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by BookmarkSaver 2463 days ago
>Can the gas in the tank go bad? I know modern fuel has a lot of preservatives.

This is something that is occasionally mentioned in speculative apocalyptic scenarios. It will go bad, after about a year you wouldn't be able to use any random car without swapping out its gas with some from a better preserved source.

3 comments

I suspect it'd work, just not recommended. I drive around with nearly 6 month old gas all the time and have used >1 year old gas in lawnmowers and boats (etc). I suspect it'd run rough after a year or so, but probably good enough in such a scenario.

EDIT: Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xktrYDny_lc

Gas deteriorates over time, but in practice, it’s not really a problem unless it’s very old.
I know an ex-junkman. He said that MTBE gasoline pissed him off because it went bad they had to pay to get rid of it. But they would fill their cars with the non MTBE gasoline no matter how old it was.