I got the PHEV three weeks ago and since then I've basically used no gas. I figure barring a long road trip I could easily go close to a year without needing to get gas. I'm wondering if anyone is, or if I should, take any measures to prevent the gas in my tank from going stale? I've read that the Volt has some sort of automatic maintenance mode to prevent issues like this that arise from the ICE getting almost no use, but I can't find anything regarding the Clarity. Should I do nothing and just drive as normal, periodically run the vehicle in Hybrid mode, or something else? Thanks in advance for any advice.
I would suggest switching on HV mode whenever you're on the highway every week or so. That way, you'll burn off some gasoline and keep your ICE properly lubricated and the fluids flowing.
I came back from getting my Clarity with 1/2 of a tank and just filled up yesterday (3 months). I went on several shorter trips using HV and still went the 3 months. So when I filled up I got non ethanol gas or the type of gas I used growing up. It did cost 76 cents more a Gal. But that is not much more when you only pump 7 Gal of gas. There are only 2 places in town that sell "real gas" but I can leave it in for months without thinking about it.
The car will perform an occasional "system check" to make sure the engine is working correctly. From the manual: So I would say there's no need to manually turn on HV mode every so often -- the car will do that for you when it determines that it's necessary. Slightly different from the "fuel going stale" issue, but I think there's no need to worry about the ICE being damaged from lack of use.
Here's one of the other threads on the topic, with Honda's response to using stabilizers. https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/how-long-can-gas-stay-in-tank-honda-response.2534/#post-21740
Almost all my driving is EV and in 6 months and 5,000 miles I’ve only driven 500 miles all at one time in HV. So at one point the gas had been in the tank for over 4 months. This is why I added Stabil to the tank. Even with the occasional System Check that keep the engine lubricated and ready to go, my gas gets very old. Since sludge and varnish build up are slow and cumulative, any problems with old gas won’t show up until after warranty. I’m choosing to protect my fuel path and the small amount of petroleum distalates in the Stabil are undetectable by Honda so I’ll take my chances with disobeying Honda. Of course I’m an edge case with so little HV and if you have enough HV driving once a month or so to keep your gas fresh, you don’t have to worry about this.
