Did you know that gas actually goes bad?  We do and thought that more people did but come to find out that many people do not realize how much damage old gas can do.  Just recently we had a vehicle come into the shop that the owner purchased at an auction, as a selling point at this auction, they demonstrated that the car still ran by starting it up.  Well come to find out that the car hadn’t run in many years and still had the original gas in it from the last time it ran.  The car was only running for a short bit but was more then enough time for the damage to be done.  Thick viscous gas coated the carburetor, clogged the fuel system and even made its way into the engine.  Long story short, had the car never been started up for that demonstration, the engine and carburetor would not have to be completely rebuilt, saving this customer money and us the frustration of having to deal with old gas contamination.

So what actually happens to gas as it ages?  Well simply put gas is a highly refined product that focuses on its volatility aspect, mainly once it has been vaporized.  This aspect of volatility has a side effect that as gas ages it evaporates this volatility component and given enough time the left over portion begins to revert back to its original form of a thick sticky sludge.  Combine this with contamination from water and the oxidation of the hydrocarbons in gas and you get something that you would never want to introduce into a complex system of moving parts, ie your engine.  With the almost all gasoline now requiring the addition of ethanol alcohol, the chances of water contamination are pretty much guaranteed.  Ethanol has the ability to draw water directly from the surrounding air.  The increase proportion of water in the fuel can lead to rust build up in the fuel tank as well as the fuel lines.  Adding another source of engine contamination of both the actual water vapor as well as the rust particles that break loose from the metal.  Luckily all these changes can be noticeable by the change of color of the gas, as it darkens over time.

So you might be asking yourself, what can I do to prevent such a calamity happening to my vehicle?  Well the easiest solution is to drive your car, don’t keep gas cans filled up storing gas at home for more then a month or two.  There are some companies out there that claim their product can prevent this, but the best solution is just to use the gas.  Besides it will give you a good reason to go and sit in your running car for a few minutes every week.