High gas prices have many scrambling to find the cheapest station around. Five stations in Las Vegas sell a fuel blend called E85. It is significantly cheaper per gallon, but not every car should use the ethanol and gasoline mixture.
That is where the problems come in. If you turn to the alternative and your car cannot handle it, it will literally eat through the engine from the inside out.
When people pull into the Town Center Grocery to fill up, $3.67 a gallon looks very appealing. But that price is for E85 gas, and many people don't have a car built to handle the alternative fuel.
A growing number of people are trying the fuel anyway. Scott Ramer from Findley Honda says it's a bad move, "We are seeing two to three a week. People come in with the check engine light on. We have a test we run. Lo and behold, they have E85 in their tanks."
If your car is not built for the gas alternative, E85 will erode away the rubber parts in the engine. Continued use of the wrong gas will mean more damage. Saving 52 cents per gallon will not be worth it when the repair bill comes.
"There are not a lot of cars out there that actually run on it," said Ramer. But the ones that do have distinct marks -- like the Flex Fuel label Chevy uses as an identifier. Also the gas cap is different.
"If you don't have a yellow gas cap, don't put E85 in it." That is the easiest way to know according to Ramer, "If you look at the Honda over here, which are not Flex Fuel vehicles, it's a black gas cap."
If your car cannot handle E85 and you use the fuel anyway, it may cost a lot more in repair bills for new injectors, fuel lines and rubber seals in the engine. E85 ready vehicles have the engine specially coated to combat corrosion.
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If you turn to the alternative and your car cannot handle it, it will literally eat through the engine from the inside out.
If your car is not built for the gas alternative, E85 will erode away the rubber parts in the engine.
