How An Insurance Company Can Deny Your Engine Damage Claim If You Use E20 Petrol: We Explain

With the heightened governmental push for E20 implementation, many car owners are confused about the road ahead. E20 fuel is a blend of 80% petrol and 20% Ethanol. Using it on vehicles that comply is fine. But prolonged use in incompatible cars can potentially damage the engine and other critical parts of the vehicle.

For any car or SUV, the engine is the most important and one of the most expensive parts. Any damage to it will attract heavy bills and a lot of headache. 'Engine Protection Plus' can be your best bet in such cases. But when it comes to damages caused by the use of E20 fuel in E10 cars, the insurance company can deny you its coverage. Here's how...

What Is Engine Protection Plus?

Before we get into the specifics, let's discuss what 'Engine Protection Plus' is and what it actually covers. It is an optional add-on which provides coverage against damages to the vehicle's engine, differential and transmission parts. It addresses two major issues- hydrostatic lock and damage from oil leakage. They may differ in covering the cost of consumables like oil though...

For the uninitiated, a hydrostatic lock occurs when water enters the engine's cylinders and leads to an eventual piston seizure. The seizure occurs due to the fact that water is incompressible and blocks the piston movement soon after ingress. The condition can lead to major mechanical damage to the engine.

How Can E20 Fuel Potentially Harm Vehicle Engines?

Let's explain this in two separate cases- in E20-compliant vehicles and other vehicles. The damage will be noteworthy if E10 cars (or other incompatible models) run on E20 fuel for extended spans of time. The Ethanol content in fuel can cause atmospheric moisture to accumulate and the same can be corrosive to metal components of the engines, if the vehicle isn't used every day.

The bigger issue is with the rubber components. Ethanol can cause rubber to soften, swell, become brittle, or weaken. This can damage components like fuel lines. Resistance to Ethanol-based corrosion varies with types and grades of rubber. E10 and older cars will be the most affected by this issue.

Now consider the case of E20-compliant vehicles. These are the newer ones, and have all been well-prepped for running safely on blended fuel. All of their key components like fuel lines, tanks and injectors, feature specialised ethanol-tolerant coatings. Plus, the E20 fuel available today also has corrosion inhibitors added to it. In these vehicles, just the rubber gaskets or hoses will have to be replaced periodically, doing which will not cost much either.

The Tricky Part

Consider this case. You own a car which isn't E20 compliant. Some day you develop an oil leakage, which eventually leads to an engine failure. In normal case, the insurance company would give you proper cover under the ' Engine Protect Plus' add-on.

However, we cannot completely dismiss the possibility of someone's claim getting rejected and the insurer saying ' it isn't oil leakage that caused the failure, but the use of E20 petrol in an incompatible car!'.

You'd struggle to prove them wrong, as the Ethanol-blended fuel can lead to serious overheating in incompatible engines due to the different combustion properties of ethanol and unblended petrol and potential material incompatibilities with older engine components.

Ethanol requires a different air-fuel mixture for proper combustion than pure petrol. Using E20 fuel in unsupported engines will make it run too lean (more air, less fuel). This will lead to engine overheating. This can potentially damage the head gasket and inflict serious damage on the engine.

The claim getting rejected at this point, can be extremely unfortunate for the owner. While we don't wish this to happen to anyone, it sure remains a possibility, especially considering how aggressive most insurers are with finding loopholes...