I've always said E10 reduced MPG drastically in the 2.3L FEH, but add corrosion to the exhaust system and cat converter to that list.

My '05 FEH had an inspection by the buyer and he found codes of low voltage coming from Assist mode. Apparently, during assist of the ICE, the voltage dropped from 16V to 14V according the vehicle inspector and this caused the engine RPM to stay high without final up-shift unless I let off the accelerator.

I knew the mandate of E10 here in Florida would cause a loss in power and MPG, but I never thought it would damage my exhaust system. My SA at the dealership called me today and said the Cat Converters were plugged-up causing Assist to back-off the low power the engine was putting out. Of course the Ford Hot-Line was working with the Hybrid Techs for three days now and this is what they concluded as the problem.

The SA said I still had 20 miles left on my emissions warranty so I was still covered thank God! All the parts involved in putting in the new Cat Converters and sensors will not be here until Tuesday, but the buyer is still waiting to complete the sale with me. The Hybrid Techs and the vehicle inspector thought the eCVT was going to need replacing and it will be retested after the new exhaust system is installed.

I'm sure glad I have a great bunch of people working at my dealership and have never given me any crap when I'm under warranty and discounts on other service and parts.

BTW, I have had a PO420 DTC code (emission system) more than a few times, but they were cleared by my SGII and stayed cleared for months at a time. I thought it was being caused by the E10, which in the end it was.

GaryG

 

Interesting Gary. I've been away from Florida for 4 years in June and we don't have E10 in Utah that I know of. How long have you been running E10 in the '05? Did you get to look at the cat to see the build up?

Glad you were under warranty, talk about wringing the last bit out of it!

 

Sorry Gary, I read it twice and don't see where E10 comes into the picture?

I would think having low exhaust temps (from early EV) would prevent burning off the moisture in the cat and exhaust, causing corrosion, just like stop-n-go driving makes most people's mufflers fail.

That would make sense, since the guy who has the highest lifetime mpg would spend more time in EV than anyone else and would have a cat that fails that much sooner.

OTOH, assuming E10 caused premature cat failure, what would E85 do then? I'm guessing you'd have had cat failure 8 times sooner?

 

I don't see how that works, because the main reason the engine runs on the FEH is to keep that cat hot. No matter how good a hypermiler one is, if the converter cools, the engine runs to keep it warm.

 

I don't buy GaryG statements either. I never have experience a loss of power with E10 or higher and his statements have not been backed up by any dynamometer results I have read.

 

I wasn't referring to the OP, but to the idea that EV would cause extra moisture in the Cat; it won't because the cpu is programmed to maintain cat temperature.

 

The same thing basically happens to a lot of boat gas tanks here where after a few years of filling with straight gas, moisture builds up in our tanks in Florida. The switch to E10 screwed-up the gas in my boat tank back in April of '08 when the mandate began. Water mixes with Ethanol allowing build-up water to run through the filters into the engine. In the case of my boat, the engine would no longer idle right. Even the new Racor filter/Water separator began to rust. Clearly, I should have flushed the tank before adding E10 but I didn't know then what I know now. I bought a new Honda 150 4 Stroke Outboard, flushed out my gas tank and put a new gas filter/water separator in. Also changed all the gas tank hoses to those approved for alcohol.

In July of '08, I got my new '09 FEH and it has never had a fill of straight gas. There is no build-up of water in the tank because the little moisture with each fill mixes with the gas and runs through the engine with little damage I hope.

After the mandate, my '05 FEH began a quicker decrease in power at around 50,000 miles. I assumed it was the quality of gas with E10, but I never thought about corrosion plugging up my Converter until today when I got the call from my SA.

Clearly, E10 is a scam to the tax payers, owners of boats, small gas engine lawn equipment and the reduction of MPG and increased pollution in vehicles.

I will never buy E85 and will only purchase Electric Vehicles if it's ever mandated. E10 is a scam, but E85 is more of a scam. Even Al Gore has come clean about Ethanol after supporting it!

Jerry, I'm going by my SA and have not seen anything, much less a cut-a-way of the converter. I know the Hybrid Engineers at Ford monitor my Hybrids from past communications.

GaryG

 

Where are all the other failed cats if E10 is to blame? There's a LOT of cars running E10. It's mandated in a lot more states than Florida.

Your problem's due to a defective cat, worn out cat temp sensor (causing the engine to run less) or your driving technique. I can easily get into EV mode at a stop light with a 115 deg coolant temp when the ICE still wants to run to keep my cat warm. It can't be a little ethanol in the tank.

Sorry, boat tanks with ethanol has nothing to do with cat converters. I do agree that there are some problems there, due to poor engineering. If cars had to be compatible with E10, where were the boat engineers? Why didn't they see that coming? They use the same fuel supply.

As far as ethanol being a problem, tell that to all the servicemen that died in Gulf wars to protect our guarantee to gasoline. Ethanol makes gasoline cheaper and the money doesn't go to people that hate us. I prefer US-made fuels, thank-you.

Gary, if ethanol gave you better mileage, you'd be all over it.

 

I've heard of high failure rate of CATS on FE not FEH to the point that even third party suppliers had them on backorder.

 

Millions of alcohol filled bottles sold every year for your vehicle.