Nanoraptor6d ago

Wanna know something about petrol going off?

It goes “off” as in out of spec. Not unusable. Not even *bad*.

The trout is on the same tank I last filled it with in June 2025. It runs fine.

I had another Falcon that sat from 2001 to 2009. Ran fine.

Maybe less power, or lower mpg. Couldn’t tell.

A really finely tuned engine control computer might complain, might throw codes. It might be really noticeable on a high compression or high performance engine.

But the mad max wasteland will be fine.

Show threadHenryk Plötz
@NanoRaptor I found this weird about the "The Last Of Us" show: The biggest obstacle to getting a car going, the MacGuffin, was acquiring a working battery.
Now, I can believe some deterioration after a couple of years, but lead-acid batteries are at their core not *that* complicated, are they?
Mar 17 at 9:25amWeb
Show threadNanoraptor6d ago
@henryk not really - though when I’ve had dead ones I’ve just replaced them! Of course a decade past an apocalypse what should be easy and what actually is easy are probably pretty different to what we expect!
Show threadBriala6d ago

@henryk @NanoRaptor The basic chemistry is pretty simple, but modern batteries have a lot of subtle manufacturing and chemistry tweaks to provide things like higher current, so they're not so simple anymore.

They also do degrade over time ('self-discharge') and many modern car batteries will become unusable and even very difficult to recharge if they drop below a certain level.