The Walking Dead fans rage over driving plot hole – as fuel for cars and motorbikes would have degraded
THE zombie apocalypse isn’t known for its easily accessible fuel, but the cast of The Walking Dead seem to be doing just fine.
The AMC drama is currently on a mid-season break, with the second batch of episodes airing in February.
In the meantime fans have been putting old episodes under the spotlight and noticed something seriously strange.
Some of the characters still use cars and motorbikes to get around a decade into the fall of civilisation – but there are they getting their gasoline / petrol?
Commenting on the show’s IMDB page, one perplexed fan pointed out that fuel doesn’t age well, so old reserved weren’t an option in the long term.
“The fuel they are using in their vehicles if it was an ethanol blend, would have degraded significantly in just 12 months,” they wrote.
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“And this show takes place over a number of years, by which time the fuel would be unusable, and yet they seem to be using it without issue.”
A quick check of guidelines from British automotive services company RAC confirms the fan’s hypothesis is correct.
“Once you’ve put fuel in a jerry can or other containers you only have a few months before the quality starts to fall away – even less if the fuel is contaminated in any way,” the company says.
“Generally speaking, petrol has a shelf-life of six months if stored in a sealed container at 20 degrees – or just three months if kept at 30 degrees.
“If the container isn’t sealed, you’ll be able to keep it for even less time.”
With that in mind, Daryl (Norman Reedus) zooming around on his motorbike a decade into the apocalypse just doesn’t add up.
What’s more, expired fuel can actually damage a vehicle irreparably.
“If you use old petrol, at best you’ll suffer a significant loss of performance that you’ll probably be able to rectify once the old fuel has been consumed and you can re-fill the tank,” RAC continued to Express Online.
“However, if oxidisation of the petrol has occurred, it could cause deposits and other impurities to clog up the inner mechanisms in your engine, and lead to substantial damage.”
Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) RV, not to mention the helicopter that whisked him away in season 9 surely can’t be running on old fuel with this in mind, as they’d be left virtually inoperable.
Yet with fresh fuel extraction firmly off the table given the collapse of industry, there seems to be no other explanation.
It’s not the first blunder eagle-eyed fans have spotted.
They previously pointed out how zombies could run and even had memories in season 1, whereas even newly turned walkers in recent series are extremely slow and possess not advanced brain function.
The Walking Dead returns to FOX and NOW TV in the UK on February 24.