E10 Petrol and cars made before 2011

Sorry to hear that @Fat Controller
Here in Germany it is obligatory for manufacturers to make the tools and servicing manuals available for every garage, no matter what kind of vehicles they service. And if they follow the servicing instructions, they count as "professionally serviced".
Makes a big difference as the "free garages" are usually a lot cheaper than their official counterparts.
But the expensive ones still survive because they live off people's laziness and fear of choosing another garage.

 

I've never paid a garage for a service on any vehicle in over 45 years of driving.
I like to know exactly what oils and fluids are used.
I've always changed Brake discs and pads, track rod ends etc myself too (Haynes manuals)
However, I do need the garage with any dashboard EML's that pop up, or anything that needs electronic diagnosis. I've never progressed as far as my own fault code reader.
Whilst on the subject, my car has thrown up a tyre pressure warning light rear offside.
The pressure is correct, so any advise on that would be gratefully received!

 

Thanks for that, I'll check it out.
I'll be delighted if i can reset it rather than needing a new tpms sensor.. Fingers crossed!

 

I suppose my car is a bit out of date now, but it uses the ABS in order to give you a tyre pressure warning.
It never says which tyre is the problem one but that is usually obvious when you look at them.
The reset is simple, even I can do it

But as things become more sophisticated more problems seem to occur.

 

Good post there @Fat Controller but....

After a bit of research, I can say that we have had E10 here since 2007. "Sandys Sources" tell me that its also been sold from UK petrol pumps since mid 2011. In regards to E10 damaging petrol pipes. My Stihl Brush Cutter, now over 30 years old, has its pipe immersed in the stuff. Its still the original one. As are the ones that are used in my 25 year old Honda F510 tiller, and my 22 year old lawn mower. Therefore, I suspect that is nothing more than an internet myth.

In regards to petrol going off. Its commonly written on internet that this happens, but being honest, agian from my own experience, it doesnt. At the end of the season, I regularly have petrol remaining in a jerry can. This is in case its needed for the snow blower when we have a bad winter. If its not used, then it get put in one of the machines at the strt of the gardening season, and used. Again, I suspect this to be yet another internet myth. In this case, possibly due to people not being able to maintain their machinery properly, or perhaps even managing to get dirt or water into the fuel tank when refuelling. Its easier to blame the fuel, rather than ones own incompetence.

Another thing about this. For Two Strokes its possible to buy Aspen 2. Here its a 50:1 premix. How long as that been standing on the shelf with the seller? They're not likely to throw it away due to the Best Before date having expired. Remember here though that Mineral based two stroke il should never be used with E10. Only Synthetic, and a name brand at that.

The octane change thing. Go to a petrol station where 98 octane fuel is available, buy some, and what you get is E5. Add enough ethanol to make it E10, and guess what? You have 95 octane. In other words, in this example only, it lowers octane ratings. Continue adding ethanol though, until the fuel becomes E85, and the opposite happens. The effective octane can get close to 130! You will however need to use 30-35% more E85 to get the same power as with E10. Unless the engine is modified to suit. Do that though and more fuel is used anyway.

Modern cars are in reality a lot easier to maintain than those of old. Electronics are simply remove and replace if the go wrong. Assuming that someone is capable of doing bit of fault finding that is. On the Dodge that I used to have, fault finding was done simply by plugging in the OBD, and it told what needed replacing. No doubt its similar with other cars.

The thing I do agree with however is that many are not capable of stripping and rebuilding engines, transmissions and othe mechanical components. @Fat Controller knows who I am referring to here, but this person took a 3 speed auto transmission dating from the 1960's, rebuilt it into a 6 speed with "Tiptronic" type operation. That is, either fully auto or manual, and in this case the possibility of doing a 1-3-5 or 2-4-6 auto change.

 

@Sandy Ground.. Granted older cars would generally give more trouble than modern ones, but for the average home mechanic they were much easier to fix.
Ok, so you can buy your own OBD reader but firstly that needs to be a high end one.
And then how many times does it flash up 3 different fault codes. You proceed to fix those items and the car still shows problems.
I'm an old git who's got no confidence in electronic fault finding with modern motors.
These days I'll tackle the mechanical bits like always, and then run the car to a good garage when warning lights start showing up

 

Good OBD's are not expensive nowadays, and they save money the first time they are used. As far as showing incorrect faults go, so far mine has not managed to do that.

Edit: I'm a tight fisted old git, and mney is better in my pocket than in the one of a garage owner... Electronics are nothing more than a simple challenge that can be overcome.

 

My stop start only operates with a fully charged battery so it rarely kicks in during winter for instance.. I wonder if your alternator is putting out the max charge.. Then again that would no doubt put a warning light up..
During summer it'll only operate on long runs.
(I'm sure you've considered this already)
TBH i find this particular feature annoying and i often press the override button