The Ethanol Flex Car: The Nissan X-Trail Experience

I drive a Nissan X-Trail as my official car. I have used it since 2004. The X-Trail was designed to run on petrol. I had it converted to flex car by Lilongwe Technical College (LTC) early in February 2008.

I was not sure if the conversion would work. I had my doubts. After receiving a go ahead my boss, I decided to convert it to flex since it had already clocked thousands of kilometres and by our company policy it was due for replacement within a few months anyway.

The X-Trail can now run on either petrol of ethanol or on any mixture in between. The good thing about my X-Trail is that I fill it up with the 96%v/v ethanol at work at Ethanol Company Limited (ETHCO). ETHCO produces ethanol from fermented cane molasses since 1982.

The other good thing about my converted X-Trail is that I am still mobile even if there is no petrol in Dwangwa where I live.

A few weeks after filling up with ethanol, I experienced some loss of acceleration power due to fuel starvation even when the tank was full. It turned out that the ethanol had cleaned out the fuel system and the debris was clogging the fuel filter. Once changed, I was back on the road without any problems.
 
The other problem I had was difficulties in starting up the engine when it was very cold. It was very difficult to start the vehicle in the morning and at any other times when the engine temperature was very low. To counteract this, in March 2008 the LTC installed a petrol tank to aid in the spark ignition. With this addition, I hardly notice any change in the performance of the car when filled up on ethanol.

My X-Trail is one of the few cars that are converted to flex fuel and the kits used were not specific for the model. LTC is helping in sourcing the right kits for my car so that it performs even better. The performance of my X-Trail will contribute to the future conversions.

All in all, I should not have worried about converting the X-Trail to flex fuel. The conversion was a success. I still drive my X-Trail and nobody notices the ethanol in the tank until I tell them it is getting drunk on ethanol.