[Jeffman]

People in the US are interested in adding even more ethanol to gas to make, perhaps E20, 20% ethanol and 80% gasoline. Apparently Brazil has been using this gas for many years. I am curious if there are any N54 owners in Brazil who can comment on their experience. Did you have any mechanical problems with your cars because of the higher ethanol amount? Are cars in Brazil modified in some way to handle the 20% ethanol fuel? Thanks.

[Jeffman]

No problems?

[Jeffman]

Originally Posted by JHR

No problems?

Bump

[Resiak]

Hello JHR,

I'm from Brazil, Sao Paulo. I have an e90 325i 2008 with 45.000km on odometer and never had a problem with the car, I have on my car the BMS power box and an Injen Intake, the car response is good.. I would get the 0-60 time for you but my car is armoured/bulletproof (i don't know how to say in english) so it adds about 300kg, so the time would not be good.. but if you want I can check it for you.. I can get another info if you want, I have the OBD cable so i can check some more stuffs..

[Jeffman]

Originally Posted by Resiak

Hello JHR,

I'm from Brazil, Sao Paulo. I have an e90 325i 2008 with 45.000km on odometer and never had a problem with the car, I have on my car the BMS power box and an Injen Intake, the car response is good.. I would get the 0-60 time for you but my car is armoured/bulletproof (i don't know how to say in english) so it adds about 300kg, so the time would not be good.. but if you want I can check it for you.. I can get another info if you want, I have the OBD cable so i can check some more stuffs..

Hi Resiak,
Thanks for your reply. I think the extra 300 KG will really slow you down. I'm actually more interested in long-term durability of the engine when using a lot of ethanol. Have you heard about any common problems in BMW engines that may be caused by Brazilian fuel?

JHR

[Maza454]

Hello JHR, i am from Brazil and i have a 2010 335i sport. Last week i have to change the high pressure fuel pump.... and it is common here problems with the injectors.
My car is stock and have 26 mkm.

[Jeffman]

Originally Posted by Maza454

Hello JHR, i am from Brazil and i have a 2010 335i sport. Last week i have to change the high pressure fuel pump.... and it is common here problems with the injectors.
My car is stock and have 26 mkm.

Hello Maza454,

Thank you for your comments. Do you know if anyone attempted to study these problems scientifically? For example, has BMW Brazil ascertained using technical evidence what is causing the injector problems? I have not heard of injector problems being common here in the US. Certainly it could be the extra ethanol. But there are other differences, too, such as weather (it's hotter in Brazil, on average), or possibly other contaminants in the fuel that can get by the fuel filter and cause problems in the injectors...has anybody determine if there are any sugar molecules in the ethanol that is blended in with the gas?

[reolonaapp]

Originally Posted by Jeffman

Hello Maza454,

Thank you for your comments. Do you know if anyone attempted to study these problems scientifically? For example, has BMW Brazil ascertained using technical evidence what is causing the injector problems? I have not heard of injector problems being common here in the US. Certainly it could be the extra ethanol. But there are other differences, too, such as weather (it's hotter in Brazil, on average), or possibly other contaminants in the fuel that can get by the fuel filter and cause problems in the injectors...has anybody determine if there are any sugar molecules in the ethanol that is blended in with the gas?

The HFPF is a common problem wide world.. Doesnt matter if it uses ethanol or not..

Here in BR, at least the cars that officially came via BMW were tropicalized.
It means, they had some changes on engine, suspension, etc to adapt the car to our conditions.

In theory, the E20 wouldnt be a problem since we have cars with 100, 150k km on the clock with no major issue..

The only problem Im aware of about BMW engines, is about N43.
Due to higher temperatures we have down here and dense traffic, some cars start smoking around 50k km.

[Jeffman]

Originally Posted by reolonaapp

The HFPF is a common problem wide world.. Doesnt matter if it uses ethanol or not..

Here in BR, at least the cars that officially came via BMW were tropicalized.
It means, they had some changes on engine, suspension, etc to adapt the car to our conditions.

In theory, the E20 wouldnt be a problem since we have cars with 100, 150k km on the clock with no major issue..

The only problem Im aware of about BMW engines, is about N43.
Due to higher temperatures we have down here and dense traffic, some cars start smoking around 50k km.

Thanks for your comments. It's good to hear you have high-kilometer cars with no major issues.

[mou11002]

Originally Posted by reolonaapp

The HFPF is a common problem wide world.. Doesnt matter if it uses ethanol or not..

Here in BR, at least the cars that officially came via BMW were tropicalized.
It means, they had some changes on engine, suspension, etc to adapt the car to our conditions.

In theory, the E20 wouldnt be a problem since we have cars with 100, 150k km on the clock with no major issue..

The only problem Im aware of about BMW engines, is about N43.
Due to higher temperatures we have down here and dense traffic, some cars start smoking around 50k km.

Yeah if you buy it through BMW itself the cars are "tropicalized" to deal with the heat, humidity and specially POT HOLES. My mom had a 3 series in Fortaleza and she would always fill up the tank with some sort of gas that has less ethanol. I think it was sold at BR. We sold our cars after she was almost kidnapped and now she is driving a bulletproof Corolla. LOL.

[Cris335i]

Hi, I'm from brazil and i haven't any problem until now. 335i 2008 63k.

[Jeffman]

Originally Posted by Cris335i

Hi, I'm from brazil and i haven't any problem until now. 335i 2008 63k.

What kind of problems? Are they fuel-related?