Yah even if I did own a Flex Fuel vehicle, I wouldn't use it anyways since the wear and tear is not clear long term like you said. I know that it's good for custom tunes that maximize it, but for a traditional consumer it really just doesn't make sense...

 

So one of the ingredients in most E85 is Xylene and or Toluene. Both are known to wear many materials like rubber seal and hoses. Even typhon is not impervious to it wear effect. This information gets sort of buried with all the environmental and supportive political BS surrounding the support use of E85. Yet here again many states like CA., no longer allow the sale of toluene or Xylene in the state. Interesting considering you can buy E85 which if allowed to spill can cause harm to the environment?
Also as I have stated a few tomes on various threads you MUST adjust your ECU for use of E85. And concerning the ECU of a MAZDA Skyactiv engine if you use E85 will cause damage very soon to your engine other than the wear factor of fuel injection system parts.
I could go on but not really of interest, I don't Use E85 and will not adjust anyone's or customers ECU for its use. Call it my opinion based on direct experience and personal preface of my chosen fuels to use on any specific engine.

Its simple use E85 at your own risk.

 

When I worked for Sherwin Williams, we used toluene as a paint thinner.
I also used it to clean all the spray rental equipment, mixing equipment and work bench area.
It's nasty stuff especially by itself, not only will it eat anything rubber/plastic it is dangerous to work with without a proper respirator.
It caused me to take an ambulance trip to the ER one Saturday morning when my boss came to investigate why I was being so quiet and found me passed out on the floor.
Had a nice gash on my head from hitting bench on my way down and the toluene-soaked rag and spray gun still in my hand.
Don't recall anything from the time I got to work until I came around in the ambulance.
It is known to be yet another substance for huffing and thus retailers don't generally sell it to consumers.

 

I prefer Xylene over toluene . But I have to travel to Reno Nevada to get it now. Generally about every 6 months I get a case or 2 of 4 gallons per case. I use it for various projects and always have my Xylene and another ingredient of my own for the Mazda for Dyno Days. 😉

 

Callisto, I might have run into a problem running E85. My car was running a little rough at idle when I sat for more then 30 seconds with the car in drive and my foot on the brake, no check engine light.
i switcied to 100% 91 octane gas
I tried cleaning throttle body without taking it off, did not seem to help. I have read that I might need to take it off and clean the backside?
I sprayed out the MAF with the proper MAF spray cleaner, did not seem to do much.
Last night I checked the computer and I had a Pending P0302 code. I was letting it idle and it finally turned on check engine light last night and had a P0302 code.
I swapped ignition coil 2 and 3 and cleared the code, and will drive it around today to see if the missing goes to cylinder 3 now.
I have a new plug to try in cylinder 2 next. I did take #2 spark plug out and it looked okay with1.1 mm gap, I had changed them like 15k miles ago. So I put the old plug back in to try and limit to one variable at a time, that being ruling out the coil first.

Callisto, what is the proper order of thing to do diagnose the problem? What should I look for with the obd reader?

My Long term fuel trim was at 10 before i cleared codes, now it is at 7. I will watch and see if it drifts back up to 10 again.

Callisto do you think I messed up #2 injector with E85? Or maybe messed up the wide band O2 sensor?

 

Callisto, I had another thought, I have 115k miles on the car, could I need to clean the back sides of the intake valves? Can that throw a P302 code?

 

Maybe is the scenarios is all right but it would be very unusual. The suspects if you cleared the DTC and it returned are spark plug, coil, coil boot coil connector.

 

After swapping coil 2 and 3 last night. I drove to work this morning.
A pending P0302 popped up and I am showing 228 misfires for the last drive cycle of 22 miles on cylinder 2.
Cylinder 3 misfire count is zero.
I will put a new spark plug in cylinder 2 tonight after engine has cooled.
Car drives okay, idle is still a little rough when I come to a stop, in drive foot on brake and after ~20 seconds.

Callisto, is there anything else I should be doing or checking?

 

Swapping coil is not an effective way to check parts. The main reason that is never stated on www is that when you do that you must cycle the completely at least 2-4 times. That means 4 days of driving ,engine at rest and cold starting the next day.

The only really way to test coil is using a dice that can data log the targeted coil as it is running. (oscilloscope )

The simple act of disconnecting and reconnecting an aged coil can damage it performance.

The next step would be to perform a compression test and compare the numbers. If you have excessive carbon it will show as an unusual higher compression reading. You can then verify by scoping the intake manifold and combustion chamber. Small amounts of carbon would not effectively induce a DTC.

 

Last night I put in a brand new spark plug in cylinder 2. Drove it around and it seemed ok, maybe a little better idle?
I was still showing misfires counts on cylinder 2 though, all other cylinders were 1 or 0 for misfire counts.
Drove to work this morning, car drove great and idled at lights better.
went to lunch today, and started the car, started real rough and through a P0302 code.
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I can't figure out why the car runs ok, and will idle ok sometimes. But then will suddenly idle bad on startup and throw a code a random time. I have not figured out the pattern.
is the fuel injector leaking fuel into cylinder while engine is off? Clogged fuel injector?
Slow oxygen sensor?

Since it is only cylinder 2 have I narrowed it down to either a compression problem or a injector problem?