Summer fuel blend?

[WJBertrand]

Here in SoCal, just as we were approaching under $2/gallon pricing, everything jumped up $0.50 supposedly due to changing all the stations and distribution over to summer blend fuel. At the same time this happened my Tenere has gotten more reluctant to start from cold. It takes more cranking and seems to kick back against the starter sometimes. If I just keep cranking (maybe 3-4 seconds) it eventually starts. This morning I actually got a pretty loud backfire out of it before it started on the second attempt.

I wonder if this is fuel related I would expect a summer blend to have lower volatility than winter blend, or is there something else going on? I do have a Flash-Tune brand re-flash on the ECU, but that's been in place since December.

 

[HeliMark]

Here in SoCal, just as we were approaching under $2/gallon pricing, everything jumped up $0.50 supposedly due to changing all the stations and distribution over to summer blend fuel. At the same time this happened my Tenere has gotten more reluctant to start from cold. It takes more cranking and seems to kick back against the starter sometimes. If I just keep cranking (maybe 3-4 seconds) it eventually starts. This morning I actually got a pretty loud backfire out of it before it started on the second attempt.

I wonder if this is fuel related I would expect a summer blend to have lower volatility than winter blend, or is there something else going on? I do have a Flash-Tune brand re-flash on the ECU, but that's been in place since December.

I am in SoCal also, and have never noticed any more or less difficulty in starting. Maybe run some SeaFoam or something similar through a couple of tanks and see?

Mark

 

[WJBertrand]

I am in SoCal also, and have never noticed any more or less difficulty in starting. Maybe run some SeaFoam or something similar through a couple of tanks and see?

Mark

Thanks, that thought crossed my mind. I have some Techron sitting on the shelf. I'll give that a go.