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Sunday's Child - Nikolas
Could the Cause of Your Car Problems be the Fuel Your Filling It Up With? 7/6/12
Gary Hinterlong
CBS7 News
July 6, 2012
Have you noticed your car isn't working as well as it should or you feel like you're not getting as much out of your car as you used to? It could be what kind of fuel you're using and when you're filling up.
According to an Odessa auto service company, they have recently seen a problem in cars coming in for tune-ups that have been worn by the amount of ethanol in the fuel. Not all cars work well on ethanol blended fuels, especially older cars.
Another possibility, when you're filling up gas tank.
If you wait to fill up your car when it's nearly empty, you're more likely to have sediment in the gasoline make its way into your engine, causing problems, according to experts.
One way around that is filling up your car when it's half empty or you have a quarter of a tank left. That should keep any sediment in the gasoline from reaching your engine.
One surprising tip is look around at what's going on at the gas station when you fill up. Experts tell CBS7 that when the tanker truck is filling up the gas station's tank under the pumps, it's stirring up the sediment in the tank and that's what you're pumping into your gas tank. Some local mechanics wait a while after the tanker truck is finished to fill up.
On that topic, CBS7 is told that you can also help your car by filling up at stations that sell a lot of gasoline as those tanks are more likely to have been replaced recently with tanks that are designed to give you cleaner gasoline.
If you're seeing your check engine light come on, one easy thing to check before heading to the service station is your gas cap. If the cap isn't on tight, it can cause an emissions problem and the light will come on.
If that doesn't work, look into having a shop look at your engine to make sure it's not a bigger problem.