bluh

it’s past midnight and i’ve spent the better part of the evening at a car dealership. the short version:

traded in my 1995 volvo 850. bought a 2006 vw golf tdi (manual transmission, of course).

nice.

Gents & Dames –

Let me apologize for being such a zealot. I got all worked up into a froth over ethanol and my burgeoning petroleum guilt that I gleefully made the short drive into Indiana and grinning like an idiot, began to indiscriminantly fill my 850’s tank with E85. It worked beautifully for the first two tanks and I was understandably ecstatic – Hell yes, I’m helping local farmers! The environment! National Security! Pride! My wallet! Huzzah, tiny flags for everyone!

But this last top-off with pure E85 started making my car act a bit funny. Hesitation at low RPMs. Shifts weren’t as smooth. I simply thought the ethanol was loosening junk in the fuel lines and being clumsy with the clutch. No big deal. But on the way home last night, I got the dreaded Check Engine Light, an unholy amber rectilinear eye, staring me in the face with the truth. Three possibilities immediately came to mind:

1. I had loosened enough junk in the fuel system to clog the filter and the injectors weren’t getting quite enough fuel. No big deal.

2. The reduced amount of BTUs available in ethanol were finally catching up with me with this higher concentration in the tank and I either needed larger injectors or slightly more gasoline in the mix. No big deal.

3. Three tanks of elevated concentrations of ethanol had suddenly and irrepairably damaged my entire fuel system, all the way from the filler neck up to the injector nozzles had begun leaking, corroding and disintergrating. My car was completely ruined and I was completely boned, all because I tried a fuel the car was not designed to run on.

I got home, pulled out the bible, turned to the book of Fuel, chapter Fault Codes and read the code set in socket A2: 1-1-3 (bka 113 or 1 1 3). Temporary fuel mixture too weak. I immediately suspected the fuel filter being clogged and called around to find a new one. This morning, my Fram G7736 arrived at the local Murray’s Discount Auto Parts (kudos for them for ordering it arrive the next morning first thing), I quickly replaced the old filter and was on my way to work. And I’ll be damned if I didn’t get another CEL on the way to work.

Stopped off and topped up the tank with as much 87 octane gasoline as I could fit, read the same code from A2, reset it and went to work. At lunch, channeling that Bill Cosby skit (“You gotta drive it at about a hundred miles an hour to burn all that gunk out.” “Where am I gonna do that?” “Any side street.”), I took half an hour of hot laps around town and much to my delight, no CEL. Car isn’t hesitating anymore and is back to shifting normally. I think #2 was the culprit. Just for grins, I put in a bottle of Techron (on sale at Pep Boys) and one of Lucas’ Fuel System Cleaner.

I pulled out my propeller hat and slide rule and worked up some concentration figures:

Tank 1: ~25% ethanol. 25.22 mpg.
Tank 2: 46.40% ethanol. 25.33 mpg.
Tank 3: 73.46% ethanol. Set CEL, pulled 1 1 3 code from socket A2.
Tank 4: 63.81% ethanol. No CEL.

So somewhere between 63.81% and 73.46% ethanol, my engine couldn’t tolerate the lean mix and set the 113 code. I’m sheepishly eating crow already on the subject of ethanol, but I’ll wait until the drive home to find out if I’m done or I have another helping on my way.

The short version is this – despite years of folks thinking the contrary, it turns out ethanol is better for us and the environment than gasoline. End of story. I have read enough studies and papers on the Net Energy Value (NEV) of ethanol and the benefits it has for the environment, local economies, farmers, the atmosphere and reducing our dependence on oil to argue all goddamn day if necessary and cite articles, perform feats of thermodynamic calculations and berate you with facts and figures until you give in or run away screaming.

This plus a nearby E85 filling station means i will be burning at least 50% E85/50% E10 unleaded until further notice. Info and links follow.
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Of all the things I don’t worry much about with my car, number one on the list is how it looks. It has its share of dings, is missing the trim pieces on the passenger side and three interior door trim panels, the glovebox lid was crudely drilled through to gain access and I don’t remember the last time I waxed it, much less vacuumed it out.

Over the weekend, I went and got a medium stuffed crust pie from my local pizza establishment – greasy food is the best hangover cure ever. On the short drive back to the house, the containment vessel was breached and an ounce or so of pizza juice was leaked onto the passenger seat. Last night, I got around to cleaning it up with the extraction cleaner The Girl gave me for Christmas a few years ago. After getting rid of that spot, I went ahead and cleaned the rest of the passenger seat cushion for shits and grins. I was absolutely horrified by the putrid effluvent it was removing from the upholstery – the waste tank of the machine (a Bissell Little Green Deep Cleaner, if you must know) was slowly filling with a dark brown fluid.
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I swear to gawd, there’s a National Snow and Ice Data Center and goddamnit it that doesn’t make me feel national pride welling up in my chest.

Oh, sorry. It was a belch. Burritos, dig?

Got our first snow of the season last week, looks like more on the way for Thanksgiving.
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Goddamn that’s a big dump truck.

A late-model Nissan Maxima on fire will create a plume of smoke visible for miles.

It may have been an Altima. Regardless, it will snarl traffic for a long distance.