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What does it mean if there’s fuel dilution in my engine oil?
My wife and I have a “summer car.” A convertible we bought a long time ago that only leaves the garage in the summer. We took it out recently and the engine was running strangely. The mechanic looked at it, and now I’m wondering what it means if there’s fuel dilution in the engine oil. Have you guys ever heard of this? They’re saying we need to drive it more.
Matt Terzi · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
We’re glad the mechanic caught it before it became a more serious issue. Fuel dilution in engine oil can lead to your engine wearing out more quickly than it should, leading to expensive repairs.
To put it simply, fuel dilution in engine oil means gasoline is leaking into your car’s oil, reducing how effective the oil is at doing its job.
Tiny amounts of gasoline and oil are going to mix—there’s nothing you can do to stop that—but if the fuel mixture with oil gets to be around 2.4 percent for a gasoline engine or 4 percent for a diesel engine, you’ll begin to notice performance issues like the ones you encountered. And that means the engine’s components are at risk of damage.
In your case, driving the car small amounts only in the summer, with lengthy periods of sitting in the garage, led to the fuel dilution issue.
Your mechanic was spot on in encouraging you to drive the car more. Get it out of the garage and drive around town to get the mixture back to normal levels. And take it out for drives in the fall, winter, and spring too. You don’t want to leave your car idle for too long.
We hope this helps you nurse your convertible back to summer cruising fun. And don’t forget to use
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