87 octane). Our premium is either 91 or 92 octane at most locations. We do have E85 as well, but you have to drive a flex fuel vehicle to utilize that. That said, it is almost a wash buying the $0.10 a gallon cheaper ethanol fuel because you get less MPG performance and have to fill up sooner. For the deposits, I really like the BG44K for removing any build up. It is not cheap, but damn it works well. Comparatively, it is cheaper than poor fuel economy or sluggish performance. I run a can every spring and the BMW dealership should carry it. Cheaper with your CCA discount. As far as damaging engine parts or whatever, I can't reply to that with any first hand experience.
