Bottle tester read E90, car sensor reads E70....

04OWwhipple

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I found this to be very interesting, all this past summer here in Phoenix, AZ. My car has been registering 85-90% ethanol content through the sensor from my local pump. I recently filled up both of my cars and did a bottle test before pumping into my cars. The bottle shows 90% but my car is only registering it as 70-72% ethanol. My mustang is using a Haltech Ethanol sensor with my Elite ECU. In my BMW I have a inline Fuel-it brand ethanol sensor. Both sensors in both cars show 70-72% while bottle test show E90 before pumping it into both cars, there was 3 weeks between filling each car.

Anybody else experience this? Or can explain the variance between the bottle test and my vehicle's sensors?
 

gt347mustang

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Use real graduated cylinders instead of those little test tubes. Those test tube toys are difficult to fill accurately.
 

96dreamer

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Water in the fuel will also make the sensors read wonky. They are really only reading the % of gasoline in the fuel and subtracting that percentage from 100%. So 60% E, 20% water or other contaminants and 20% gasoline would read e80 on the gauge.

I agree the small test tubes are difficult to get a 100% accurate reading on but 20% should still be apparent.
 

9397SVTs

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Where are you getting this from the pump?

For years, I've only been getting 52-54% at the pump. Recently though, the same stations are now showing 64-66%. I'm in the west valley.

I haven't tested any of it, but just go by my Innovate gauge.
 

04OWwhipple

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Water in the fuel will also make the sensors read wonky. They are really only reading the % of gasoline in the fuel and subtracting that percentage from 100%. So 60% E, 20% water or other contaminants and 20% gasoline would read e80 on the gauge.

I agree the small test tubes are difficult to get a 100% accurate reading on but 20% should still be apparent.

This is true but by that thought process my sensors would right a higher than correct content instead of lower than test tube I would think.


Where are you getting this from the pump?

For years, I've only been getting 52-54% at the pump. Recently though, the same stations are now showing 64-66%. I'm in the west valley.

I haven't tested any of it, but just go by my Innovate gauge.

It depends on where you go. I am in west valley too, south goodyear to be exact. I usually get mine from Mobil 1 on 67th & Mcdowell. I took my car apart about 7 months ago and just got it back together. But for a year before I took it apart that station was consistently reading 80-90 % E
 

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