Can Bad Gas Cause Engine Light to Come on and Fault Code "Detected Misfiring"?

Can Bad Gas Cause Engine Light to Come on and Fault Code "Detected Misfiring"?

Hello,

Has anyone experienced potentially bad gas causing stalling, rough idle and a flashing engine light to come on?

The fault code stated "Detected Misfiring". I changed out the gas, cleared the code and it is slowly running smoother. I hope it was the gallon of gas I put in that was in my garage for about 6-8 months (87 octane from California)

Just curious if anyone had a similar experience, especially with the fault code.

Thank you!

Sean

seank said:

Hello,

Has anyone experienced potentially bad gas causing stalling, rough idle and a flashing engine light to come on?

The fault code stated "Detected Misfiring". I changed out the gas, cleared the code and it is slowly running smoother. I hope it was the gallon of gas I put in that was in my garage for about 6-8 months (87 octane from California)

Just curious if anyone had a similar experience, especially with the fault code.

Thank you!

Sean

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I am not sure about the ability of the BMW system (on your model) to detect it but bad gas can ABSOLUTELY cause stalling, rough idle and engine damage too, on top of all of that. I had a very good friend (RIP) who owned a motor home with year old gas. It started misfiring when he went to move it and the end result was a $3,000 engine repair. On bikes, bad gas will almost always result in misfire, sluggish acceleration, and other maladies. My advice - get it out with a siphon hose before it causes significant damage. This is especially true of any fuel adulterated with ethanol.

seank said:

I hope it was the gallon of gas I put in that was in my garage for about 6-8 months (87 octane from California)

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What Paul (above) said ... plus that's a great way to learn that lesson. I know I have gas sitting in cans in my shed that's got to be at least that old. I should get rid of it ... but where do you get rid of old gas? Plus I know at least one of the cans is mixed with oil for my two-stroke leaf blower. I know I can't just dump it in the culvert. Maybe my local recycling/dump station will take it, I know they take oil and other substances.

chiba said:

What Paul (above) said ... plus that's a great way to learn that lesson. I know I have gas sitting in cans in my shed that's got to be at least that old. I should get rid of it ... but where do you get rid of old gas? Plus I know at least one of the cans is mixed with oil for my two-stroke leaf blower. I know I can't just dump it in the culvert. Maybe my local recycling/dump station will take it, I know they take oil and other substances.

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In your car would be a good place to use it. As long as it’s free of crap, any loss in potency will blend just fine with the vehicle’s volume.
That’s my experience.
OM

seank said:

Hello,

Has anyone experienced potentially bad gas causing stalling, rough idle and a flashing engine light to come on?

The fault code stated "Detected Misfiring". I changed out the gas, cleared the code and it is slowly running smoother. I hope it was the gallon of gas I put in that was in my garage for about 6-8 months (87 octane from California)

Just curious if anyone had a similar experience, especially with the fault code.

Thank you!

Sean

Click to expand...

This question is related to this posting- https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?103127-Question-on-Motoscan-Fault-Codes-for-GS310

Good luck.
OM

It’s said that gas starts to degrade after just one month if it contains ethanol. Non ethanol gas *may* stay fresh for 3 months or a little longer. Not completely unusable then, just “going bad”.
6-8 months is way too long without Stabil being added when fresh.
What happens is it’s composition changes over time and it loses some of it’s volatility. (The volatile components evaporate). Once all of your bad gas is gone, either by using it up, or by siphoning it out, and fresh gas replaces it, you should be good.

ClassicVW said:

It’s said that gas starts to degrade after just one month. Not unusable then, just starting to go “bad”. 6-8 months is way too long without Stabil being added when fresh. What happens is it loses some of its volatility, and it’s composition changes over time.

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Just picked up a bottle of Sta-bil to get ready for the off season for stored gas...keep in mind that according to the bottle, once it's opened it's good for two years.

There's a place on the label to write the date when opened.

SPP

slowpokepete said:

Just picked up a bottle of Sta-bil to get ready for the off season for stored gas...keep in mind that according to the bottle, once it's opened it's good for two years.

There's a place on the label to write the date when opened.

SPP

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