I figured it was a marketing gimmick to get you to buy 88 and then they would finally raise the price, but it’s been years. are they adding extra ethanol or something?
That cheaper 88 octane fuel is a blend of 85% unleaded gasoline and 15% ethanol. It’s also known as E15 fuel.
The ethanol is an oxygenate: it adds oxygen atoms to the fuel mix so the fuel burns more completely. That’s good for vehicle emissions. However, the ethanol is less energy dense than gasoline so you will get slightly worse mileage.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/what-is-e15-gasoline-pros-cons/
does it still eat away at your seals or have they fixed that
Both. Ethonal is still corrosive and the majority of fuel systems these days are compatible with E15. That said, check your owners manual.
okay so I had AI do the math for me.
the 88 octane fuel with 15% ethanol would need to be approximately 4.7% cheaper than the 87 octane fuel with 10% ethanol to compensate for the lower fuel efficiency caused by the higher ethanol content.
Yes. 88 Octaine is 15% ethonol instead of 10%.
