CR: How to ‘keep the gas fresh & protect your car’ during COVID-19
Experts give some simple tips to protect your engine from stale gas if your car is sitting idle.
From Consumer Reports
There are a lot fewer cars out on the road right now, because many drivers are isolating in their homes to protect against the spread of the Coronavirus.
Overall road travel in the U.S. was down 38 percent for the week ending March 27, compared with typical nationwide travel for this time of year, according to Inrix.com, a company based in Kirkland, Wash., that provides traffic analytics.
If you’re driving less, or not at all, gasoline sitting in your fuel tank could be getting old and stale, and degrading.
“Gas can start to go bad in as little as just three months because the lighter, more volatile components of gasoline evaporate over time,” said John Ibbotson, Consumer Reports’ chief automotive services manager at the Auto Test Center.
