Can a car start on old gas?

Question

I have a '98 Dodge Neon (Yeah, I know, piece of crap, but give me a break, it is my first car) It doesn't run yet. I am having someone work on it now.

It has been sitting for probably a little over a year and a half. Im sure it has many other problems besides the gas but obviously it has old gas. I have heard that a car will not run or start on old gas. I also heard that the car would start but just run crapy. Im not sure, either way I am going to drain the gas, luckly the car has an electric fuel pump, but I just wanted to know if this is something that can be causeing the car not to start.

Answer 1

Drain the gas. Get rid of it, or mix it in small quantities with fresh gas and use it up.

I just went through this with a motorcycle that always stareted immediately. After moving to a new town it sat for a year and I forgot to put fuel stabilizer in it.

It refused absolutely to start. After draining the gas completely and refilling it with fresh it started right away.
It did not run well, but it started readily.

Note that you will have to take the next step, as I did:

The old gas will have left deposits in the system and the carburetors/injectors M U S T be cleaned.

This can be easily done by adding liquid injector cleaner to the fresh gas. Whatever quantity/ratio the bottle says to use, double it. If it says to mix one bottle in 10 gallons, put in two bottles of cleaner.

Run the engine until almost all the gas is used. This is to get the maximum benefit from the cleaner.

Refill with fresh gas and, if there is still some problem, use more cleaner, but in its normal ratio. If not, drive happily.


Note
There is a difference between injector and carburetor cleaners.

Do NOT use carburetor cleaner on a fuel -injected engine.

Fuel Injector cleaner almost always works better than carb cleaner on both carbs and injectors. I do not know why, but it does.

My motorcycle engine went through the cleaner/fuel and the difference was remarkable. One tank of fuel/cleaner mixture made a huge difference. A second one did the job and the engine runs perfectly now.

Answer 2

>>I've done this lots of times before for people. I know. It's a mabie mabie not kinda thing around a year. What you do need to do though is put a little fresh gas right on the carborator right before you try to start it. That's all it needs to START. If it won't KEEP running then change the gas. But no use doing extra work if you don't have to.

Answer 3

I as quickly as inherited a 'seventy 9 Oldsmobile Cutlass that sat for 3 years interior the woods in back of my buddies dwelling house. We checked the fluid and charged the battery and that i drove it thirty miles to the front of my residence. The gas pump substitute into leaking, the motor vehicle substitute into contaminated with mice even though it drove like a champ for that 30 miles and after removing the mice and changing the gas pump we used that automobile for greater or less 3 years with none subject else accomplished to it. gas would not get that poor in some years yet once you're scared, you are able to continuously drain it and fill up it with "clean" gas.

Answer 4

Gas that has been sitting that long will lose it's volatility and turn into varnish. You should drain the gas tank completely and get it cleaned if you can. Then replace the fuel filter as well. That should help.

Answer 5

It could very well be the cause of your problem. I would give it a shot of starter fluid in the intake and see if it tries to start. If it does not start or does not try to start you need to check the distributor cap and rotor they will corrode after setting for a while. Otherwise you have an electrical problem elsewhere Good Luck...

Answer 6

Old Gas In Car

Answer 7

it should start...but new gas is the smart thing to do