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I put E85 not realizing what it was the other day and since then my Civic's check engine light had come on and the car has been hesitating when accelerating. I have several codes. All 4 cylinders have been misfiring, system is thin and there's one more I can't remember. Guy at the auto part store said to replace fuel pump, spark plugs, fuel lines and fuel injector. Would like to get some feed back before I go off and buy all these parts. Thanks in advance!

 
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That sucks!!

I don't know if you need all that. I would drain the tank, clean the plugs, put fresh fuel in it and see what happens. You may need to replace things but it would be worth a try.

 
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Where would you start in terms of replacing things? Where would I see an improvement in the jerking. I was told if the car runs and starts then the pump is fine but I would like to get different opinions before I take that as my conclusion.

 
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How much e85 did you put in ??

You will likely need to get as much as possible of it out, then put in unleaded to dilute what e85 still left in tank.

 
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I put about 4 gallons and have since diluted it but I am still getting the engine light and jerking

 
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yeah, drain the tank and add as much gas as possible. the pump/pump screen, fuel filter, fuel lines, and anything upstream of those may be okay, as most of the parts have been designed to take a little ethanol. once you get new fuel, replace the spark plugs with new ones and you should be okay. Ethanol requires about 30% more fuel flow so your fuel mixture could be burning roughly 30% leaner than it should be, which is good cause for bucking and misfiring. don't continually run it like this or you risk damaging things.

Some cars have computers that can compensate for ethanol content using exhaust sensors and fuel trimming but idk if these cars utilize a strategy that complex.

 
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Ok thank you for the information.

 
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I was seeing people do this a lot back when gas was $3-$4.00+ per gallon. Still get one once in a while.
I sure don't replace a single damn thing, no cleaning, nothing. It will be fine.

We charged quite a bit of money to drain the tank, put $5 gas back in and turn off the check engine light.

The E85 I drained out would go into any employees cars that could run E85 (flex-fuel), or our shuttle vans (flex-fuel) or any of the flex-fuel cars on our lot.

If I did it to one of my cars, I'd either put up with the lousy running and baby it until the tank is low enough to fill (or dilute) with good gasoline, or just drain the tank and put gas in it. Erase codes or let the light go out on its own after you get good gas in it.

Some people even run E85 on purpose.


Our gas is already 10% Ethanol......It's dang hard to find anything but 10% here.




When someone puts Diesel in a gas tank, that causes a whole bunch of problems. That can be a lot more expensive to fix than just E85.